Lander Lijo Leads €10,300 High Roller Ahead of Final Day; €1m+ Awaits the Winner
Eleven hours of play in the €10,300 High Roller here at the European Poker Tour stop in Barcelona saw a field of 240 players reduced to just 26 with a winner to be crowned on Sunday.
Lander Lijo will be in pole position when play resumes at 12:30 p.m. after bagging 2,050,000, one of three players over two million in chips along with Antonios Paschalidis (2,015,000) and Timur Khamidullin (2,000,000), with Jean Ferreira (1,960,000) close behind them.
Behind them is Uruguayan Pablo Melogno who had a stunning day adding 1.6 million chips to his stack to bag 1,620,000 after coming into the day as the shortest stack overall with just 15,500.
Notables still in the field include 2016 EPT Barcelona runner-up Uri Reichenstein (1,280,000), Davidi Kitai (1,270,000) and Tony Miles (1,075,000).
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Payout (EUR) | Place | Payout (EUR) |
| 1 | €1,005,100 | 9 | €88,520 |
| 2 | €630,660 | 10-11 | €72,810 |
| 3 | €451,520 | 12-13 | €61,810 |
| 4 | €351,990 | 14-15 | €53,950 |
| 5 | €276,040 | 16-17 | €47,670 |
| 6 | €216,850 | 18-20 | €42,430 |
| 7 | €161,850 | 21-23 | €37,190 |
| 8 | €112,090 | 24-26 | €31,950 |
Day 2 Recap
The 218 remaining players from Day 1 were joined by 22 others including EPT Prague €10k High Roller champion Henrik Hecklen, 2018 ninth-place finisher Johnny Nedved, Benjamin Pollak, Charlie Carrel and Cary Katz.
As the last entries were taking their seats, there were already players heading out the door including €25,000 and €50,000 High Roller champion Juan Pardo, and other €25,000 High Roller champion Laszlo Bujtas.
The payouts were confirmed with €1,005,100 awaiting the champion and 79 players in the money.
The chip lead jumped around several players, including Mustapha Kanit and Jakub Michalak who both made sets to eliminate opponents and jump up the chip counts.
As the bubble approached Maria Konnikova was eliminated, joining fellow PokerStars Ambassadors Fatima Moreira De Melo and Kalidou Sow in falling short of the money.
The tournament went hand-for-hand three off the money to combat stalling, and the players went on a 75-minute dinner break one off the money.
When they returned it wasn't long until a short-stacked Daisuke Ogita became the bubble boy at the hands of Rafael Moraes.
Early eliminations in the money included PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas (71st - €19,380), Martin Jacobson (65th - €19,380), Patrik Antonius (60th - €19,380) and Dario Sammartino (49th - €21,480).
Seven-figure stacks were becoming more commonplace by now, with start-of-day chip leader Oleh Okhotskyi joined by Pablo Melogno, Antonios Paschalidis and Parker Talbot.
2018 champion Max Silver had a good day, but fell just short of making it through to the final day for a shot at defending his title, finishing in 35th for €24,620. Start-of-day chip leader Oleh Okhotskyi did a little better, but fell in 28th place for €27,760.
The pace of eliminations slowed to a crawl, and although Manuel Bardon topped two million chips at one point it was Lijo who secured the overall chip lead at the end of play.
As the EPT Barcelona festival comes to a close tomorrow, stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action as we crown a winner in both the Main Event and €10,300 High Roller.