Salter Claims Day 1b Chip Lead and is Followed Closely by Franco
Day 1b of the 2019 PokerStars EPT Barcelona €1,100 EPT National which was the second of four starting flights came to an end when there were 91 players left out of the 606 entries it attracted in total. Just like on Day 1a, the players were allowed to bag up their chips during the 17th level of the day as only 15% of the field would make it through to Day 2.
Claiming the Day 1b chip lead is Louis Salter with 553,000 in chips. Salter collected a bunch of those chips when he first got Yves Sanchez to give up on his hand with a three-bet. Fadhil Farag who did make the call, also made the check-call on Salter’s continuation-bet but opted to fold when Salter shoved on him. Salter’s brother Jack might be the more familiar name in the family but Louis is no stranger to the poker felt either. With almost $1.4 million in cashes to his own name, he will be looking to add even more to his bankroll.
Salter is followed by another well-known player, France’s Sonny Franco who bagged 546,000. Almost half of those chips used to belong to Nenad Svetomirovic who five-bet shoved his pocket kings into the aces of Franco. Franco’s best-ever result came to him when he finished in second place in the EPT National High Roller in Prague in 2018 for €206,540. Franco is currently sitting in 1,000th place in the all-time money list according to The Hendon Mob and will be trying to climb into the triple digits.
PokerStars Pro Ramon Colillas also made it to through to Day 2 with 258,000 which unfortunately wasn’t the case for his colleagues, Andre Akkari and Steve Enriquez. The defending champion Jean-René Fontaine was eliminated by Manuel Fritz when he failed to win his final all-in with ace-jack. Fritz’s pocket fives held up to send the friendly Fontaine to the rail who will have to try again on Day 1c or 1d. Fritz himself then found his Waterloo when Barak Wisbrod got lucky to hit the river to send Fritz to the rail before being able to bag for Day 2.
In the end, it would be Gianluca Speranza, who you might know from making history by winning back-to-back SCOOP Main Events, who would burst the so-called bubble to take the field down to 91 players. Olof Olofsson held pocket eights while Speranza had ace-jack. Olofsson couldn’t hold and that signaled the end of the day for the rest of the field.
Other notable players making it through include Dario Marinelli, Natalie Teh, Josep Galindo, Alexander Lakhov, and Artur Rudziankov. Less lucky were players like Jean-Noel Thorel, Petar Kalev, Paul Lozano, Javier Zarco, Espen Uhlen Jorstad, Bart Lybaert, Sander van Wesemael, Joao Simao, Carlos Branco, Renato Kaneoya, and many more.
With players falling at the many hurdles the first starting day brought them, the majority of them are expected to return to the felt during Day 1c which starts at noon local time on Thursday, August 22 with 40-minute levels or in the turbo-version of the starting flight which is Day 1d which commences at 7 p.m. local time and features 20-minute blind levels.
No matter what happens, the PokerNews live reporting team will be there to bring you all the action.