Igor Pihela Sr. Bags Big on Day 1 of EPT Barcelona €10,200 Mystery Bounty
The 2022 PokerStars and Barcelona©Casino European Poker Tour kicked off today, and the €10,200 Mystery Bounty was among the events that saw players flock to the felt at Casino Barcelona.
Estonia’s Igor Pihela Sr. bagged the top stack by a fairly large margin with 519,500 chips. The next biggest stack was bagged by another Igor, as Ukraine’s Igor Yaroshevskyy ended the day with 272,000, and South Korea’s Daewoong Song rounded out the top three on the leaderboard with 258,500.
€10,200 Mystery Bounty Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Igor Pihela | Estonia | 519,500 |
| 2 | Igor Yaroshevskyy | Ukraine | 272,000 |
| 3 | Daewoong Song | South Korea | 258,500 |
| 4 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | England | 256,500 |
| 5 | Marcelo Bonanata Manfredini | Uruguay | 245,500 |
| 6 | Paulo Roberto Brombim Filho | Brazil | 242,500 |
| 7 | Ashkan Fattahi | Iran | 225,000 |
| 8 | Sam Grafton | England | 221,000 |
| 9 | Steve Fouad Savio | France | 218,000 |
| 10 | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | 202,500 |
There were 45 players who bagged a stack out of the 66 total entries today, although late registration remains open through the first two levels of Day 2. Only eight levels were played today, and the bounty component of the tournament will take effect tomorrow at the start of Level 13 when all remaining players will receive a "Mystery Bounty Token”.
Chipleader Pihela went on a run near the end of the day and never let up, securing the top spot in the standings by a sizeable amount. His son also plays poker, and they each have over $200,000 in live tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob. The senior Pihela recently scored his biggest cash less than two weeks ago for a runner-up finish in his native Estonia which earned him €42,300, and he will soon be looking to top that result.
Other players to bag a stack include PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton (221,000), Steve O’Dwyer (179,500), Sam Greenwood (128,000), Mustapha Kanit (125,500), Stephen Chidwick (94,000), and Erik Seidel (45,000).
Day 2 will restart at 12:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, August 9.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews team continues to provide updates until a winner is crowned, along with coverage of other events from the coast of Catalonia at Casino Barcelona.