Machado Leads, Brandstrom Seeking Back-to-Back Titles After Day 3 in EPT Barcelona Main Event
Day 3 of the €5,300 2022 PokerStars and Barcelona©Casino European Poker Tour Main Event has wrapped up after six levels of play with 64 players remaining and Brazil's Peterson Machado out in front.
Machado, who with $10,008 in Hendon Mob live earnings is after his first major score, was one of 210 players who returned for the third day of the record-shattering Main Event and made the most of it by bagging a stack of 4,470,000. The Brazilian will be joined on Day 4 by reigning champion Simon Brandstrom, who took down the last EPT Barcelona Main Event back in 2019 for €1,290,166.
EPT Main Event End of Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Chips | Chips | BIG BLINDS | |
| 1 | Peterson Machado | Brazil | 4,470,000 | 179 | |
| 2 | Jordan Saccucci | Canada | 3,250,000 | 130 | |
| 3 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 3,000,000 | 120 | |
| 4 | Emmanuel Lopez | Argentina | 3,000,000 | 120 | |
| 5 | Gaelle Baumann | France | 2,265,000 | 91 | |
| 6 | Patrik Jaros | Czech Republic | 2,200,000 | 88 | |
| 7 | Daniel Merrilees | Spain | 2,075,000 | 83 | |
| 8 | Scott Margereson | United Kingdom | 1,715,000 | 69 | |
| 9 | Fabiano Kovalski | Brazil | 1,600,000 | 64 | |
| 10 | Mateus Endo | Brazil | 1,595,000 | 64 |
As Brandstrom chases another title, Kalidou Sow, who took down the EPT Prague back in 2017, will be doing the same, as will 2018 PCA champion Maria Lampropulos. Some of the former EPT and PCA champs who made Day 3 but couldn't find a bag include Chino Rheem, Sebastian Malec, Marcelo Simoes and Antonio Buonanno.
Lampropulos joins France's Gaelle Baumann as one of two women left standing at the end of Day 3 after Xuan Liu, who made poker history a decade ago by becoming the first woman to make a PCA Main Event final table, was eliminated during the last level of play when her ace-queen couldn't win a flip against the nines of Jack Salter.
Other notables who made Day 4 include the USA's Michael Wang, Argentina's Ramiro Petrone and Hungary's Gergely Kulcsar.
Those eliminated during Day 3, meanwhile, include PokerStars ambassador Benjamin Spragg, Stephen Chidwick, Leo Margets, Benjamin Diebold, Nacho Barbero, Timothy Adams, David Peters, Julien Martini and Andres Korn — a handful of whom were quick to hop into the adjacent €25,000 Single-Day High Roller II.
Day 4 will kick off on Friday, Aug 19 at noon local time on Level 23 with blinds of 10,000/25,000/25,000. Two more days will follow before a winner is named to take home the trophy, the title and the top prize of €1,714,000.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow at the beachside Casino Barcelona to finish out coverage ahead of the crowning of the next EPT champion.