Steve O'Dwyer Among Chip Leaders at End of Day 1 in the €10,300 EPT High Roller
The first day of the €10,300 EPT High Roller at the 2023 European Poker Tour (EPT) at Casino Barcelona wrapped up early this morning with High Stakes Professional Steve O'Dwyer bagging the chip lead with a stack of 364,500. O'Dwyer already has three cashes in the 2023 EPT Barcelona including a 3rd place finish in the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller. He is one of 179 players who will return for Day 2 in the three-day event.
Top 10 chip counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | 364500 | 243 |
| 2 | Ignacio Sagra | Argentina | 358000 | 239 |
| 3 | Martin Stausholm | Denmark | 356000 | 237 |
| 4 | Maks Sifrer | Slovenia | 341000 | 227 |
| 5 | Eric Sfez | France | 333500 | 222 |
| 6 | Thi Nguyen | France | 326000 | 217 |
| 7 | Vladas Tamasauskas | Lithuania | 322500 | 215 |
| 8 | Pakinai Lisawad | Thailand | 311500 | 208 |
| 9 | Louis Nyberg | Sweden | 308500 | 206 |
| 10 | Gianluca Speranza | Italy | 304500 | 203 |
The High Roller attracted a big field of 433, and even bigger names creating a prize pool of $4,200,100. Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 so the prize pool is expected to grow even more.
Some of the well-knowns who bagged on Day 1 include John Juanda, Timothy Adams,Nacho Barbero, Patrik Antonius, Anton Wigg,Maria Ho as well as PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton.
Dan Heimiller also found a bag after finding a late double-up against Nacho Barbero in the last couple of levels of the night as he ran aces against Nacho Barbero’s ace-king.
Those who weren't fortunate enough to find a bag include Thomas Boivin, Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau, Niklas Astedt, Hall of Famer Erik Seidel and PokerStars ambassador’s Parker Talbot, Ramon Colillas, and Alejandro Lococo.
Day 2 action will pick up Saturday, September 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time and will play 60-minute levels with a 20-minute break after every second level. The day will begin on Level 11 with blinds of 1,000/1,500/1,500.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow as EPT Barcelona starts wrapping up.