Christopher Dowling opened to 1,200 from the cutoff and was called by Antonino Venneri on the button and Nacho Barbero in the big blind.
Action checked to Venneri on the 6♣A♣9♥ flop and he bet 3,000. Barbero then shoved for his last 8,700 and Dowling called cold. Venneri also went all in for around 15,000 and Dowling called having both players covered.
Nacho Barbero: A♦5♠
Antonino Venneri: K♣10♣
Christopher Dowling: A♥K♦
Dowling held the lead with Big Slick and maintained it on the 9♦ turn; however, the 4♣ river gave Venneri a winning flush for the triple up and elimination of Barbero.
Rafael Marcondes was all in for his final few chips against PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton.
Rafael Marcondes: K♦4♦
Sam Grafton: K♥8♠
Grafton had his opponent dominated but the flop of 3♦9♦5♥ gave Marcondes plenty of hope with a flush draw. Unfortunately for him, the board finished out J♥Q♠ and he was eliminated.
PokerStars ambassador Alejandro Lococo is no more after bluffing into the rivered full house of Jorge Cantos.
With the board showing J♦J♣3♣9♣5♣, Lococo moved all in for around 30,000 with A♥3♥ before getting snap-called by Cantos holding 5♠5♦ for fives full of jacks.
In middle position, Pedro Lopes raised to 1,400. He was called by Julien Mariani in the cutoff and by the big blind.
On the flop 10♥K♦K♣, Lopes continued with a bet of 1,600. Mariani kept calling, but the big blind folded.
Lopes decided to check on the turn 5♣. On the other side of the table, Mariani prepared a bet. But when he put the chips in front of him, Lopes immediately folded.
After he won the €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event and beat a field of 7,398 entries (the largest live tournament field in PokerStars history) earlier in the Day, Lucien Cohen wants more than the €676,230 he won.
So after the dinner break, he jumped into Day 1b of the €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event. Can he win both Main Events in the festival and a second EPT in his career? That's what he'll try to do.
Mykyta Andrusiak opened to 2,500 from early position and was called by Max Rotko in the big blind.
Both players checked on the 4♣A♠4♦ flop and Rotko checked again on the 5♦ turn. Andrusiak bet 3,800 and Rotko paused for some time before raising to 9,000. Andrusiak called.
The 7♥ completed the board and Rotko fired 16,000 into the middle — sending Andrusiak deep into the tank. Andrusiak eventually put one chip in to denote a call and Rotko turned over 3♦3♠. Andrusiak showed A♣J♣ for a winning pair of aces and collected the sizable pot.
If you can't get the time off to fly down to Spain for the EPT Barcelona, don't worry. PokerStars is running a Mini EPT Barcelona online.
This fun and affordable online series runs parallel to the live EPT Barcelona, with 25 online tournaments held over eight days.
The first events kick off on August 27, starting with Event #1: $11 Deep Stack, 3 Re-entry. Before then, players can get in on the action with online satellite events on PokerStars.
In addition to big prize pools throughout the series, winning Event #25 — or its sister Event #24: $5.50 Mini EPT Barcelona Main Event - L — will net you a ticket for the $1,050 WCOOP Main Event. This also comes with a Gold Power Pass package worth $10,300 that will cover your travel, accommodation, and tournament buy-in for EPT Cyprus.
The last of two starting flights have concluded for the €5,300 Main Event here at the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) in Casino Barcelona with Sylwester Fortuna emerging as the chip leader of the 438 remaining players after bagging 328,000 in Day 1b.
Fortuna is a regular in European tournaments and is coming off a career-best cash of €40,000 after winning a Pokercode Festival event earlier this year. His best EPT cash dates back to 2014, when he got second place in a London event. However, Fortuna is now in prime position to make a deep run and will be looking to improve upon his live-tournament resume.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
RANK
PLAYER
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Sylwester Fortuna
Poland
328,000
218
2
Wongyu Kang
South Korea
319,500
213
3
Younes Hammouchi
France
287,000
191
4
Johnny Mendes
Brazil
280,000
187
5
Claudio Di Giacomo
Italy
266,500
177
6
Martin Zamani
United States
243,500
162
7
Brandon Mifsud
Malta
239,000
159
8
Franck Makaci
France
231,500
154
9
Antoine Labat
France
223,500
149
10
Alexandru Alman
Italy
220,000
146
Day 1b drew 1,261 entrants, which brings the overall number of entrants (when combined with Day 1a) to 2,053. The standing record from last year is 2,294 entrants, but with late registration remaining open until the start of Day 2, we will have to wait and see if a new field record can be set.
There was no shortage of notables in the mix today, with Jason Wheeler (150,500) Niklas Astedt (143,000), Matthew Wantman (104,500), and Sam Grafton (69,000) all finding bags into Day 2. Joey Weissman also had a good day and was able to eliminateMarcel Brunner en route to bagging 140,000 before the end of the day.
Joey Weissman
PokerStars Team ProBenjamin Spragg was also able to earn a Day-2 berth after chipping up nicely in a few of hands of the last level to end with 124,500. His better half, Marle Spragg, was also in attendance but was eliminated late in the day.
Other less fortunate players include Erik Seidel, Kevin Rabichow, Nacho Barbero, Kitty Kuo, Masato Yokosawa, Steve O'Dwyer, and Patrik Antonius — all of whom busted before the day's end.
Defending champion Giuliano Bendinelli was also unable to pick up any momentum throughout the day and busted out shortly before the dinner break.
All the remaining players from Day 1a and Day 1b will reconvene for Day 2 on August 29 at 12 p.m. local time. Any player who has not entered more than once between Day 1a and Day 1b will be eligible to register up until the start of Day 2.
Play will resume on Level 11, which features 1,000/1,500 blinds and a 1,500 big blind ante. Levels from Day 2 onward will be lengthened to 90 minutes each.
Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action from the tournament floor leading to the next EPT Main Event champion! For coverage of other events, check out the EPT Barcelona live reporting hub.
