Biao Ding, Nick Palma, and Samuel Ju Among Survivors on Day 1f of Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event
The third day of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona held two more flights in the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) Main Event playing out at the Casino Barcelona. Day 1f drew a chunky 758 entries and reached its conclusion during Level 19, the longest any opening flight has gone so far, when three players were eliminated during the same hand, leaving 113 survivors who all advanced to Day 2.
Italy's Marco Muzzarelli claimed the top spot after he managed to bag 611,000 chips in what is his first European Poker Tour (EPT) cash. The UK's Ryan Mandara sits second with 595,000 and earned a large portion of those chips being added to his stack on the bubble when he eliminated compatriot Longmao Fan.
End of Day 1f Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marco Muzzarelli | Italy | 611,000 |
| 2 | Ryan Mandara | United Kingdom | 595,000 |
| 3 | Bernat Capdevila Montes | Spain | 522,000 |
| 4 | Dorian Dizy | Spain | 500,000 |
| 5 | Jacob Stone | United Kingdom | 448,000 |
| 6 | Oleksii Natoptanyi | Ukraine | 447,000 |
| 7 | David McConachie | United Kingdom | 438,000 |
| 8 | Tellefsen Enes | Norway | 430,000 |
| 9 | George Sandford | United Kingdom | 427,000 |
| 10 | Antonino Venneri | Italy | 415,000 |
Dorion Dizy sits fourth in the counts with a stack of exactly 500,000 chips and also played his part on the bubble when he eliminated two players to bring the rest of the field into the money and onto Day 2.
Biao Ding, who sits third on China's all-time money list, pulled a stack of 377,000 through to Day 2 in his pursuit of a first EPT title. Ding has made countless EPT final tables but a title still eludes the Chinese player, whose best result was a runner-up finish in last year's edition of EPT Barcelona.
Samuel Ju advanced with 204,000 chips and is also seeking his first EPT title. Earlier this year, Ju finished second in a €25,000 event at EPT Paris and will be looking to build on that form when Day 2 commences.
Nick Palma found his way into Day 2 after several attempts and will have 106,000 chips to play with when it gets underway. The American player gained momentum during Level 13 when his pocket aces came out on top in a rollercoaster runout against the pocket queens of Marc Alonso. Despite that boost to his stack, Palma never managed to get anything going and remained as one of the shorter stacks throughout the flight but will certainly be looking to change that once Day 2 kicks off.
After six of the eight opening flights have been completed, a total of 4,297 entries have been recorded with 642 players having already confirmed their place in Friday's Day 2.
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