Rayane Mokhtar Bagged the Lead on Day 1b of PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller
A total of 654 Players entered into Day 1b of the €2,200 Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller of the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) at Casino Barcelona, with only 98 qualifying for Day 2 from this second flight. The tournament saw 2,064 entries for both combined flights. A total of 309 players, out of these total entries, made in through to battle it out in Day 2. All players that bagged today made it into the money, and will share a total prize pool of €3,962,880.
Rayane Mokhtar took through an impressive stack after bagging 780,000 chips and becoming the chip lead at the end of play of Day 1b. Mokhtar has already had a successful year after being crowned the BPC Main Event Champion back in May and taking home a massive 200,000 EUR prize.
Marte Sandberg (627,000) kept the pressure on against her opponents and was sitting high in the chip counts throughout the day, helping her to finish fourth in the chip counts for Day 1b.
Rania Nasreddine also steadily built her stack throughout the day, which was helped when she took down the pot in a hand against Panagiotis Mavritsakis, late into the evening. She bagged 466,000 chips, putting her in a strong position going into Day 2.
Berthold Winz (524,000) took a late lead in chips after a pair of sixes were enough to chip him up and eliminate Conor Beresford. Although he didn't retain the lead, Winz remained high in the counts, finishing the day strong within the top ten.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rayane Mokhtar | France | 780000 |
| 2 | Ermanno Di Nicola | Italy | 692,000 |
| 3 | Alexandros Kolonias | Greece | 645000 |
| 4 | Marte Sandberg | Norway | 627000 |
| 5 | Ryoji Kusumoto | Japan | 583000 |
| 6 | Berthold Winz | Germany | 524000 |
| 7 | Hugues Girard | France | 481000 |
| 8 | Rania Nasreddine | United States | 466000 |
| 9 | Pascal Dabrion | France | 436000 |
| 10 | Jordan Sparagana | United States | 422000 |
Others tried their luck but weren't able to find a bag into Day 2, including William Kassouf, who went “Out with Nine High Like a Boss".
Shiina Okamoto, the 2024 WSOP Ladies Event Champion and the 2023 WSOP Ladies Event runner-up, also battled it out in Day 1b. After a few hours of play, she got knocked down and eventually knocked out of the tournament short after late registration had ended.
Despite a strong start to the day for Fintan Hand, after scoring a near double and knocking out an opponent early on, Hand was eliminated after around 4 hours of play.
Day 2 will start tomorrow, 1st of September at 12 p.m. local time. The 309 remaining players will discover the payout at the beginning of the day. But so far, everyone who has made it through is guaranteed to cash.
Don't go anywhere, as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here on the coast of Spain and will continue providing updates on the ESPT and EPT Barcelona action.