Money Bubble Lurking For 293 Survivors on Day 3 of the EPT Barcelona Main Event

For six unlucky players, making it to Day 3 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event and outlasting 85 percent of the field will be nothing more than an interesting story to tell.

Yesterday’s play ended with 293 players remaining as the field returns today at noon local time at Casino Barcelona with the money bubble looming ahead. Kian Kiani doesn’t have to worry too much about making the money, as he takes the chip lead into Day 3 with 775,000.

Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Kian Kiani	United Kingdom	775,000	193
2	Hans Erlandsson	Sweden	720,000	180
3	Javey Timmer	Netherlands	692,000	173
4	Ahmed Karrim	South Africa	664,000	166
5	Malcolm Franchi	France	637,000	159
6	Raoul Kanme	Netherlands	633,000	158
7	Rania Nasreddine	United States	609,000	152
8	Nicolas Julien	France	550,000	137
9	Claudio Di Giacomo	Italy	546,000	136
10	Mark Teltscher	United Kingdom	519,000	129

Kiani is followed on the leaderboard by Hans Erlandsson (720,000), Javey Timmer (692,000), Ahmed Karrim (664,000), and Malcolm Franchi (637,000). Rania Nasreddine (609,000) also begins the day inside the top 10 as she looks to make her second consecutive EPT final table, while other big stacks include Mark Teltscher (519,000), Stephen Song (459,000), Andrew Hulme (437,000), 2022 fourth-place finisher Fabiano Kovalski (408,000), and defending champion Simon Wiciak (400,000).

Team PokerStars is well-represented on Day 3, as commentator Griffin Benger (345,000) and team pros Ramon Colillas (268,000), Fintan Hand (145,000), Guillermo Sanz (100,000), and Parker Talbot (99,000) are all chasing the money.

Also still in the hunt are Farid Jattin (337,000), Ami Barer (327,000), PSPC champion Aliaksandr Shylko (259,000), Teun Mulder (258,000), Brock Wilson (256,000), Alec Torelli (246,000), Stoyan Madanzhiev (224,000), and 2013 EPT Barcelona champion Tom Middleton (213,000). EPT Monte Carlo champion Derk van Luijk (161,000), Alexander “Wolfgang Poker” Seibt (147,000), Jack Sinclair (116,000), Niklas Astedt (107,000), and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel (65,000) find themselves as short stacks entering the day with some work to do to set themselves up for a deep run.

The action on Day 3 picks up on Level 15 with blinds of 2,000-4,000 and a 4,000 big blind ante. The schedule calls for five 90-minute levels today, with a 20-minute break after each level.

The Main Event drew 1,975 total entries, building a prize pool of €9,578,750. Only the top 287 players will guarantee themselves a min-cash of €8,700, with the eventual champion walking away with €1,512,000.

Payouts

Place	Prize	Place	Prize	Place	Prize
1	€1,512,000	10-11	€107,450	40-55	€23,350
2	€944,000	12-13	€89,550	56-71	€20,300
3	€674,150	14-15	€74,600	72-95	€17,600
4	€518,600	16-17	€62,150	96-119	€15,350
5	€398,950	18-20	€51,800	120-143	€13,300
6	€306,900	21-23	€43,200	144-183	€11,600
7	€236,100	24-27	€36,000	184-223	€10,050
8	€181,600	28-31	€30,950	224-287	€8,700
9	€139,750	32-39	€26,900