Yesterday saw Day 1B, the second and final starting day of the 2019 EPT Barcelona €5,300 Main Event that attracted a record 1,234 entries to take the total field to 1,960 with 726 entries from Day 1A. Out of those 1,234 on Day 1B, 508 managed to advance to Day 2, which will be played out today. It was Italy’s Fiodor Martino who bagged the biggest stack with 367,000 in chips on Day 1B of the event. Israel’s Timur Margolin who has almost $2 million in lifetime earnings bagged the second largest stack with 261,800 in chips and he will be starting Day 2 today with more than 160 big blinds.
Day 1B turned out to be a big one for Team India as five Indians advanced to Day 2. Headlining them was the veteran Raman Gujral who bagged 113,400 in chips and will return for Day 2 as the chip leader among the 8 Indians. The other Indian to qualify was Rahul Melwani, a consistent player who already has 4 poker titles (including WPT India Deep Turbo) to his name bagged 99,800 chips.
Following Melwani was Sumit Asrani (80,400) who has already cashed in the EPT National of the ongoing series. Another Indian to qualify from Day 1B was the in-form Kunal Punjwani (55,000) who recently secured his career-best score of $ 74,401 by finishing 7th in the 2019 WSOP Double Stack. The talented player collected as many as five cashes from the recently-concluded WSOP in Vegas and now he will be eyeing another score when he returns today for Day 2 of the EPT Main Event.
The fifth Indian to progress from Day 1B was the veteran Anil Gulati (11,700) who finished 113th last week in the € 550 No Limit Hold’em – EPT Cup (Event #12) of the ongoing stop in Barcelona. Joining these five Indians on Day 2 today will be three other Indian challengers in Sahil Chutani (75,000), Kavin Shah (32,600) and Rajat Sharma (30,500) who had qualified from the first flight – Day 1A.
Day 1B saw so many big names joining in the action and some of them who progressed were the likes of Fiodor Martino (367,000), Alen Alencar (248,800), Kacper Pyzara (228,600), Kully Sidhu (221,500) and Gianfranco Iaculli (219,600). Some other notables to qualify from the day included the likes of Pim Gieles (91,200), Arsenii Karmatckii (213,500), Samuel Gagnon (205,000), Martin Jacobson (185,100), Mustapha Kanit (182,100), Shannon Shorr (142,900) and Patrik Antonius (136,700).
Combined with 247 survivors from Day 1A, a total of 755 players will return for Day 2 today. Play for Day 2 will feature 800-1,600 blinds and a big blind ante of 1,600. Keep following OPN for updates!
Top 10 Chip Counts At Day 1B End
1.Fiodor Martino – 367,000 (overall chip leader for Day 2 start)
2.Timur Margolin – 261,800
3.Alen Alencar – 248,800
4.Kacper Pyzara – 228,600
5.Kully Sidhu – 221,500
6.Gianfranco Iaculli – 219,600
7.Pim Gieles – 218,500
8.Arsenii Karmatckii – 213,500
9.Samuel Gagnon – 205,000
10.Weiyi Zhang – 198,000
