After a record-breaking EPT National, the 2019 EPT Barcelona has moved over to the marquee €5,300 Main Event, which kicked off yesterday at the Barcelona Casino. The Main Event got off to a strong start with the first of its two starting flights attracting a total of 726 entries. Of those 726, only 259 players advanced to Day 2. French player Benjamin Chalot (300,000) emerged as the chip leader, followed by Sweden’s online super star Simon Mattsson (292,000), Portugal’s Andre Marques (269,700), Jimmy Pham (250,000) and Florian Jouvenet ( 245,200) who rounded out top five stacks.
Many Indians were seen in action on Day 1A of the event including Sahil Chuttani, Kavin Shah, Rajat Sharma, female pro Muskan Sethi, Ankit Ahuja and Bollywood actor Siddhanth Kapoor. However, only three could progress, namely Chuttani, Shah and Sharma. Chuttani who recently finished 8th in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila Main Event bagged the biggest stack with 75,000 chips among the trio. The well known high-stakes cash game pro Shah ended the day with 32,600 in chips, while Rajat Sharma bagged 30,500 in chips. Sharma is a well-respected pro who posted his first live score this year by finishing 3rd in the DPT Colossus 50K Warm-up for INR 3,80,000 and then followed up that score by a 59th finish in the EPT Open Madrid Main Event and a 29th finish in the € 120 NLHE at the EPT Open Madrid. Now he will be looking to stack-up and better his previous EPT scores.
The first starting flight saw several big names advancing to Day 2, including PokerStars Ambassadors Kalidou Sow (160,000), Fatima Moreira de Melo (83,700), Leo Fernandez (63,800) & Maria Konnikova (18,300), Alex Keating (218,800), Govert Metaal (207,500), former EPT Copenhagen Main Event champion Anton Wigg (205,000), Steve O’Dwyer (191,700) and Georgios Vrakas (147,000).
Other well-known players who will return for Day 2 on 28th August include Triple Crown champion Davidi Kitai (142,800), Orpen Kisacikoglu (128,000), Luc Greenwood (94,300), Isaac Haxton (74,800), Kristen Bicknell (54,800), Gaelle Baumann (41,300), Faraz Jaka (25,200), well-known brothers Jack Salter ( 29,800) & Louis Salter (74,700) and EPT Barcelona Main Event Champion Jan Boubli (31,500).
Day 2 is slated to be played on Wednesday, 28th August and it will see all the survivors from Day 1A and 1B come together to battle it out for the title, the trophy and the top prize. Play for Day 2 will begin at noon and blinds will resume in level 11 at 800/1,600 and a big blind ante of 1,600.
Top 10 Stacks At Day 1A End
- Benjamin Chalot – 300,000
- Simon Mattsson – 292,000
- Andre Marques – 269,700
- Jimmy Pham – 250,000
- Florian Jouvenet – 245,200
- Peter Patricio – 230,600
- Louis Nyberg – 223,000
- Hussein Hassan – 220,600
- Alex Keating – 218,800
- Jean-René Fontaine – 217,000