The PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona stop has been filled with exciting action and famous players competing on the felt every day. Today’s Day 1 of the €10,300 EPT High Roller was no different. A total of 386 players made their way to Casino Barcelona for Day 1, and just 156 remain.
After ten levels and ten hours of play, it is Canadian high roller Sam Greenwood leading the chip counts with 405,500. In second place is Paul Runcan (346,500) and rounding out the podium in third place is Enrico Camosci (313,000)
Players retain the opportunity to enter or re-enter until the start of Day 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time on September 7. Therefore, it is yet to be seen whether or not last year’s field of 475 will be surpassed. Last year, more than 40 players registered at the last possible moment.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 405,500 |
| 2 | Paul Runcan | Romania | 346,500 |
| 3 | Enrico Camosci | Italy | 313,000 |
| 4 | Shiina Okamoto | Japan | 306,500 |
| 5 | Remy Murcia | France | 298,500 |
| 6 | Brandon Leetz | United Kingdom | 296,500 |
| 7 | Alexander Kopylkov | Russia | 285,000 |
| 8 | Candido Cappiello | Italy | 282,000 |
| 9 | Roberto Musu | Italy | 277,500 |
| 10 | Thomas Santerne | France | 276,000 |
The Day's Action
There was intense action and large pots from the very first shuffle. In Level 2, high roller regular Vladimir Korzinin was the first to hit the rail. He lost a massive pot with pocket sixes against the queens of Victoria Livschitz. A couple hands later, he was eliminated after flopping middle pair against the top pair of Tom Middleton.
Later, Brock Wilson picked up pocket kings only to run into the aces of Milos Skrbic, However, in dramatic fashion, the king of clubs fell on the turn to give Wilson top set as he eliminated Skrbic.
In another cooler scenario, Nacho Barbero turned bottom set in a three-bet pot against Marius Kudzmanas. Unfortunately for Barbero, Kudzmanas had flopped top set and all of the chips found their way into the middle by the river as Barbero was sent to the rebuy desk.
Barbero was not the only player to be eliminated via set over set. Quan Zhou also hit the rail on his first bullet after he rivered a set of fours against Nichan Khorchidian. Zhou’s set was no good, however, against the flopped top set of Khorchidian, who slow-played his hand but got maximum value on the river.
Sam Greenwood rapidly rose to the top of the chip counts as the day progressed. He eliminated the first bullet of Cherish Andrews after raising the river with the nut flush on a paired board. Andrews ended up making the call with a lesser flush which sent a massive pot toward Greenwood.
American pro and #1 ranked GPI player Jesse Lonis continued his strong play here in Barcelona on his way to a bag of 90,500. He made a great hero-call with second pair against the bluff of Malcolm Franchi in a pot of over 150,000.
Late in the day, Benjamin Spragg fell victim to the ever-popular “value bluff”. He hero-called the river with ace-ten-high only to lose to the ace-jack-high Adam Martinsson, who humorously dragged the pot while bluffing with the best hand.
Day 2 commences at 12:30 p.m. local time on September 7 at Casino Barcelona. The action will resume in Level 11 with blinds at 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 big blind ante. Registration will close at the start of play. Levels are 50 minutes in length for Day 2.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as we provide continued coverage of the €10,300 EPT High Roller and all other events here at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona stop.
