If yesterday was the matinee, today was definitely the main show for the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Madrid. A total of 352 players sat down with 30,000 chips apiece, dwarfing the 125 that took a shot at glory on day 1a. There were so many more players than expected that an overspill room was put into use and dealers scheduled for the late shift were hurried in early so that no one was turned away. That meant we had a total field of 477 players, all of whom created a €2,313,450 prize pool, and a top prize of €545,000.
Of the remaining 197 players the player that made best use of the eight levels, best use of the cards that came to him, best use of the talents he was gifted or learned was Juan Navarrete . He bagged up 173,200 chips to make him the overall chip leader coming back for day 2 – representing the home nation very well indeed, so far.
He took down a monster pot worth around 150,000 chips very late on to nearly bust the almost impenetrable (on recent form) Steve O’Dwyer. The latter was left with 2,000 after his queens failed to come from behind to beat the Spaniard’s pocket kings.
Navarrete will be closely followed by Ilan Boujenah (171,000) and David Benyamine (154,500), who both finished ahead of Sergiy Baranov – the day 1a chips leader with 152,500. Just behind them we’ll find Angel Guillen (151,800) and Nicolas Levi (150,300).
Team PokerStars Pro were out in force today. We already mentioned Guillen but mentions must go to Nacho Barbero (93,600), Johnny Lodden (86,000), Mikhail Shalamov (51,200), Juan Manuel Pastor (14,900), Fatima Moreira de Melo (16,600), and Juan Manuel Pastor (14,900), all of whom will be back to represent the badge tomorrow.
There were many who won’t be back though. Victor Ramdin ran kings into aces early on. Richard Toth and Eugene Katchalov lasted until the Autumn/Fall of the day. ElkY, Theo Jorgensen, Leo Fernandez, and Ana Marquez all waited until the last level before losing their allowance of chips.
Other notables who came, saw, but failed to conquer included: Mick Graydon, Ruben Visser, Jamie Rosen, Ivan Freitez, Andrey Pateychuk, Jason Koon, and Eli Elezra. The latter of these players will be well known to our readers, more from shows like High Stakes Poker than the EPT though. David Benyamine was one of his old sparring partners from that show, and Las Vegas in general. The two were sat together all day until the last level when the Frenchman eliminated Elezra with set over set.
All remaining 264 players from both starting flights will come together tomorrow for more of the same. Play, will again, start at midday CET with not fixed length of player put in place yet. Join the PokerNews reporting team once more and we’ll bring you as much our six eyes and hands will allow. Until it’s good night from Madrid.
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Juan Navarrete
