€5,300 Main Event Dia 1b | 2013 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona

2013-09-02 12:00 UTC+3

Day 1b Attracts Some of the Biggest Names in the Game

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Today, Season 10 of the PokerSars.com European Poker Tour will continue with Day 1b action from the EPT Barcelona €5,300 Main Event at the Casino Barcelona. Yesterday, the Day 1a field attracted 518 entrants, and today the field is expected to be even bigger! The big question is, will any Day 1b runners be able to surpass the Day 1a chip leader, Dragan Kostic, who bagged up 215,000 after eight 75-minute levels of play on Sunday.

Some players already registered for today's field are Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Nacho Barbero, Martin Hruby, Max Lykov, Ivan Demidov, Christophe and Matthias De Meulder, Luca Pagano, Toni Judet, Johnny Lodden, Leo Fernandez and Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira De Melo and Friend of PokerStars Pierre Neuville.

They will be joined by a laundry list of notables including PokerStars sponsored player, Thor Hansen; World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jason Duval; 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event runner-up Sergii Baranov; last year's 14th-place finisher Aku Joentausta; World Poker Tour Vienna third-place finisher Simon Ravnsbaek; well-respected online player Luca Moschitta; PokerStars qualifier Grayson Ramage; the lovely Sofia Lovgren; respected author and WPT champ Jonathan Little; Sam Cohen, who finish eighth in this year's Aussie Million Main Event; Erik Freiberg, who finished eighth in the 2006 WSOP Main Event for $1.9 million; WPT champs Marvin Rettenmaier and Randal Flowers; former PokerNews live blogger Harley Stoffmaker; last year's runner-up Ilari Sahamies; and €50,000 Super High Roller participants Senh Ung, Ole Schemion, Paul Newey, Max Lehmanski, Steve O'Dwyer, Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Marc-Andre Ladouceur.

As you can see, it's going to be a day jam packed with action fueled by some of the biggest names in the game. The plan for the day is to play eight 75-minute levels with a staggered dinner break (meaning half the room will go on dinner first with the other half going upon their return). Action is set to kick off at Noon local time, which is just over an hour from now. Be sure to to check back then for all the live updates from the tournament floor. In the meantime, check out this video featuring Kristy using the EPT concierge to score tickets to the FC Barcelona versus Athletico Madrid game:

https://www.pokernews.com/video/ept10-barcelona-fc-barcelona-wins-spanish-super-cup-8214.htm

2013-09-02 13:13 UTC+3

Where Are They Now: Season 2 EPT Barcelona Champ Jan Boubli

Nível 1 : 50/100, 0 ante

In 2005, the EPT Barcelona bumped the buy-in up the €4,200 and it didn’t deter as 327 players entered to create a prize pool of €284,000. That year’s final table included some names you’re no doubt familiar with in Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius, who finished in fifth and third place respectively. The final table of eight, which was comprised of six different nationalities, was eventually conquered by France’s Jan Boubli, who captured the €426,000 first place prize.

Boubli was no stranger to poker as he had earned five figures every year before that dating back to 1996, including 2003 when he won $286,073. That was thanks to a runner-up finish to David Benyamine in the World Poker Tour €10,000 Grand Prix de Paris, which earned him $205,443.

After winning the EPT Barcelona in Season 2, Boubli went on to win $61,790 in 2006 followed by a paltry $7,121 in 2007. He failed to cash in 2008, but then he stormed back in 2009 when he took fourth in the €10,000 Grand Prix de Paris for $139,259. Four other cashes that year brought his yearly total up to $259,503. In 2010, Boubli’s winnings dropped to $15,035 after a single cash — 71st-place in the EPT Barcelona, which was his last documented tournament cash.

Tags: Jan Boubli

2013-09-02 15:08 UTC+3

Where Are They Now: Season 3 EPT Barcelona Champ Bjorn-Erik Glenne

Nível 2 : 75/150, 0 ante

The buy-in was upped again in 2006, this time jumping to €5,000, and again the number of entries increased as 480 players took to the felt, creating a prize pool of €2,304,000. For the third year in a row the final table included big names including Jeff Lisandro and Phil Ivey, who finished sixth and second respectively. It’s not often Ivey loses heads up, but he did to Norway’s Bjorn-Erik Glenne, who was a former chess champion turned poker pro.

The $875,404 Glenne earned for that score was by far the biggest of his career up to that point; in fact, prior to that he had just two cashes for $10,486. After winning, Glenne attempted to live the life of a poker pro and looked like he might be able to do it after finishing 65th in the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event for $130,288 and 35th in the €7,700 EPT Barcelona Open a month later for $20,027. Unfortunately for him, his pro aspirations dwindled and died after that.

Glenne’s only other cash came in February 2009 when he took second in the European Masters of Poker €1,000 No Limit Hold’em in Tallinn for $56,383. Since then, Glenne has not been in the media spotlight.

Tags: Bjorn-Erik Glenne

2013-09-02 15:17 UTC+3

Action Andrew and Delightful Daniel

[user68268]

Nível 2 : 75/150, 0 ante

Andrew Moreno, the better half of PokerNews' very own Kristy Arnett, is seated to the direct right of Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu at a table that also includes Sofia Lovgren. Moreno has been involved a bit early, both in the action at the table and with the chatter between he and Negreanu. Topics of conversation have been poker, Choice Center, Instagram, LeBron James, cell phones, and much more.

On the first of many hands, Kresz Peter opened to 350 in the seat to the right of Moreno, before Moreno three-bet to 900. Peter called, and the flop came down . After Peter checked, Moreno bet 1,000. Peter folded.

Several hands later, Moreno was in the big blind, Peter in the small blind, and David Breitfuss had the button. Action folded to Breitfuss, and he opened with a raise to 300. Peter called, then Moreno three-bet to 1,050. Breitfuss folded, but Peter came along to see the flop, which produced the . Peter then check-called a bet of 850 from Moreno.

The turn was the , and both players checked to see the land on the river. Both checked again. Peter showed the , but Moreno's had the better kicker, and he won the pot.

On the very next hand, Peter raised to 300 on the button, Moreno called from the small blind, and Negreanu called from the big blind. All three players in action then checked the flop before the was added to the board on the turn. Moreno led with a bet of 425, Negreanu folded, but Peter called. After the completed the board on the river, Moreno check-folded to Peter's bet of 525.

The next hand, Moreno had the button, and Negreanu proclaimed to the table that he was "going to three-bet more often than not on this hand." Action then folded to Peter in the cutoff seat, and he opened to 300. Negreanu got excited, as things were lining up for him to stay true to his word, but then Moreno got in the way with a three-bet of his own and made it 825 to go. Negreanu looked at his hand, then told the table he definitely would have three-bet if Moreno hadn't, pointing to his right. A player at the table suggested Negreanu could have four-bet after he folded, but Negreanu explained that he doesn't four-bet, or five-bet, or six-bet, and that "all those kids that used to do that are broke." The table got a good laugh.

Back to the hand, though. Peter made the call to see the flop. Both checked, and the turn was the . Both checked again, then the river was the . Peter led for 1,100, and Moreno made the call.

Peter had rivered a flush with the , and Moreno mucked his hand.

"Oh man! You would've smashed me there! I had king-eight!" exclaimed Negreanu.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Andrew Moreno	38,700	8,700
Daniel Negreanu	18,500	-8,500

Tags: Andrew Moreno Daniel Negreanu David Breitfuss Kristy Arnett Sofia Lovgren LeBron James

2013-09-02 17:36 UTC+3

Last Year's Runner Up Looking for Another Deep Run

Nível 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

Last year, online poker sensation Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies made a splash in the live realm when he finished runner up to Mikalai Pobal in this very event for €629,700. Sahamies prefers to spend his time behind the computer screen, but he's ventured out once again to take a shot at the EPT Barcelona title.

In a recent hand, there was around 3,400 in the pot and a board reading when Sahamies bet 1,025 from the big blind. His opponent, Harcharan Dogra Dogra, responded with a raise to 2,500, and Sahamies promptly folded his hand.

Despite losing that pot, Sahamies is still up quite a bit from the last time we check in with him. Could another deep run be in store?

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Ilari Sahamies	42,500	11,500

Tags: Harcharan Dogra Dogra Ilari Fin

2013-09-02 17:41 UTC+3

Fútbol Star Gerard Piqué In Action

[user68268]

Nível 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

Poker is unlike any other professional competition in that all you need is money to play with the best players in the world for your shot at millions of dollars and ultimate glory. Not only does that mean amateurs players can pony up a buy-in to play with the best of the best, but poker often attracts top athletes and celebrities to the fray. Here in Barcelona, fútbol star Gerard Piqué has opted to take the chance.

Piqué was seen earlier this year in the World Series of Poker Main Event, and is now seated alongside Pratyush Buddiga, Andrew Pantling, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, and Team PokerStars Pro Christophe De Meulder in this event.

FC Barcelona's Piqué is no stranger to the felt, finishing third in a €5,000 side event at EPT Barcelona in September of 2011 and playing in a few side events at the Season 9 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. The 26-year old defender is widely regarded as one of the best centre backs in the world, and his résumé includes a World Cup win, a Premiere League title, four La Liga titles, two UEFA Champions League titles, and three consecutive selections (2010-2012) to the UEFA Team of the Year.

Oh, and he's also married to Colombian music artist Shakira.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Gerard Piqué	37,000	37,000

Tags: Andrew Pantling Christophe De Meulder Gerard Piqué Gerard Pique Jan-Peter Jachtmann Pratyush Buddiga Shakira

2013-09-02 18:06 UTC+3

World Cup Winner Gerard Piqué!

Nível 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

Zsolt Vasvenszki from Hungary opened from first position and was raised by Team PokerStars Pro Christophe De Meulder, to 825. Gerard Piqué to his left made the call. The blinds folded, so it was back to Vasvenszki, and he four-bet to 25,000. De Meulder took the hint and folded, but Piqué made the call in position to see a flop of .

On the flop, Vasvenszki bet 4,000, and Piqué called. They both checked the on the turn, then the was the river, and Vasvenszki bet 5,500. Piqué reached for chips, put them back, shuffled his cards in his hands, stared at the board, and wondered. Finally, he reached back for calling chips and flicked them over the line. Vasvenszki showed the and Pique flung his hand away.

Tags: Christophe De Meulder Gerard Piqué

2013-09-02 18:14 UTC+3

Where Are They Now: EPT Barcelona Season 1 Champ Alexander Stevic

Nível 4 : 100/200, 25 ante

Way back in 2004, the European Poker Tour was in an infancy, which was evidenced by the €1,000 Main Event in Barcelona, which attracted 229 entries and created a prize pool of €229,000. The man who emerged victorious that season was Sweden’s Alexander Stevic, who took home €80,000 for the win. Stevic slipped into oblivion in the years that followed, but he recently resurfaced at the EPT10 Barcelona, which is where PokerNews caught up with him for a special edition of Where Are They Now.

Stevic also made the final table of the Season 1 €10,000 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, where he navigated a field of 211 players to finish third for €178,000. Stevic was primed to become on a star of the EPT, but then things slowed considerably over the next eight years.

He earned a modest $12,660 in tournament winnings in 2006 and then disappeared from the poker landscape the two years after that. His next cash came in 2009 when he took third in the Campeonato Espana De Poker €600 No Limit Hold’em for €18,750, before he was shut out again in 2010. In 2011 and 2012, Stevic put in a little more volume and managed to cash for $32,693 and $30,074 respectively.

PokerNews: This is a broad question, but what have you been up to since winning the EPT Barcelona way back in Season 1?

Playing. After that tournament I played tournaments all the time for two years with less success. So I stopped after awhile and just played cash games. I played one tournament per year maybe, but normally not very big ones.

Before this year, when was the last time you played the EPT Barcelona Main Event?

Season 2.

What brought you here for the EPT10?

For this one PokerStars called me and said they wanted to invite me because I won the first one and now it’s the tenth anniversary. It was really nice, really cool of them because they don’t owe me anything. They invited me to do all of this and it’s nice, I feel really good. I hope I can do something extraordinary.

You had a good Day 1a and finished with over 100K in chips. How are you feeling thus far?

I feel really good, but I also know I need to be luckier than the players that usually win it because poker has evolved so much that they are better than me in tournaments—and probably cash games too! I’m trying, I know with a little luck I can go far. Take one day at a time.

Aside from the game evolving, what has changed at the EPT Barcelona from Season 1 until now?

It’s so much bigger. So, so much bigger, and that’s a good thing. Also, the players are better. That’s just the way it is with everything. You have to adapt. If you’re not good enough then you have to stop. Even though it’s tougher, it’s more legal now and it’s actually more fun in many ways. It’s fun to enter a TV set. I like it.

You had an epic heads-up battle against Ireland’s Dave O’Callaghan, one that has gone down in EPT history. Can you reflect on that a little bit?

We played for many hours. The thing is I had him all in with the best hand a few times and I lost. I was actually very unlucky in that heads-up battle. I don’t say that I’m much better than him, but I was unlucky. I had a lot of chips though. He caught up several times coming from behind, but in the end I won. I almost lost it.

Did you ever thing the EPT would become as big as it has?

Yeah, I did. Maybe not as big as it is now, but I knew it would evolve a lot and be big. Look at the economy here the last seven or eight year. It’s crap but the EPT is still really big. A lot of people say maybe they’ve reached the limit now, but I don’t think so. When the economy grows again I think it’ll be even bigger. I might be wrong.

Do you have a great deal of pride when you think back on your win?

I mean I would prefer to win a lot of money, maybe be runner up in the fourth or fifth year, but still being the first one is something special. They have over 90 winners, people don’t remember most of them, but the first one—most people don’t remember even [laughs]. It’s still the first though, my name is there, I was first. It makes me feel extraordinary, super, mega special. That’s the feeling I have now.

What are your plans after this year’s EPT Barcelona?

I will play more tournaments because I really enjoy this so much. It’s only been a couple days but I feel like I have to go back to doing [tournaments]. My passion for poker is coming back. Lately I’ve just been playing for the money, but now I want the glory again. I want to be the big star. Right now I’m just a nobody, anonymous, and it’s a good thing playing cash games, but I can’t explain very well, but I want to start playing tournaments again.

Tags: Alexander Stevic

2013-09-02 18:48 UTC+3

Negreanu Doesn't Like "The Rule"

[user68268]

Nível 5 : 150/300, 25 ante

If you've been following the poker industry as of late, you've heard all about "the rule," which refers to the new rule change implemented by the TDA and EPT that declares that a player's hand is dead if he or she is not present at the table for the start of the deal, and is appropriately named "the first card off the deck rule."

Many players, including Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, are firmly against this rule change and claim that it's bad for the game. Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier wrote about the rule change on his website recently, which you can read by clicking here. Negreanu was just overheard discussing the rule with his table.

Negreanu explained that there was no real reason that would merit the rule being changed. Previously, the rule was that a player's hand was dead if he or she wasn't present when the final card off the deck was dealt preflop. Some of the players at the table said the reason for the rule was because it's to avoid cheating from a player who may run back to a table, but take a second to peak at another player's hand from behind. Negreanu said that shouldn't matter.

"The rule's been the same for 50 years," he said. "And that's never been a problem. If it was a problem, people would be complaining. Plus, if someone is looking behind at a player's cards, that's cheating and you can just disqualify the player from the tournament. That's easy to catch."

Another player brought up that the rule is also in place to stop people from running around the tournament area. Negreanu responded to that as well. "They're still going to run around," he said. "They'll just run faster."

Negreanu and Mercier aren't the only players against this new rule change. Professional Dan O'Brien has been very outspoken about the rule on Twitter, and Paul Volpe recently voiced his opinion about the rule in an article by PokerNews' Rich Ryan while at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

The general sense is that "the rule" isn't overly liked by poker players, and they feel they are being a little too controlled. When Negreanu was talking about the rule with his table, he expressed that poker is about the players and the rules made to govern the game should be in favor of the players.

Tags: Dan O'Brien Daniel Negreanu Jason Mercier Paul Volpe

2013-09-02 19:48 UTC+3

O'Dwyer's Day is Done

Nível 5 : 150/300, 25 ante

We picked up the action on the river with a board reading . A short-stacked Steve O'Dwyer, who took third in yesterday's €50,000 Super High Roller finale for €355,100, proceeded to move all in for his last 6,500 or so and received a call from Paul Rimmer.

O'Dwyer tabled the for jacks and nines with a king kicker, but it was no good as Rimmer rolled over the for jacks and nines with an ace kicked.

With that, O'Dwyer collected his things and exited the EPT10 Barcelona Main Event.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Steve O'Dwyer	Eliminado

Tags: Paul Rimmer Steve O'Dwyer