Some players like to drift in a while after the first level has started. Not Daniel Negreanu though, he has showed up right at the start and is engaging everyone at the table with his usual entertaining conversation. One player was drinking pineapple juice and was informed by Negreanu of the two benefits to drinking it. We won’t mention them here. Sofia Lovgren arrived at the table a few minutes late and he scolded her on her tardiness, claiming she missed two players going all in with top pair and middle pair. “My first bluff of the day.” Negreanu chirped.
On Lovgren’s big blind, Negreanu had the button and raised to 250. Andrew Moreno in the small blind folded and Lovgren, saying “Stealing my big blind?” made the call. They saw a flop of . Lovgren checked and a bet of 350 from Negreanu won the pot. “I didn’t have any of that. I had a real pretty hand though.” Stuck in the middle of them Moreno was regretting his fold. “I had four seven off.” he said.
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.
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:
. Lovgren checked and a bet of 350 from Negreanu won the pot. “I didn’t have any of that. I had a real pretty hand though.” Stuck in the middle of them Moreno was regretting his fold. “I had four seven off.” he said.
