Hand 39 is the first hand of the day, as we started the count when 9-handed play was reached last night. There are three more 90-minute levels left on the schedule. After that the next two levels will be 75-minutes long, followed by two 60-minute levels and two 45-minute levels.
Hand #39: Frederik Jensen made it 325,000 under the gun holding . Victor Bogdanov, one of the shortest stacks, shoved from the button with for 1,395,000. Jensen instantly called after both blinds folded.
The flop came , leaving Bogdanov just some back door outs. The on the turn was a good card to hit, but the on the river wasn't one of the cards he was looking for.
And with that, the tournament was down to its official final table of eight. A 10-minute break was implemented into the structure to accommodate the making of the official final table photo.
Minutes ago the 12th edition of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event started with its final nine players. Live coverage starts in an hour though, as we'll supply you with spoiler free updates right from the live stream. So if you can't watch the live stream, or want to read up on a hand you weren't really paying attention to, check back here regularly and you won't miss a thing.
Despite the plan being to play down to six, play was halted late last night with still nine players in contention. There's one runaway chip leader; Denys Shafikov, (36 from the Ukraine) brings 17,515,000 (109 big blinds) in chips, more than twice the amount his nearest competitor Steve Warburton (7,180,000) gets to start with.
Shortest stack in the room is Amir Touma (41, Lebanon) in seat 2 starts with 1,180,000 in chips (just 7 big blinds) and has his work cut out for him. There's a former EPT champion (Frederik Jensen), a local player (Mario Sanchez), an aggressive player from Scandiavia (Andreas Samuelsson), and an EPT regular ready to chat it up (Steve Warburton). Rainer Kempe was down to just a few big blinds but managed some miraculeus double ups to get back to 21 big blinds, 12 more than Victor Bogdanov who lost lots of chips with a failed big bluff late last night. And then there's John Juanda, the seasoned pro who already finished runner up in an EPT, and now is eyeing his first big prize on European soil since the WSOPE back in 2008.
Seat
Player
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
Denys Shafikov
Ukraine
17,515,000
109
2
Amir Touma
Lebanon
1,180,000
7
3
Rainer Kempe
Germany
3,775,000
21
4
Steven Warburton
United Kingdom
7,180,000
45
5
Victor Bogdanov
Russia
1,415,000
9
6
John Juanda
Indonesia
4,040,000
25
7
Mario Sanchez
Spain
2,885,000
18
8
Frederik Jensen
Denmark
5,580,000
35
9
Andreas Samuelsson
Sweden
7,005,000
39
It's going to be an exciting day of poker and we'll be here all day; from the first flop till the last river. Check back in an hour to see who takes down the biggest Main Event in EPT history and goes home with the €1,420,500 first place prize. While you wait, here's a look at all the previous stops of the EPT Barcelona.
Season
Year
Champion
Buy-in
Players
First Place Prize
1
2004
Alexander Stevic
€1,000
229
€80,000
2
2005
Jan Boubli
€4,000
327
€416,000
3
2006
Bjørn-Erik Glenne
€5,000
480
€691,000
4
2007
Sander Lyloff
€8,000
543
€1,170,700
5
2008
Sebastian Ruthenberg
€8,000
619
€1,361,000
6
2009
Carter Phillips
€8,000
478
€850,000
7
2010
Kent Lundmark
€5,000
758
€825,000
8
2011
Martin Schleich
€5,000
811
€850,000
9
2012
Mikalai Pobal
€5,000
1,082
€1,007,550
10
2013
Tom Middleton
€5,000
1,234
€942,000
11
2014
Andre Lettau
€5,000
1,496
€794,058
12
2015
--TBD--
€5,000
1,694
€1,420,500
The player profiles you can read underneath, courtesy of PokerStars.
Shafikov is principally a cash game player and has played relatively few EPT's. However, Barcelona is clearly becoming a favourite stop – he was here last season as well.
He’s already notched up one result during this season’s festival, finishing 128th in the €1,100 Estrellas Main Event for €3,385. That was his best ever cash and brought his lifetime live tournament winnings up to the grand total of $23,826; he’ll be getting at least ten times that amount if he makes the final six in the EPT Main Event. Aside from Estrellas, all Shafikov’s other recorded results have come in the Ukraine capital of Kyiv.
Touma’s biggest result to date was just $23,251 for making the final of the Merit Middle East Poker Championship in Cyprus back in 2011.
This is only his second EPT – he also played the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final back in May and has also cashed in a few side events. Nearly all his recorded results come from events in Kyrenia, Cyprus however. His live tournament winnings amount to $71,596 so far – a sum totally dwarfed by the life-changing €104,000 he’s guaranteed for making the nine.
If Touma takes it down, he will be our third EPT champion from Lebanon after EPT London winner Joseph Mouawad and EPT Grand Final champ Nicolas Chouity.
Kempe is one of numerous German players who have moved to the UK to play online. Most settle in London but Kempe has headed down to the lovely seaside resort of Brighton on the South Coast, a city which is also home to EPT Berlin runner up Robert Haigh and British pro James Dempsey.
Kempe, who hails from Berlin but studied at the University of Potsdam, already has a string of good live results including seventh in the $1.111 Little One for One Drop in Vegas this summer for a lifetime best cash of $90,189.
His best EPT result was fifth in a €2k NL Turbo side event at the EPT Grand Final in May, cashing for €15,820. Kempe won his seat in to EPT Barcelona in a €320 Deep Hyper-Turbo back in June.
Warburton is a 28-year-old pro from Manchester in the UK. He travels the world playing live poker events and became such good friends with Team PokerStars Pro Matthias de Meulder at the WSOP this summer that the pair decided to share an apartment for EPT Barcelona (Scott Margereson and Eric Lescot are also in the flat which they have dubbed “The Orphanage”).
Warburton has played EPT's in London, Prague, Deauville and Malta but this is his first in Barcelona. His best result before now was runner-up in the WPT Amsterdam Main Event in May for €150,000. He also had a deep run at EPT London in Season 10 finishing 22nd for £19,920 and made the final of the UKIPT Nottingham High Roller last year for £11,200.
Warburton is also something of a pundit and has appeared on Sky Sports talking about poker.
Victor Bogdanov has been a recreational poker player for the last five years, but is now coming straight in to the spotlight at EPT Barcelona. The 42-year-old Russian businessman has won a few small tournaments, but this is his first EPT cash.
This could almost be considered a “home soil” appearance as Victor and his family moved to Barcelona just two weeks ago. His wife and two sons are supporting him right here in the casino. Bogdanov only speaks a little English, but his younger son willingly helped translate for our interview. Both his sons are enrolled to study at Barcelona University but the family plan to split living 50/50 between here and Moscow.
Bogdanov says if he wins the Main Event, the celebrations will be back in Russia where a ton of friends are following his progress via the live coverage. When asked what would he do with the first prize, he answered simply – “I would buy some champagne!”
John Juanda is by far the highest-earning player to make the final six at EPT Barcelona, with more than $16m to his name already in live tournament winnings. The 44-year-old is almost certainly the most experienced as well with recorded cashes going back nearly 20 years.
His biggest win on the European Poker Tour came when was runner-up to David Vamplew in the EPT7 London Main Event. London was also the scene for another celebrated event when he was runner-up to Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier in the £20k High Roller in 2008. His other big EPT cash was fourth place in the EPT Grand Final €25k High Roller for €426,800 last season and 11th in the Main Event in Monaco in Season 10.
Like so many Spanish internet pros, Mario Sanchez has moved to London to carry on playing online.
The 27-year-old is an EPT and Estrellas regular but also competes in the States, especially at the World Series of Poker. His best live result prior to now came in Marbella however – close to his home city of Malaga - when he took down a GSOP event in 2013 for €74,150.
He usually plays cash in PokerStars and he is Supernova Elite. This isn't his first EPT, he was ITM in EPT10 montecarlo (76th, €8.434). He’s had good results online playing as 'LostToTiver'.