The dubious honor of first elimination of the day went to Marcello Miniucchi, who ran out of his 30,000 chips in the span of not even fifteen minutes. According to Viorel Gavrila, the victor in the hand, it was Miniucchi who had opened on the button and subsequently called a three-bet from Gavrila in the small blind.
Gavrila, who held , bet the flop and check-called the turn. On the river, Gavrila made a flush with his jack-ten and check-raised all in. Miniucchi called him off with for a rivered top pair and saw his EPT National High Roller hopes to come to an early halt.
The players all start with 300 big blinds and have plenty of room to move around in the first couple of levels. PSPC runner-up Julien Martini made use of that and already won some chips in the first few hands of the day. His latest casualty was Denis Kashirin.
Martini raised from the button to 300 and Kashirin called from the small blind. The player in the big blind called as well and the flop was dealt. It checked to Martini who continued with another bet of 300 and Kashirin called. The big blind got out of the way.
The turn was dealt and Kashirin check-folded to a bet of 1,000 from Martini this time and the Frenchman picked up a small pot.
The 2019 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona is in full swing, and while the record-breaking €1,100 EPT National will play to a champion today with six hopefuls, others will get another shot at EPT glory in the €2,200 EPT National High Roller that kicks off at noon. Twice the buy-in, a two-day event instead of four and also just two starting flights instead of four set it apart from the regular National.
Being the bigger brother of the EPT National, the EPT National High Roller certainly belongs to the biggest mid-stakes tournaments in Europe as well. Last year saw a field of 1,527 poker enthusiasts gather in Casino Barcelona, creating a prize pool of nearly €3,000,000. The two-day tournament ended with a handshake between Finland's Tuomo Niskanen and Brian Kaufman from Uruguay, leaving the former with €368,925 and the bragging rights, while the latter walked away with the lion's share of the prize pool: €432,135.
The two-day event certainly isn't for the faint of heart: two long-starting days await today (1a at noon and 1b at 7 p.m.), with the field playing down until 15% is left and everyone is in the money, expected to be reached about 2 a.m. with 1b ending even later. The survivors from both fields will then return on Monday, August 26 at noon and play down until a winner is crowned and/or another handshake is made.
Levels will be 40 minutes on the first day with breaks after every three levels of play, and a single re-entry to flight B is allowed. Flight B itself will be a freeze-out and therefore, two maximum entries are allowed. Late registration closes after level 8.
Keep following along with PokerNews live reporting for continued coverage of all the latest from the 2019 EPT in Barcelona.
€2,200 EPT National High Roller Day 1 Blind Structure
Level
Duration
Small Blind
Big Blind
Big Blind Ante
1
40 min
100
100
2
40 min
100
100
100
3
40 min
100
200
200
4
40 min
100
300
300
5
40 min
200
400
400
6
40 min
200
500
500
7
40 min
300
600
600
8
40 min
400
800
800
9
40 min
500
1000
1000
10
40 min
600
1200
1200
11
40 min
800
1600
1600
12
40 min
1000
2000
2000
13
40 min
1000
2500
2500
14
40 min
1500
3000
3000
15
40 min
2000
4000
4000
16
40 min
2000
5000
5000
17
40 min
3000
6000
6000
2018 runner-up Brian Kaufman won over €400K in last year's EPT National High Roller
, bet the 
flop and check-called the 
river, Gavrila made a flush with his jack-ten and check-raised all in. Miniucchi called him off with 
flop was dealt. It checked to Martini who continued with another bet of 300 and Kashirin called. The big blind got out of the way. 
turn was dealt and Kashirin check-folded to a bet of 1,000 from Martini this time and the Frenchman picked up a small pot.
