Xhavit Berisha Among Top Chip Counts in Day 1e
It took almost 18 full levels of play for Day 1e of the 2022 PokerStars EPT Barcelona Estrellas Poker Tour €1,100 to reach its conclusion, however it only took 11 hours of play due to the 30-minute blind structure. The fifth of six starting flights drew the largest crowd with 1,735 total entrants with play to follow the previous flights’ schedule and play down to 15 percent. The magic number for today was 260 and was reached with 00:44 remaining in Level 18 (4,000/8,000/8,000).
Play was loaded with action due to the turbo blind structure and didn't even seem to slow down near the bubble as it only took one time stoppage to burst, the complete opposite of last night’s two-hour bubble. Several large stacks were visible throughout the room and it seemed as if there could be any one of a handful of players to emerge atop the counts when chips went into bags. However, it was Anthony Barrera who ultimately claimed that title after finishing the day with 860,000.
Hot on his heels were Rino Carolei (800,000), Loic De Doncker (771,000), Xhavit Berisha (761,000) and rounding out the top five is Laurent Cessy with 677,000. There were many other players over the half-million mark and the average chip stack on the day was 204,000.
€1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event Day 1e Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chips | |
| 1 | Pierre Mounic | France | 719,000 | |
| 2 | Anthony Barrera | France | 860,000 | |
| 3 | Rino Carolei | France | 800,000 | |
| 4 | Loic De Doncker | Belgium | 771,000 | |
| 5 | Xhavit Berisha | Switzerland | 761,000 | |
| 6 | Laurent Cessy | France | 677,000 | |
| 7 | Yannick Autaa | France | 670,000 | |
| 8 | Vladimir Andonov | Bulgaria | 657,000 | |
| 9 | Juan Vecino | Spain | 649,000 | |
| 10 | Michele Guerrini | Italy | 613,000 |
Other notables to advance included Oren Rosen (372,000), Kenny Hallaert (359,000), and 2017 EPT Main Event Champion Sebastian Sorensson (196,000).
Many other players were not as fortunate on the day, and with the tournament only allowing two entries per flight, those players found themselves out of luck for this tournament as there were no more entries available. Among those who had to try again next year were PokerStars Ambassador Alejandro Lococo, Damian Salas, EPT High Roller winner Robert Cowen, and Jonathan Therme.
Only flight Day 1f remains, with its play still in progress and is projected to finish around 2 a.m. local time. Day 2 starts at noon local time on Friday where all flights will combine into one big field to play until a winner is crowned at the end of Day 4.
Make sure to come back to PokerNews for continuing coverage of the EPT Barcelona Estrellas Poker Tour as well as the rest of the scheduled events.