Abitbol Leads Colillas, Mizrachi After Day 2 in €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event
A long and eventful Day 2 of the €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event at the 2022 PokerStars and Barcelona©Casino European Poker Tour has wrapped up with 96 players remaining, and leading the way is France's Raphael Abitbol with a stack of 6,745,000.
Abitbol, who with $67,875 in Hendon Mob earnings is after his biggest live score, will be joined on Day 3 by fellow big stacks Gabriel Martini Nobrega (5,030,000) and Samir Benabdelaziz (5,170,000) as well as big names like four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi (1,160,000), PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas and India's Nikita Luther (2,650,000) in the largest live tournament in PokerStars history, which drew 6,313 entrants spanning 79 countries.
The day began with 938 players and started off slowly after a series of delays due to technical difficulties with the electronic seat card system. But with the money bubble already burst, it still didn't take long for hundreds of players to bust and the tournament area to shrink.
Some of the players who bowed out early include Jon Kyte (912th - €1,820), Alexandre Reard (908th - €1,820) Marton Czuczor (851st - €1,820) and Marle Spragg (831st - €2,040).
Luther had a fantastic day that included a hand in the middle of the day where she five-bet jammed with pocket jacks and ran into the pocket kings of Day 1f chip leader Mateusz Moolhuizen. A jack on the flop saved Luther from busting and she received a massive double to become one of the chip leaders.
Colillas, a Spanish pro who notably won the 2019 PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Players Championship for $5.1 Million, also had a strong showing on Day 2 and ran hot early, including when he picked up Cowboys to score a double knockout.
There were some setbacks Colillas and late in the day he doubled up fellow Spaniard Sergi Panella Navarro in a two pair versus two pair confrontation that put a hefty dent in Colillas' stack.
Players who were eliminated as the day played on include Dara O'Kearney (554th - €2,700) Yuliyan Kolev (422nd - €3,120) PokerStars Ambassador Steve Enriquez (394th - €3,600), Kenny Hallaert (393rd - €3,600), Chino Rheem (312th - €4,130), Alessandro Pichierri (308th - €4,130) and Dominik Panka (226th - €4,740).
Day 3 will commence on Saturday, Aug. 13 at noon local time on Level 27 with blinds of 30,000/60,000/60,000. The top prize of €600,000 and the trophy still await the eventual champion.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow at Casino Barcelona to bring readers coverage of the Day 3 action in the ESPT Main Event.
. Colillas checked on the flop and Navarro bet 50,000. Colillas called.
turn and Navarro took a minute before betting 190,000. Colillas sat still before announcing "all in" and Navarro snap-called with the smaller stack of about 700,000.
river for Navarro to double up and put a sizable dent in the PokerStars ambassador's stack.
, the turn was the 
to spell the end of the tournament for Rodriguez and give Navas another boost to his large stack which is now one of the largest in the field.
and the river the 
which sent Cabanellas and Regonaschi to the rail and made Colillas one of the biggest stacks in the room.
which put her way ahead. There was no more drama as the turn came the 
and the 
which gave Luther the double up.
was the turn and the river was the 
. From the big blind, Robin Ylitalo bet 120,000. Philip Joyce was under the gun and waited a bit before he moved all in and Yitalo snap-called.
for the nut straight which was dominating the 
and Joyce collecting his things to walk away while Ylitalo became one of the big stacks in the room with the huge pot.
