After an open to 16,000 by the player in the hijack, Clément Bonnant shoved from the button to 160,000. In the small blind, Andriy Lyubovetskiy didn't know what to do. But he eventually moved all in too, and made the hijack fold.
Andriy Lyubovetskiy: J♣J♦
Clement Bonnant: A♦K♣
Bonnant was quickly relieved thanks to a king on the flop on 7♦Q♥K♦. And after the turn 8♦ and the river K♥, he almost doubled up, as Lyubovetskiy had only 7,000 chips less than him.
There are 100 players left for 98 places in the money. The clock was already stopped for a few minutes because a player took a long time to make a decision. But the hand for hand procedure is about to start.
A first all in and call situation occured between Vlad Darie in middle position and Simon Langer in the cutoff, with Darie being at risk for 186,000 chips.
Vlad Darie: A♠K♦
Simon Langer: Q♠J♠
Darie seemed a little bit nervous, but the board 6♣9♥2♦9♠10♥ relieved him and he doubled up.
With a small stack of 33,000 chips, Mathias Bayer found himself at risk against Deddi Orpaz.
Mathias Bayer: K♠K♥
Deddi Orpaz: 9♥9♦
Bayer took a deep breath after the board 10♦5♦10♠A♠6♦. He is back to 91,000 chips. In the same time, Timo Scarcella was eliminated at another table. So there are 99 players left for 98 places in the money.
After three all in and calls that ended in double ups, three other ones occured on the next hand.
The first one involved Thomas Eychenne, who moved all in from the small blind after Atanas Malinov opened from under the gun. With a shorter stack of 102,000 chips, Malinov called.
Atanas Malinov: A♣A♠
Thomas Eychenne: J♠J♥
As expected, even by Eychenne, Malinov doubled up on 5♦Q♠2♦8♦4♦.
Another player doubled up at another table. But table 5, Seyed Dezfooli was in a difficult situation as he only had enough to pay the big blind.
Three players called him, then checked on the flop 8♥A♣Q♣. On the turn 5♥, Raffaele Castro in the small blind bet 28,000, and made his opponents fold.
Seyed Dezfooli: 4♦2♠
Raffaele Castro: A♥4♥
Dezfooli, who didn't see his cards, discovered that he had a straight draw. All the other players around the table asked for a three, but the 5♣ landed on the river and made of Seyed Dezfooli the bubble-boy of Day 1b.
It seemed like the last players of Day 1b of the €2,200 Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller of the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) at Casino Barcelona wanted the bubble to last as long as possible. But in the end, it finally burst and 98 players out of 652 entrants qualified for Day 2.
Like them, 234 players reached the end of Day 1a. So there will be a total of 332 players out of 2,214 entered the event on Day 2. They are all in the money, and will share a total prize pool of €4,250,880.
Among the remaining players of Day 1b, Patrik Jaros ended the day as the chipleader with 696,000 chips. EPT Barcelona Main Event finalist last year, he is on his way to another deep run in Spain. Behind him, Claudio Coelho (667,000) and Nicola Grieco (652,000) also qualified for Day 2 with more than 600,000 chips.
RANK
PLAYER
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BLINDS
1
Patrik Jaros
Czech Republic
696,000
87
2
Claudio Coelho
Portugal
667,000
83
3
Nicola Grieco
Italy
652,000
82
4
Cristian Nogales
Switzerland
564,000
71
5
Georgios Vrakas
Greece
558,000
70
6
Tsugunari Toma
Japan
528,000
66
7
Vlad Darie
Romania
505,000
63
8
Oskar Massesson
Denmark
492,000
62
9
Harun Ertural
Germany
490,000
61
10
Candido Cappiello
Italy
489,000
61
In the lead at the beginning of the day, Mathieu Di Meglio, who finished 10th of EPT Paris in February, bagged 440,000 chips. The winner of the same EPT Paris, Razvan Belea, also qualified for Day 2. But he'll have half of Di Meglio's stack (211,000), like Jimmy Guerrero (200,000). They both are around average.
Day 1b was a little bit better for Benny Glaser, who'll be back with 348,000 chips on Day 2. Tom Vogelsang will have approximately the same stack (304,000), while Stephen Song (126,000) or Frank Lagodich (121,000) also bagged tonight. The same goes for 2023 PSPC finalist Thomas Eychenne, who has only 92,000 chips after made Atanas Malinov double up on the very last hand of the day.
Day 2 will start tomorrow, 27th of August at 12 p.m. local time. The 332 players remaining will discover the payout at the beginning of the day. But so far, everyone who has made it through is guaranteed at least a min-cash.
Don't go anywhere as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here on the coast of Spain and will continue providing updates on the ESPT and EPT Barcelona action.