Toni Kaukua opened to 2,500 in early position and Marius Cristea called on the button before Mrioslav Alilovic three-bet to 9,000 in the small blind.
Kaukua pushed out a stack of blue 5,000 chips for a four-bet to around 100,000 and Cristea quickly folded and Alilovic took a little bit longer before also folding.
Romain Dours was heads-up from the small blind against Phillip Mighall in the big blind. Mighall had a raise of 6,200 in front of him and Dours called.
Dours check-called a 6,500 bet from Mighall on the 3♠4♥10♣ flop and a 9,000 bet from Mighall on the 3♣ turn.
Dours checked a final time on the J♥ river and Mighall announced he was all in, which was enough to put Dours all in for over 100,000. Dours shrugged and folded and Mighall tabled Q♥2♣ for a stone bluff as he collected the pot.
PokerNews' David Salituro is not even working this event, but that didn't stop him from catching a notable hand as Day 1a winds down.
Zhu Fangzhou raised to 2,500 on the button before David Docherty three-bet to 10,200 in the big blind. Fangzhou moved all in for around 60,000 and Docherty called.
Zhu Fangzhou: J♦J♠
David Docherty: A♦K♦
The board ran out 8♦7♦Q♣4♠10♦ to give Docherty a flush on the river to bring his stack to around 170,000 as Fangzhou hit the rail.
If you can't get the time off to fly down to Spain for the EPT Barcelona, don't worry. PokerStars is running a Mini EPT Barcelona online.
This fun and affordable online series runs parallel to the live EPT Barcelona, with 25 online tournaments held over eight days.
The first events kick off on August 27, starting with Event #1: $11 Deep Stack, 3 Re-entry. Before then, players can get in on the action with online satellite events on PokerStars.
In addition to big prize pools throughout the series, winning Event #25 — or its sister Event #24: $5.50 Mini EPT Barcelona Main Event - L — will net you a ticket for the $1,050 WCOOP Main Event. This also comes with a Gold Power Pass package worth $10,300 that will cover your travel, accommodation, and tournament buy-in for EPT Cyprus.
The magnificent €5,300 EPT Main Event is upon us at 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona and saw 791 players registering for the Day 1a flight. Just 260 players remain after ten one-hour levels of play and leading the way is Finland's Toni Kaukua with 346,000 and big stacks Julio Chia Cabrera (290,000), Stanislau Shylkou (247,000) and Benjamin Lebor (231,000).
Several big names found bags during the first starting flight of the EPT Barcelona Main Event, including 2022 GPI Player of the Year Stephen Song and EPT champions Noah Boeken, Dominik Panka and Anton Wigg.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
RANK
PLAYER
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Toni Kaukua
Finland
346,000
231
2
Julio Chia Cabrera
Peru
290,000
193
3
Stanislau Shylkou
Belarus
247,000
165
4
Benjamin Lebor
United Kingdom
231,000
154
5
David Docherty
United Kingdom
221,500
148
6
Dominik Panka
Poland
221,500
148
7
William Hani
France
221,000
147
8
Andrea Dato
Italy
214,000
143
9
Anton Wigg
Sweden
214,000
143
10
Petr Bartagov
Russia
211,000
141
Plenty of Names on Day 1a
Hundreds of players made their way into Casino Barcelona on a rare rainy Sunday as Day 1a got underway. It didn't take long for the highlights to add up as big names like Erik Seidel, Maria Ho, Peter Jorgne, Samantha Abernathy and €25,000 No-Limit Hold'em winner Tom Orpaz took their seats.
In an early highlight, PokerStars ambassador Jen Shahade flopped a full house before check-raising the turn and getting paid on the river.
Another player who flopped a big hand was Ren Lin, who used his bluff-heavy reputation to get value from Tarash Chazmava after flopping a set of sixes.
Speaking of sixes, Dan Heimiller won a hand at showdown with six-high as he pipped the five-high of Lucheng Liu. Heimiller has had a strong summer of poker and is after his first EPT trophy.
Some players who weren't fortunate enough to survive the Day 1a flight including Daniel Rezaei, Kitty Kuo, Fabrice Bigot, Anthony Zinno, Kenny Hallaert, Uri Reichenstein, reigning PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) champion Aliaksandr Shylko and PokerStars ambassador Alejandro Lococo.
The second and final starting flight of the EPT Barcelona Main Event will kick off Aug. 28 at noon local time and will follow the same structure as Day 1a with starting stacks of 30,000 and blinds beginning at 100/100/100. Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow to provide more updates in the EPT Barcelona Main Event. Be sure to check out the EPT Barcelona live reporting hub in the meantime.