Another massive field gathered for the first Day of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona €10,300 High Roller. In what is perhaps the most popular €10k tournament on European soil, 542 entries were already made during the first ten hours of play. The field eclipsed the 500-runner mark for the third year in a row and is likely to increase even further with late registration being open until the cards are underway for Day 2 at 12.30 p.m. local time.
Leading the way is Spain's David Lopez Llacer, who bagged 362,100 on Day 1. A slew of notables have the Spaniard in their sights, with Markus Durnegger (315,500), Adrian Mateos (299,800), Christopher Kruk (292,900) and Raul Martinez (281,500) rounding out the top 5. Online prodigy Linus "LLinusLLove" Loeliger (274,200) and EPT13 Prague winner Jasper Meijer van Putten (230,100) also sit near the top of the leaderboard.
The red spade will be represented by Jake Cody (204,500) Bertrand "ElkY Grospellier (125,000), Jeff Gross (111,300), and Felipe "Mojave" Ramos (104,000). Daniel Negreanu fell by the wayside on the first day and is out of reentries.
Like yesterday, 10 levels of 60-minutes each are scheduled with a 75-minute dinner break after level 14. Blinds will resume in the 1,000/2,000 level with a running ante of 300, giving those who jump in at the latest possible time a fresh stack of 25 big blinds to work with. As the registration is still open, the Day 2 seat draw won't be published until the cards are in the air, and payouts are expected to be finalized within the first two levels of play.
Follow PokerNews throughout the day for all the updates of this exciting event!
David Lopez Llacer looked to have put in a preflop three-bet to 16,000 in the small blind and gotten action from Timur Margolin when we got to their table. The flop came and Lopez put in a sizable bet of 25,000, which was quickly called. A second barrel of 75,000 on the got another call, and the river was a . Lopez timed nearly out and then checked. Margolin moved all in for about 180,000, and Lopez used a time extension before mucking.
With registration closed at 557 entries, PokerStars has released full prize information for the €10,300 High Roller. The winner of the event will bank €1,036,800, while a min-cash in 79th will be worth €18,400. Check out the "Payouts" tab above for a full prize pool breakdown.
Twitter-star Kitty Kuo, who finished 6th in last year's €10,300 kick off tournament for €101,500, was involved in three-way action with around 60,000 in the pot.
With the board reading , Anton Wigg checked, Kuo bet 27,000, the player on the button called, and Wigg called as well.
The river was the and Wigg checked. Kuo bet 65,000, to which the button snap-folded. Wigg used one of his time bank chips before folding as well.
Kuo showed for the bluff, which received an appreciative chuckle from Wigg.
Steffen Sontheimer took a stroll earlier and just got back at the table when the cards were shown.
"I walk off the table and you go crazy!" said Sontheimer. Kuo laughed and stacked up the sizable pot to put her above 400k.
In two hands, Tomi Brouk has claimed all the chips from Xiaoyang Luo and Alex Papazian. In the first hand, Luo opened to 9,000 from middle position, Brouk three-bet shoved 130,000 from the small blind, and Luo tank-called for 136,500 total.
Xiaoyang Luo:
Tomi Brouk:
Luo's commanding lead before the flop evaporated as the dealer fanned out a flop. The on the turn opened up some straight outs for Luo. The on the river bricked, leaving the Chinese with just 6,500.
Two hands later, Luo committed his stack of 5,500. Brouk isolated to 12,000, Papazian moved all in for 69,500, and Brouk called it off to put two players at risk.
Xiaoyang Luo:
Tomi Brouk:
Alex Papazian:
Brouk was best after the rundown and stacked both of his opponents.
In a monstrous pot of already 165,000, Stefan Schillhabel (big blind) was first to act on a board. The German moved all in for 134,500, which was for nearly all of Mateos' remaining stack of 150,500.
The Spanish poker prodigy used up one of his time bank chips then picked up a large stack of T-1,000 chips and put them in the middle.
Stefan Schillhabel:
Adrian Mateos:
Mateos' call with second pair failed against Schillhabel's top two pair, leaving him with a mere 16,000. Schillhabel, who already has racked up over $5 million in lifetime winnings, vaulted up the leaderboard and currently sits near 500,000.
After one check, Philipp Gruissem bet 20,000 on a flop. Parker Talbot called in the next seat, and the big blind tanked a bit but left it heads up. Gruissem checked the turn and Talbot bet 33,000. Gruissem raised to 110,000 and Talbot called. On the river, Gruissem bet 120,000 just before he'd be forced to use a time extension. Talbot leaned over, checked his remaining chips, and called.
Gruissem shook his head and showed . Talbot had that smashed with for a boat.
Noticing PokerStars Team Pro Jake Cody is down to just one time extension — and perhaps trying to lighten things up on the bubble — Jasper Meijer van Putten has begun bantering with Cody to try to negotiate a selling price for one of his own extensions since he has three.
"Five hundred?" the Dutchman asked. "Five hundred is a fair price. I think it's a bargain. When you make the final table..."
Ari Engel shoved all in from the small blind for about 180,000, and Andrew Chen called for about 140,000, tabling his . Engel had .
"Call?" the dealer asked.
"Depends what the flop is," Chen joked.
"Well, any time he flops a pair, you'll flop a draw, so you call," someone said.
Sure enough, it came , giving Engel a pair and Chen a draw. The turn filled that draw, and Engel needed a jack for a bigger straight. The river: , shipping the pot to Engel.
John Juanda, who won 2015 EPT Barcelona Main Event, just went down in a flip. He jammed about 200,000 in the big blind with over a cutoff open from Samu Riihela, who called with . The board ran out , and Juanda hit the rail.