EPT Barcelona Main Event Gets Underway

Earlier this week the EPT Barcelona hosted the Estrellas Main Event, which attracted over 3,000 competitors.

Now the festival is hosting the EPT Barcelona Main Event, which got underway on Monday.

A total of 1,673 players turned out for the Main Event’s two starting flights – 459 on Day 1a and 1,214 on Day 1b.

Imad Derwiche led all players on Day 1a with a stack of 170,000, which was slightly ahead of Martin Vallo, who bagged 163,300 chips at the end of the first starting flight.

One of the most familiar faces to turn out on Day 1a was Patrik Antonius, and he had the fifth largest chip stack of all the remaining players, with 103,800.

Not far behind him was another famous poker face, John Juanda, who finished the first starting flight of the EPT Barcelona Main Event with a stack of 89,300 chips.

With 203,000 chips, Spanish player Samuel Bernabeu finished as the chip leader on the remaining field on Day 1b.

The 2012 Estrellas Main Event final table finisher was the only player to finish the first starting flight with over 200,000 chips and has put himself in a good position to go far in this event.

He faces some stiff competition from some big names though, one of them being 2013 WSOP Main Event winner Ryan Riess.

Riess also took to the felt on the second starting flight and finished the day with 103,500 chips to his name.

Bertrand Grospellier, better known as ElkY, is another player who made the cut to the second day of play at the Main Event.

ElkY, who has a WSOP Gold Bracelet, WPT title and EPT title on his impressive poker resume, finished Day 1b with 36,900 chips.

The prize pool for the event was not released on Day 1, but is expected to be known sometime during Day 2.

As always, we at PokerTube will keep readers up to date on the remainder of the EPT Barcelona Main Event as all of the action takes place.