The money bubble burst in the 2013 European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Main Event Wednesday as the field narrowed from 235 players to just 79. Thomas Middleton finished as the only player above the million chip mark, though Alejandro Perez Torres (990,000) and Kevin Vandersmissen (970,000) are mere blinds below that line. As was the case going into the day, the top of the leaderboard is crowded, as two more players have over 900,000 chips and four more have over 800,000.
Middleton isn’t a particularly well known poker player, but he has had a couple of significant cashes. In June 2011, he came dangerously close to winning a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, placing third in a $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event for $305,015. The following February, he won the 2012 Fallsview Poker Classic, good for just a few dollars less. Middleton also won a preliminary event at the 2012 Aussie Millions, earning himself an $86,702 paycheck.
The bubble boy of the tournament was Nuno Da Camara. This information would not normally be of special interest because, after all, someone is eliminated on the money bubble in every poker tournament. In this case, though, he was eliminated in a way that we can’t remember ever seeing. He was blinded off. Nuno Da Camara never made an appearance in the poker room on Day 3, so his chip stack of 83,500 had blinds and antes gradually removed throughout the day. When the tournament was in hand-for-hand mode, his last 3,000 chips were put into the pot and because nobody else was eliminated at any other table on that hand, he was gone in 184th and could not be thanked for putting the rest of other players in the money.
Three former European Poker Tour champs are still in the tournament: Mikalai Pobal, who won this event last year, Dimitar Danchev, who won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in Season 9, and Kent Lundmark, who also won EPT Barcelona, back in Season 7. If any of them go on to win, it will be the first time anyone has won a second EPT title. The latter two are in pretty good shape, but Pobal needs to do something early Thursday, as he has just 71,000 chips, third from the bottom of the standings.
Day 4 of the EPT Barcelona Main Event will pick up at noon local time.
2013 European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. Thomas Middleton – 1,030,000
2. Alejandro Perez Torres – 990,000
3. Kevin Vandersmissen – 970,000
4. Michel Pecheux – 921,000
5. Niall Farrell – 912,000
6. Alejandro Belluccia – 871,000
7. Miklos Zsuffa – 840,000
8. Danny Covyn – 830,000
9. Thomas Butzhammer – 827,000
10. Andreas Christoforou – 825,000