Yesterday, I made the understatement of the week when predicting the Day 1B turnout at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Main Event: “The total field should climb well over 1,000 runners; the first starting flight is almost always the smallest.”
AS IT TURNED OUT…Day 1B eclipsed the 1,000 player mark all by itself, drawing 1,291 entrants. Day 1A’s total was 468, thus before late registrations are calculated today, the EPT Barcelona field is 1,759, easily beating last year’s record of 1,694. The official numbers have not been finalized yet as the late registration was until the start of Day 2, but it looks like somewhere around another 30 players were added on Wednesday.
If we estimate the field to be about 1,790 players, the prize pool will be around €8,681,500, as the buy-in is €5,000 and three percent is taken out for floor staff and dealers. As you might remember, PokerStars and the EPT made a change to the payout structure for this season; now 20 percent of the field will make the money, which means about 358 players will walk away with at least something to show for their efforts.
Russia’s Andrey Sharonov is the Day 1B chip leader with 278,600, also making him the overall Day 1 chip leader with 100,000 more chips than Day 1A’s leader, Alex Brand. Though the distance between the two players is significant, that the overall leader came out of Day 1B is not surprising, considering there were many more chips in play on Tuesday and therefore a better chance for someone to accumulate a hefty stack. The top four finishers from Day 1B all bested Brand’s chip mark.
Like Brand, Sharonov’s live tournament results are minimal, so if he keeps up his solid play, he will certainly boost his winnings total by a healthy percentage. According to TheHendonMob.com, Sharonov has three live tournament cashes for about $12,000 total. A min-cash in this tournament would best his top cash.
The plan for Wednesday’s Day 2 is to play through six 75-minute levels, which is a fairly short day by major poker tournament standards. While it may come close, the tournament is not expected to make the money today.
2016 European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Andrey Sharonov – 278,600
2. Marco Caza – 262,000
3. Mikhail Molchanov – 195,000
4. Chani Hamasdi – 190,000
5. Miroslav Forman – 175,000
6. Quentin Roussey – 170,000
7. Alejandro Belluccia – 150,000
8. Raffaele Sorrentino – 140,000
9. Ruben Suarez – 140,000
10. Nadeem Younas – 135,000
2016 European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event – Combined Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Andrey Sharonov – 278,600
2. Marco Caza – 262,000
3. Mikhail Molchanov – 195,000
4. Chani Hamasdi – 190,000
5. Alex Brand – 178,800
6. Miroslav Forman – 175,000
7. Quentin Roussey – 170,000
8. Bernd Vogelhuber – 167,600
9. Pavel Krasnoselskii – 155,000
10. Michael Addamo – 153,100