The tenth season of the European Poker Tour (EPT) kicked off this weekend and boy, it was some kickoff. The week-long EPT Barcelona Main Event began with two starting flights, Day 1A on Sunday and Day 1B on Tuesday. Day 1A saw 518 players register, while another 708 sat down for Day 1B, creating a total field of 1,226, making this the largest Main Event in the history of EPT Barcelona (the previous best was last year’s 1,082). With registration still open until the start of Day 2, there is still a shot for the tournament to become the largest non-PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) EPT Main Event of all-time, needing just 15 more players to eclipse Season 6’s EPT San Remo.
Spain’s Dragan Kostic dominated Day 1A, ending Sunday with 215,000 chips. After him, the next closest player was Niclas Adolfsson from Sweden, with 147,400. Romania’s Florian-Dimitrie Duta was the top dog on Day 1B, though his 187,000 chips were a far cry from Kostic’s stack. Day 1B was more top-heavy than Day 1A, however, as the top five players from the second starting flight all ended with more chips than Adolfsson from Day 1B.
Day 1B featured one of the nuttiest hands of the tournament. As reported by our friends over at PokerNews.com, Michael Brady and Zsolt Vasvenszki were deeply involved in a hand with the board reading T♥-5♠-4♥. They raised and re-raised each other until they were both all-in, Vasvenszki having Brady covered. It looked tremendous for Brady, as he had pocket Tens for top set, while Vasvenszki looked like he had been coolered, holding pocket Fives for middle set. Vasvenszki had one out, an out which he found on the turn when he made Quads. Brady was not so lucky, unable to hit his case Ten on the river.
There are 697 players remaining going into Day 2. Some of the recognizable names remaining include Bryn Kenney, Victor Ramdin, 2013 November Niner David Benefield, Vanessa Selbst, Erik Freiberg, Liv Boeree, Jonathan Little, Luca Pagano, Tobias Reinkemeier, Theo Jorgensen, Ivan Demidov, and Marcel Luske.
Day 2 picks up today as all the survivors from the starting flights combine into a single field.
2013 European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event – Combined Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Dragan Kostic – 215,000
2. Florian-Dimitrie Duta – 187,000
3. Markus Kivipuro – 161,100
4. Maksim Bura – 160,600
5. Andrey Chesnokov – 158,000
6. Ivan Kotov – 156,400
7. Niclas Adolfsson – 147,400
8. Miklos Zsuffa – 146,100
9. Alejandro Perez Torres – 144,800
10. Daniel Reijmer – 142,100
