The European Poker Tour (EPT) is back in Spain this week for its second stop of the season in the Iberian nation. This time, it is at the Casino Gran Madrid where a few hundred poker players will converge for EPT Madrid. In September, 811 players participated in EPT Barcelona, creating a total prize pool of over €4 million and a first prize of €850,000. If the Day 1B numbers equal those from Day 1A, EPT Madrid won’t come close to EPT Barcelona, as just 125 sat down at the tables, but tournament officials expect a lot more runners to commit the €5,000 + €300 buy-in on Tuesday, so it will be interesting to see if EPT Madrid can approach the figures of its Spanish cousin. Ending Day 1A with the chip lead is Sergiy Baranov with 152,500, just 10,000 ahead of second place player Aton Ionel.
This is just the second year that Madrid has been on the European Poker Tour map. It entered the arena in style last season, as it played host to the EPT Grand Final. A total of 686 players paid the €10,000 + €600 buy-in, with Venezuela’s Ivan Freitez emerging victorious, and €1.5 million richer for it.
Sergiy Baranov does not have what we would call an illustrious live tournament career, having won “just” $252,862 on the live tourney circuit (wouldn’t we all love to have earned a quarter mil playing poker, though), but he does actually have a couple very nice wins on his resume. The first came in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at EPT Berlin in March 2010, where he won €72,500 ($98,341), while the second was later that year at EPT Vienna, where he won €55,000 ($76,742) for accumulating all the chips in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em preliminary event. Of Baranov’s eight total cashes, just two, including the 2010 EPT Vienna Main Event, saw him place any worse than in the single digits.
Just more than half – 67 – of the 125 Day 1A players survived to see Wednesday’s Day 2. Included amongst those who advanced are such names as “The Hendon Mob” member Barny Boatman (53,300 chips), Chris Moorman (51,900), 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event fourth place finisher Alex Kravchenko (28,900), Toni Judet (20,100), 2007 EPT Prague Main Event winner Arnaud Mattern (18,500), and 2009 WSOP November Niner James Akenhead (11,700).
Day 1B of EPT Madrid will commence at noon local time on Tuesday with the large anticipated field set to play eight levels, just as the 125 players did on Monday. The survivors from the two starting flights will combine on Wednesday for Day 2. The tournament’s final table is scheduled to be contested on St. Patrick’s Day, Saturday, March 17th.
2012 European Poker Tour Madrid – End of Day 1A Chip Leaders
1. Sergiy Baranov – 152,500
2. Anton Ionel – 142,500
3. Efren Garcia Louzao – 130,100
4. Andries Swart – 119,800
5. Alexander Petersen – 113,500
6. Javier Etayo – 112,000
7. Dobromir Nikov – 101,900
8. Martins Adeniya – 95,000
9. Anton Kraous – 94,900
10. Ziv Caspi – 94,400