Money Bubble Pops on Day 2 of EPT Barcelona Main Event

The money bubble burst at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Main Event Tuesday, leaving just 303 players with chips going into Wednesday’s Day 3. Russia’s Eduard Barsegyan is the leader with 835,000 chips, while Ioannis Zachmanidis has 802,000, the only other player with over 800,000. Lurking in third place is Antoine Labat, who finished ninth in the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Yesterday, we were hoping that there were be enough registrations to break last year’s record for the largest EPT Barcelona field ever, but it didn’t quite happen. In the end, there were 2,120 entries, 1,593 of them unique, making this not just the second-largest EPT Barcelona Main Event of all time, but also the second-largest European Poker Tour Main Event overall. This year’s and last year’s Main Event are the only EPT Main Events to draw over 2,000 entries.

There is always a bubble boy (or girl) in a poker tournament. Nobody wants to be that person, though I guess it means you still had a decent run, but someone always comes agonizingly close, one hand away, from making the money. The bubble boy yesterday was Juan Maceiras.

Holding Q-9 of hearts, Maceiras was all-in for his last 92,000 on a flop of 9-4-7. Pretty good spot to take a stand with top pair, good kicker. Jeffrey Hakim, though, had pocket Fours for a flopped set. A Queen on the turn gave Maceiras a ray of hope, since he could now make a full house. That turn card wasn’t a welcome sight for many of the other players, but they were all able to celebrate when the turn bricked and Hakim took the pot. Everybody remaining was now guaranteed at least €8,850.

That turned out to be the last hand of the day, so the players who bagged chips all could have a nice night, happy in knowing that no matter what happened on Wednesday, they had made the money. That’s not necessarily enough for many, but it is still a relief to some extent, even for those whose sights are set squarely on the final table.