While most of the attention of the poker world is centered on the autumnal climes of Australia (remember, the Southern Hemisphere is opposite the Northern), the springtime urges of some poker players are being satisfied by the World Poker Tour’s venture to the Casino Barcelona in Spain.
Day 1A of the WPT Barcelona brought out several players who either have chosen to take part in this event (versus the battles of the WSOP APAC) or those players who figured to take a shot here before heading “Down Under.” The €3500 buy in tournament features a rebuy format, with players who were either eliminated on Day 1A or who weren’t happy with their stacks the opportunity to come back on Day 1B for action. With that said, several top players were among the hopefuls as the cards hit the air on Friday afternoon (Barcelona Time).
WPT Grand Prix de Paris champion Matt Salsberg, fresh off barely making the final table at the WPT Venice Grand Prix last week, decided this was a better opportunity than heading to Australia for the festivities. He was joined by such prominent pros as Kevin MacPhee, Faraz Jaka and WPT Baden champion Vladimir Bozinovic in taking the shot here.
In the early going, one of the top pros who has – as of yet – captured his first major championship made some early moves. Kevin Vandersmissen opened the action and only the big blind came along to see an A-K-5 flop. The big blind would check call Vandersmissen’s continuation bet to see a four on the turn, which both players checked. On the river six, the big blind would open up the betting, but lay his hand down once Vandersmissen upped the price to play to 2400. In winning the hand, Vandersmissen would move to 5000 chips above the starting stack of 30K and set himself on a course for a good day.
Before the waning light of the sun had faded on the Spanish coast, one player was heading to the exits, a position he has been in way too much lately for his talent. Guillaume Darcourt lost most of his stack after his pocket Kings were outdrawn, lost once again to a shorter stack when his pocket Queens were outdone by pocket Aces, then suffered the indignity of getting the remainder of his stack in with 4-3 after a Q-4-4 flop against K-Q. Unfortunately for the flamboyant Frenchman, another Queen would come on the river to send him into the Barcelona night, but he will more than likely be back for another shot on Saturday.
Darcourt wasn’t the only casualty of the day’s action, albeit he may have the argument for cruelest departure. Davidi Kitai, Michael Benvenuti, Philippe Ktorza, defending WPT Barcelona champion Lukas Berglund and Salsberg would be some of the departures through the evening hours, but one player was able to rise above the fray to take the Day 1A chip lead.
France’s Manuel Bevand seemed to be on a slowly rising chip stack throughout the day that was punctuated by a battle against Artem Litvinov. On a K-5-2 flop, Scott Baumstein checked from the small blind and, after Bevand checked his big, Litvinov fired a bet that only Bevand came along with. On a six turn, Bevand would check-call another bet out of Litvinov to see a ten come on the river. Another check came from Bevand and a confident Litvinov pushed out a third bullet into the fray. Considering the actions, Bevand would not have been wrong to fold, but he found something in his observations of the Russian to make the call. Litvinov turned up J-9 for a big nothing, Bevand showed a K-9 for a flopped pair of Kings, and the pot would help push him into the chip lead for the day overall.
1. Manuel Bevand, 141,200
2. Besim Hot, 121,500
2. Simon Berntsen, 121,500
4. Kevin Vandersmissen, 120,200
5. David Konstandoff, 112,900
6. Paul Testud, 106,500
7. Lauri Pesonen, 103,700
8. Terry Flood, 103,500
9. Marcin Wydrowski, 98,400
10. Kevin MacPhee, 95,400
Others still remaining among the 56 survivors from the 106 Day 1A players include Ana Marquez (67,600), Adam Levy (60,600), Benjamin Pollak (44,100), Dan Cates (41,900), Toby Lewis (38,300) and Steve O’Dwyer (30,600).
With the start of Day 1B only a few hours away, you can expect that some of the casualties from Day 1A – such as Kitai, Ktorza, Salsberg, Max Pescatori and Ludovic Lacay – will take a second shot at the tournament. It sets up for an exciting day of action in the Casino Barcelona as the WPT Barcelona looks to crown the next champion on the tour.