888Live Barcelona Opening Event off to a Great Start After Big Field on Day 1a
Once the cards went in the air for Day 1a of the 2017 888Live Poker Festival Barcelona €220 Opening Event, almost 80 players had already taken their seat. In the previous €45+5 Turbo Satellite, another 13 hopefuls earned their entry and further tables were opened quickly. At the end of level 11 when the registration had officially closed, the tournament screens showed 194 entries - which included 35 re-entries - putting the tournament well on track to not only meet but smash the guarantee of €100,000.
After 14 levels of 30 minutes each, that big field was whittled down to just 34 players and Sergio Alonso Camunas ran very hot at the end to bag up 455,000. Jaime Victor Soler Puig claimed 389,000 and Giovanni Cauteruccio avoided an all-Spanish podium at the top of the counts after Day 1a. Other big stacks through to Day 2 include Flavio Damian Ibanoff (260,500), Sergio Costa Carrasco (244,500) and Francois Evard (209,000). Harcharan Dogra Dogra, who finished 7th in the EPT13 Barcelona €5,300 Main Event for €230,950 here at Casino Barcelona less than one year ago, bagged up just shy of the average with 163,000.
Notables that were eliminated on the first of four starting days include Nicola Grieco, Ekaterina Kolmakova, Josep Maria Galindo Lopez, Matteo Leoni, Robert Cazali, Jeroen Aarts and Joachim Lob. The latter got it in good with pocket tens versus pocket sevens only to see his opponent flop quads. Galindo Lopez lost a flip with pocket sixes versus ace-king during the last hands of the night and just before that, Kolmakova took two beats to run out of chips. Among the late casualties was also Carlos Avila Ortega, who got it in with ace-jack suited against the ace-queen suited of Christophe Suter on an ace-high flop, and the turn and river changed nothing to let the kicker play.
Jon Ignacio Chipongian was the first player to hit six digits after running extremely well early on and the Spaniard was soon joined by Cauteruccio. Alonso Camunas was below the starting stack mid-way through the day, but then scored two double ups in quick succession before sending several opponents to the rail in the last two levels. Cauteruccio took a beat in level eight after losing a four-way showdown with the best hand preflop, but quickly recovered the losses the next hand after finding pocket jacks in back-to-back hands and busting an opponent with pocket sevens.
After the cards and chips were flying in the last levels of the night, only 34 players bagged up and they will be back on Sunday for Day 2 as of 1 p.m. local time. Another 11 levels of the festival remain in the Spanish metropole and €700,000 in guaranteed prize pools are offered with plenty of big names expected for the €2,200 Main Event and €1,100 High Roller next week.
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