Norwegian Kristian Larsson leads the pack heading into Day 2 of the 888 LIVE Barcelona Main Event at the gorgeous beachside Barcelona?Casino as he bagged big at the end of Day 1b after ten levels of play.
The day lasted eight hours and of the 77 entrants, 32 players bagged and will join the 17 survivors from yesterday for Day 2 on Saturday 20th May 2023.
It was a head to head race between Nuno Duarte and Fabio Peluso who both had built up huge stacks throughout the day, however Larsson came out of nowhere to steamroll into the chip lead after he eliminated Chaofei Wang in a huge flip, with Larsson's ace king defeating Wang's pocket queens. Larsson managed to bag 206,200 while Duarte and Peluso bagged 187,400 and 151,700 respectively.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1b
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kristian Larsson | Norway | 206,200 | 172 |
| 2 | Nuno Duarte | Portugal | 187,400 | 156 |
| 3 | Fabio Peluso | Italy | 151,700 | 126 |
| 4 | Matteo Ferrara | Italy | 123,200 | 103 |
| 5 | Remi Castaignon | France | 101,000 | 84 |
| 6 | Lin Xia | Spain | 99,000 | 83 |
| 7 | Lauri Saaskilahti | Finland | 92,700 | 77 |
| 8 | Juri Nereu | Spain | 88,000 | 73 |
| 9 | Gordon Paterson | South Africa | 84,800 | 71 |
| 10 | Cedric Garcia | Spain | 83,000 | 69 |
Key highlights throughout the day included 888Poker ambassador Ian Simpson being eliminated after the dinner break when he jammed his combo draw into Matteo Ferrara's top pair on the turn. Simpson's draw didn't get there which ensured his elimination.
However fellow 888Poker ambassadors Vivian Saliba (61,000) and Lucia Navarro (45,400) managed to secure a bag after joining the action after the dinner break.
Navarro was fortunate to survive the day as she check raised her top pair all in on the flop in a three-way hand only to run into Peluso's pocket aces butNavarro managed to find a jack on the river to improve to trips to double up late in the day.
Other big hands included Lin Xia almost tripling up when he got his full house all in against trips and an overpair on the turn to scoop a huge pot before the dinner break. Xia managed to ride the momentum to end the day with a top ten chip stack.
Earlier in the day Wang enjoyed a good moment when he bluffed Simpson in a four bet pot with king high. The board ran out ace high and Wang put Simpson all in on the river. Simpson folded and Wang showed the Brit the king jack offsuit as he scooped in the pot from the dealer.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow with coverage of Day 1c which kicks off tomorrow again at 6:00 p.m. local time where ten 45-minute levels will be played. PokerNews will continue live reporting until a champion is crowned on Monday 22nd May 2023.
