Jordi Escriba leads the pack after an intense day of poker action where 73 players of the 180 entrants survived the ten levels of play. Escriba bagged 209,400 for the chip lead but was followed closely behind by fellow Spanairds Jorge Diego (182,900) and Eduardo Riego (160,400).
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1c
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jordi Escriba | Spain | 209,400 | 175 |
| 2 | Jorge Diego | Spain | 182,900 | 152 |
| 3 | Eduardo Riego | Spain | 160,400 | 134 |
| 4 | Helma Weber | Germany | 157,500 | 131 |
| 5 | Alessandro Pichierri | Italy | 150,000 | 125 |
| 6 | Iker Aranzegi | Spain | 145,000 | 121 |
| 7 | Albert Grane | Spain | 141,100 | 118 |
| 8 | Toni Aguera | Spain | 135,500 | 113 |
| 9 | Anton Johnson | Sweden | 135,000 | 113 |
| 10 | Marti Roca | Spain | 133,500 | 111 |
Other notable who secured a bag included Italians Alessandro Pichierri (150,000) and Davide Suriano (91,700) as well as 888poker ambassadors Alexandre Mantovani (80,200), Ricardo Mateus (55,900) and Ian Simpson (36,500). Alexandra Botez fired two bullets in today's flight but was eliminated both times however her father Andrei Botez managed to secure 94,600 chips.
It wasn't 888poker streamer Nick Eastwood's day as the Brit was sent to an early bath before the first break. Presenters Josh Denzel and Jack Dean were also in action but both failed to secure a bag for Day 2.
Notable hands from the day included Simpson losing with pocket queens after his opponent called off his five-bet shove with ace-jack in a big pot early on.
Other big hands included Nicolae Suciu coolering his opponent, his set of nines ran into his set of kings to give him a big pot early in the day.
After the dinner break, Eduardo Riego couldn't believe his luck after his opponent called his four-bet only to triple barrel into his quad fives to become one of the biggest stacks in the room. It wouldn't be the last time Riego hit a big hand as towards the end of the day, heturned a full house to eliminate Ricardo De Dios who called off for his tournament life with pocket aces.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow with coverage of Day 2 which kicks off tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. local time where the 130 survivors will be joined by the survivors of Day 1d to play eight 60-minute levels. PokerNews will continue with the live reporting until a champion is crowned on Monday 22nd May 2023.
