Welcome to Day 1 of the �10,300 High Roller in Barcelona
The European Poker Tour returns to Barcelona, one of poker's hotbeds in Europe, and PokerStars is hosting a festival for the 15th time at Casino Barcelona. If the opening day of the 13-day festival with 34 tournaments is any indication, it will be a busy two weeks as more than 800 players entered the satellite for the �1,100 EPT National and there was barely any empty spot in sight in the cash game area.
The opening �10,300 High Roller traditionally gathers a lot of regulars of the European and international circuit for the first big High Roller of the festival and the event is played as 8-max with single re-entry, big blind ante and 30-second shot clock from start to finish. Registration remains open until the cards get back in the air for Day 2 as of 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2018, and all new entries can still take a shot with 25 big blinds by then. All participants receive six time banks and another three at the start of Day 2, once the final table is reached another three time banks will be awarded.
Back in 2017 and under the umbrella of the PokerStars Championship, it was Goran "mandza17" Mandic who defeated Francois Billard in heads-up to claim the lion's share of �1,610,200 prize pool in a field of 166 entries. Mandic, who is currently in first place of the all-time money list of his home country of Croatia, claimed a payday of �374,400 for his best score on the live circuit thus far. The final table also featured such big names as PokerStars team pro Liv Boeree, David Peters, Ivan Luca and Martin Jacobson.
Day 1 will kick off at 12 p.m. local time and feature a total of 10 levels of 60 minutes each. There will be a break of 20 minutes every two levels and a 75-minute dinner break after the completion of level eight. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide all the action until the champion is crowned in this 3-day tournament.