Money Bubble Bursts On Day 2 of EPT Barcelona Main Event; Labat Among Chip Leaders
Day 2 of the €5,300 Main Event at PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona wrapped up after five 90-minute levels of players with 303 players remaining. After nearly two hours of hand-for-hand play, the money bubble burst to end the day with Juan Maceiras falling to Jeffrey Hakim to miss out on a minimum payday of €8,850 and a chance at the €1,488,000 first-place prize.
Leading the way into Day 3 is Eduard Barsegyan, who bagged a stack of 835,000 to be in front of Ioannis Zachmanidis and Antoine Labat, who is fresh off a runner-up finish in the €2,200 Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller for €500,000. Those who made the money and advanced to Day 3 include Patrik Antonius, Maria Ho, David Docherty, Frank Lagodich, Davidi Kitai and Romain Lewis.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT | BIG BLINDS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eduard Barsegyan | Russia | 835,000 | 209 | |
| 2 | Ioannis Zachmanidis | Greece | 802,000 | 201 | |
| 3 | Antoine Labat | France | 731,000 | 183 | |
| 4 | Petr Svoboda | Czech Republic | 724,000 | 181 | |
| 5 | Ezequiel Waigel | Argentina | 703,000 | 176 | |
| 6 | Jack Hardcastle | United Kingdom | 676,000 | 169 | |
| 7 | Claudio Di Giacomo | Italy | 657,000 | 164 | |
| 8 | Carl Shaw | United Kingdom | 577,000 | 144 | |
| 9 | Walid Salamoun Marwan | USA | 565,000 | 141 | |
| 10 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | 558,000 | 140 |
Day 2 Action
It's already been a memorable Main Event in Barcelona, the birthplace of the European Poker Tour. The event drew a total of 1,593 unique players and 2,120 entries, marking for just the second time that an EPT Main Event drew more than 2,000 total entries, the first coming right here in Barcelona in 2022.
There were 678 players who returned on Day 2 and an additional 67 late registrants who joined them. Still, it didn't take long for the eliminations to pile up.
The early casualties included Omar Del Pino, who had his kings cracked by the ace-jack of Fabrice Bigot to lose most of his stack before eventually being eliminated, as well as Francisco Benitez (who won two trophies at last year's festival) after the Uraguayan jammed kings into the aces of Andras Matrai for the majority of his chips.
Aces were less lucky for Maxime Manzone, who was sent back to the Manzone when Oleg Vasylchenko spiked a Cowboy with pocket kings spiked after getting it in before the flop. In a similar tale, Pokerstars Ambassador Laurie Tournier had her kings cracked by the ace-queen of Phillip Mighall to send the Brazilian to the rail.
Other players who failed to make it to the end of Day 2 include EPT champions Dimitar Danchev and Antonio Buonanno, PokerStars Ambassadors Sam Grafton, Fintan Hand, Parker Talbot and Rafael Moraes, as well as crushers like Benny Glaser, Julien Sitbon, and Andras Nemeth.
Day 3 will kick off on Aug. 30 at noon local time with blinds of 2,000/4,000 on Level 15 with approximately 11 minutes remaining. There are still several days to go until a champion is crowned on Day 7 after winning the €1,488,000 top prize.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on site in Barcelona and will continue providing updates in the EPT Barcelona Main Event. Check out the EPT Barcelona live reporting hub in the meantime.