Marle Spragg Bags Top 10 Stack in Day 1c
The PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) Main Event at Casino Barcelona continued today with another impressive Day 1 flight; By the time registration closed there were a total of 865 new entries amassed; up 527 entries from the Day 1a flight yesterday. It took 14 hours of play for the final 130 players to bag and tag, adding to the 81 from the first two flights.
As the dust settled, it was Latvia's Maksims Uskovs who bagged the chip lead in Day 1c, taking through 853,000 for the Day 2 restart, only behind Day 1a's chip leader Jose Nadal who captured a total of 882,000. United Kingdom's Robert Bull claimed the second-highest stack of this flight, finishing with an impressive 724,000, followed by Poland's Kacper Pyzara (605,000) to round the top three.
Day 1c Top 10 Chip Counts
| *Rank | Name | Country | Chip Count |
| 1 | Maksims Uskovs | Latvia | 853,000 |
| 2 | Robert Bull | United Kingdom | 724,000 |
| 3 | Kacper Pyzara | Poland | 605,000 |
| 4 | Erik Marasco | Brazil | 597,000 |
| 5 | Jakup Breckmann | Denmark | 540,000 |
| 6 | Emmanouel Lianopoulos | Greece | 517,000 |
| 7 | Ivan Karatayeu | Belarus | 514,000 |
| 8 | Marle Spragg | United States | 488,000 |
| 9 | Mathias Siljander | Finland | 482,000 |
| 10 | Alexandre Reard | France | 432,000 |
Many familiar faces joined Day 1c, including PokerStars Team Pro Marle Spragg , who boasts nearly $400,000 in live earnings. Spragg finished the day with 488,000 chips, securing eighth place among the Top 10 stacks.
PokerStars Team Pro Kenny Hallaert entered the day at the dinner break, and it didn't take him long to catch some fire, nearly getting a full double-up within just minutes when his pocket kings held to eliminate Eric Rabl. Although he continued to build his stack, reaching more than 200,000 chips, Alexandre Reard cooled him off when he ran his pocket queens into Reard's aces, leaving him with fumes and was eliminated shortly after.
Bull likely played the tournament's longest hand, holding aces in a four-bet pot. His opponent, Fernando Canaparo, tanked for 10 minutes on the river with pocket queens before ultimately calling, ending his tournament life and catapulting Bull near the top of the chip counts.
As seemed to be the theme of the day, it’s only fitting that the final hand of the night would once again feature aces and queens, as a very confident Maksims Uskovs cracked Erlend Melsom's aces on the stone bubble to end the night.
Other familiar faces to find a bag at the end of the day include, Nazar Buhaiov (317,000), Fabio Peluso (303,000), Wouter Beltz (244,000), and Masato Yokosawa (98,000).
However, not all were as fortunate to advance including PokerStars Team Pro's Parker Talbot,Benjamin Spragg, and Ramon Colillas,
as well as Nick Palma, Viktor Jensen, Lucia Navarro, and Gaelle Baumann.
Although all players who busted still have plenty of chances to advance, with four more flights across two days and one re-entry allowed per player. Day 2 begins at 11 a.m. on Friday where all eight flights will be combined.
Keep it with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action as the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event continues.