Santerne Bubbles EPT €100,000 Super High Roller; Winter Leads Final Six

Will Shillibier

Level 18 : Blinds 25,000/50,000, 50,000 ante

After close to 13 hours of play, Day 2 in the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona €100,000 Super High Roller has come to a close with six players guaranteed €278,400 and one walking away empty-handed, having come so close to cashing.

Thomas Santerne was the last casualty on a day that saw the field in the festival's biggest buy-in event swell to 41 players, with the remaining players — all big name pros including some of the best poker players in the world — all eyeing the first-place prize of €1,372,240.

Leading the field is Sean Winter, narrowly ahead of start-of-day chip leader Seth Davies, with Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1 Jesse Lonis third in chips.

EPT Barcelona €100,000 Super High Roller Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Counts	Big Blinds
1	Sean Winter	United States	3,400,000	68
2	Seth Davies	United States	2,755,000	55
3	Jesse Lonis	United States	1,510,000	30
4	Kayhan Mokri	Norway	1,340,000	27
5	Patrik Antonius	Finland	650,000	13
6	Santhosh Suvarna	India	595,000	12

Day 2 Action

Nine new players joined the field at the start of Day 2, but Vladimir Korzinin and Jamil Wakil both failed to make it to the first break. Meanwhile, an early double for PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton clipped the wings of overnight chip leader Seth Davies, who fell behind Santhosh Suvarna as chip leader.

Suvarna extended his lead with the elimination of David Coleman, while Kayhan Mokri joined both him and Davies in the seven-figure stack club after the elimination of Samuel Ju.

However, a Teun Mulder double kept Suvarna's stack in check, and while Sam Greenwood, Ramin Hajiyev and Tom Orpaz all hit the rail, there was no runaway chip leader.

Mokri hit the front after the elimination of Orpaz, but was under threat from Sean Winter. Grafton and Morten Klein were both eliminated, with Mulder doubling but ultimately falling just short of the final table after Winter sent him to the rail.

A revitalized Davies sprang into action at the final table, becoming the first player above two million in chips, with only three eliminations separating him from a min-cash of €278,400. However, an already long day threatened to become longer as, following a dinner break, the pace of play folded and eliminations became a rarity.

Davies had taken a knock, allowing Jesse Lonis to double through him, but the elimination of Niklas Astedt soon moved him back to first in chips. However, a double for Thomas Santerne soon brought Davies back to earth — and with some bump.

Holding pocket tens, Santerne needed to spike his two outer to crack the queens of Davies — so how about two of them? Quads were enough for the Frenchman to survive...for now.

Tournament officials announced that just two more hours would be played with the money bubble still two eliminations away. Winter took care of it, eliminating EPT All-Time Money List leader Steve O'Dwyer as he closed in on Davies at the top of the counts.

Winter would end the day top of the chip counts after bursting the bubble. Santerne needed to crack the pocket nines of the American with ace-king to stay alive, but no help was coming and he would fall in seventh, one short of the money.

The final table resumes at 12:30 local time on Monday, September 2 with all the action brought to you on PokerNews and the PokerStars live stream. Stay tuned for full updates from the conclusion of this event and the rest of the EPT Barcelona festival