€5,300 EPT Main Event Jour 1b | 2019 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona

2019-08-27 10:45 UTC+2

Day 1b of the 2019 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona €5,300 Main Event Starts at Noon

DegenOnTour

Day 1a of the €5,300 Main Event is in the books at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona and Day 1b is about to kick off at noon local time in Casino Barcelona. Day 1a ended with 726 entries on the tournament clock and 259 players made it through to Day 2. Benjamin Challot ended the day with exactly ten times the starting stack of 30,000 while online legend Simon ''C. Darwin2'' Mattsson sits pretty in second with 292,000 chips.

The EPT stop in Barcelona is one of the busiest on the schedule and it is back for the fifteenth time. Last year the tournament attracted 1,931 entries and Piotr Nurzynski ended as the latest champion. He took home €1,037,109 and he was the sixth millionaire to come out of the EPT Barcelona €5,300 Main Event. Others that won over a million in the EPT Barcelona Main Event are Sander Lyloff (2007 - €1,170,700), Sebastian Ruthenberg (2008 - €1,361,000), Mikalai Pobal (2012 - €1,007,550), John Juanda (2015 - €1,022,593), and Sebastian Malec (2016 - €1,122,800).

EPT History in Barcelona at a glance

Year	Entres	Prize Pool	Winner	Country	First Prize (in EUR)
2004	229	€ 229,000	Alexander Stevic	Sweden	€ 80,000
2005	327	€ 1,300,000	Jan Boubli	France	€ 416,000
2006	480	€ 2,304,000	Bjørn-Erik Glenne	Norway	€ 691,000
2007	543	€ 4,181,100	Sander Lyloff	Denmark	€ 1,170,700
2008	619	€ 4,952,000	Sebastian Ruthenberg	Germany	€ 1,361,000
2009	479	€ 3,832,000	Carter Phillips	USA	€ 850,000
2010	758	€ 3,790,000	Kent Lundmark	Sweden	€ 825,000
2011	811	€ 4,055,000	Martin Schleich	Germany	€ 850,000
2012	1082	€ 5,247,700	Mikalai Pobal	Belarus	€ 1,007,550
2013	1234	€ 5,984,900	Tom Middleton	UK	€ 942,000
2014	1496	€ 7,255,600	Andre Lettau	Germany	€ 794,058
2015	1694	€ 8,215,900	John Juanda	Indonesia	€ 1,022,593
2016	1785	€ 8,657,250	Sebastian Malec	Poland	€ 1,122,800
2017*	1682	€ 8,157,700	Sebastian Sorensson	Sweden	€ 987,043
2018	1931	€ 9,365,350	Piotr Nurzynski	Poland	€ 1,037,109

*held as PokerStars Championship

The tournament will feature a starting stack of 30,000 and 60-minute levels on Day 1. The players are allowed to make one reentry to make up for two entries in total. There is also the possibility to register at the start of Day 2 but only if you haven't fired two bullets in the tournament yet.

There will be a 20-minute break after every two levels and a 75-minute dinner break at the completion of level eight. They will play two more levels after the dinner break to end the day and bag up for Day 2.

Day 1 Structure

Level	Duration	Small Blind	Big Blind	Big Blind Ante
1	60 min	100	100
2	60 min	100	100	100
BREAK 20 min
3	60 min	100	200	200
4	60 min	100	300	300
BREAK 20 min
5	60 min	200	400	400
6	60 min	200	500	500
BREAK 20 min
7	60 min	300	600	600
8	60 min	400	800	800
DINNER BREAK 75 min
9	60 min	500	1,000	1,000
10	60 min	600	1,200	1,200

Make sure to tune in to PokerNews for all the latest updates on your favorite players in the €5,300 Main Event at the 2019 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona €5,300 Main Event.

Tags: John Juanda Mikalai Pobal Piotr Nurzynski Sebastian Malec Sebastian Ruthenberg

2019-08-27 13:23 UTC+2

My Stack App Activated

poolshir

Niveau 2 : 100/100, 100 ante

PokerNews has activated the My Stack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone.

You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.

Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.

2019-08-27 14:09 UTC+2

Gerard Piqué and Arturo Vidal Final Table EPT Event

4projectmayhem

Niveau 2 : 100/100, 100 ante

https://www.pokernews.com/video/gerard-pique-comes-in-2nd-at-ept-barcelona-event-12133.htm

Tags: Arturo Vidal Gerard Piqué

2019-08-27 17:50 UTC+2

Never Have I Ever with Twitch PokerStars Star Lex Veldhuis

4projectmayhem

Niveau 5 : 200/400, 400 ante

https://www.pokernews.com/video/never-have-i-ever-with-twitch-pokerstars-star-lex-veldhuis-12134.htm

Tags: Lex Veldhuis

2019-08-27 18:02 UTC+2

The MuchBetter Qualifiers Are Battling

DegenOnTour

Niveau 6 : 200/500, 500 ante

Four players in the €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event found their way to the event by spending less than €1. Felix Van Beuningen, Tobias Suessmeir, Thomas Dooley, and Colin McKay all qualified for this Main Event by winning their seats in the MuchBetter Summer Series promotion.

Players had to deposit $10 on PokerStars by using MuchBetter and if they used a deposit code they would receive four tickets for home games held by their favorite streamers. Every streamer/community had four $0,55 home games running on PokerStars. The streamers that participated in the promotion were Lex ''RaSZi'' Veldhuis, Benjamin ''Spraggy'' Spragg, Finatan ''EasyWithAces'' Hand, Felix ''xflixx'' Schneiders, and Eva ''EVAisOP'' Reberc from OP-Poker.

The finalists from the home games would play one final tournament where they could win one of eight prizes. The top prize was a full package for EPT Barcelona, including a €5,300 Main Event seat. Places 2nd-4th would also win a seat to the Main Event in the Catalan capital. Others would win a package for Lex Live 2 in London and the eighth-place finisher would take home Sunday Million ticket and some cash.

Van Beuningen was the lucky one to dominate the final table on PokerStars, holding the chip lead for the entire final table. He took home the first-place prize and won the package while the others won a seat. Van Beuningen said before the tournament started that he was slightly nervous as he never played a tournament with a buy-in this big. He and Suessmeir sat down at the start of level three and Van Beuningen immediately won a nice pot against Denise Pratt.

Van Beuningen, Suessmeir, Dooley, and McKay all have yet to record their first live-tournament cash on The Hendonmob. PokerNews will keep track of their progress throughout the tournament.

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Thomas Dooley	73,000	73,000
Tobias Suessmeir	44,000
Felix Van Beuningen	32,000
Colin McKay	16,200	16,200

Tags: Colin McKay Denise Pratt Felix Van Beuningen Thomas Dooley Tobias Suessmeir

2019-08-27 19:50 UTC+2

PSPC Returns and Will Take Place in Barcelona in 2020

poolshir

Niveau 7 : 300/600, 600 ante

The tournament was briefly paused for a big PokerStars announcement and here it is:

James Hartigan was joined by PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas, Adrian Garcia, and Clement Eloy on the stage for the announcement that the biggest $25,000 tournament ever, the PokerStars Players Championship, will return after changing Colillas' life a mere 7 months ago. But instead of taking place in the Bahamas, it will return in August 2020 to another sunny location, right here in Barcelona!

As with the previous edition, Platinum Passes can be earned over the next twelve months with the first to be given out today.

Garcia and Eloy came out to Barcelona for the "Chase your Dream" promotion to play 25 hands against celebrities and PokerStars ambassadors together with three other players but came out on top to now play each other heads-up for €10,000. But to their surprise, they are now also playing for the first Platinum Pass that can be earned for next years huge event. Follow along on Twitch to see who will take it down!

The #PSPC is back! The journey begins... Tune in to watch the first #PlatinumPass winner at #EPTBarcelona
— PokerStars (@PokerStars)

More details in regards to the PSPC in 2020 are to follow in a separate article on our front page.

2019-08-27 20:37 UTC+2

What is Happening with Maria Konnikova's Book Project?

4projectmayhem

Niveau 8 : 400/800, 800 ante

https://www.pokernews.com/video/what-is-happening-with-maria-konnikova-s-poker-project-12135.htm

Tags: Maria Konnikova

2019-08-27 21:24 UTC+2

Malec Hits Two-Outer To Stay Alive

Gaelle Jaudon

Niveau 8 : 400/800, 800 ante

Qingwen Guan opened to 1,800 and it was called by Roope Tarmi in the cutoff as well as the player in the small blind. Sebastian Malec, in the big blind, shoved for his last 19,000 and Guan let it go. Tarmi reshoved all in and the players tabled their cards after the small blind folded.

Sebastian Malec:
Roope Tarmi:

Malec was in desperate shape for a double-up but gained the lead on a flop, giving him a needed set of sevens. Tarmi didn't hit on the turn and river and Malec took down the pot.

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Qingwen Guan	72,000	72,000
Sebastian Malec	41,000	12,200
Roope Tarmi	11,000	-19,000

Tags: Roope Tarmi Sebastian Malec

2019-08-27 22:56 UTC+2

First Five Platinum Pass Winners Confirmed

poolshir

Niveau 9 : 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Daryl Inglis - Clement Eloy - Adrian Garcia - Danielle Summer - Christoph Walkenhorst

As mentioned before, the winner of the "Chase your Dream" promotion would be taking home €10,000 and the first Platinum Pass for the 2020 PSPC in Barcelona. After Adrian Garcia and Clement Eloy played their heads-up, Eloy came out victorious.

But to the surprise of them all, the other three finalists, Danielle Summer, Christoph Walkenhorst, and Daryl Inglis were called upon the stage too and together with Garcia were presented with a Platinum Pass of their own.

So these are the first five players to receive their entry to the PSPC in Barcelona which will take place in Barcelona in August 2020.

Tags: Adrian Garcia Christoph Walkenhorst Clement Eloy Danielle Summer Daryl Inglis

2019-08-27 23:42 UTC+2

Akkari Falls to Eychenne

poolshir

Niveau 10 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Andre Akkari raised from the cutoff and put in a 5,000-value chip, Thomas Eychenne took some time and then decided to three-bet to 9,000 in the small blind. The big blind folded and Akkari shoved for 17,100 in total for Eychenne to snap-call.

Andre Akkari:
Thomas Eychenne: