Barry McGovern Leads 46 Players to Day 3 of the €1,100 EPT National
A full day of poker has come to an end on Day 2 of the €1,100 EPT National of the 2019 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona after ten one-hour levels of play with only 46 players remaining out of the record-breaking 4,682-entry field.
Barry McGovern has the chip lead with a stack of 7,240,000. McGovern was slowly building throughout the day and found his way to the chip lead during the last level of the night when he flopped a set of aces against’s Rui Bouquet’s set of eights, and sent Bouquet to the exit right before bagging. Closely trailing McGovern is Adam Hendrix with 7,200,000. Hendrix has an impressive poker resume with over $850,000 in total live earnings. He will be going for the best live cash of his career. Ali Chaieb rounds up the top three with 7,000,000.
Some other big names hunting the €585,500 payday include Fernando Pons (4,245,000) Vojtech Ruzicka (3,735,000), Pete Chen (2,990,000), and Michael Soyza (1,860,000). Ruzicka has over $4,000,000 in live earnings and will be looking to add another title to his resume. Soyza has been having a great summer and claimed his second biggest live score less than a month ago.
The day started at noon local time with 702 hopefuls returning to the felt to continue to battle it out and the day 2 action was fast from the start. Indeed, with so many short-stacks beginning the day, payouts were being called at every table, seemingly after every hand. By the first break, the field was cut to less than half. Some of the first players to head to the exit were Pierre Merlin (631th place - €1,790), Tony Miles (486th place - €2,010), Enrico Camosci (438th place - €2,230) and Renato Kaneoya (431th place - €2,230).
The action didn't slow down throughout most of the day and plenty of others didn’t make it to the dinner break including Ivan Gabrieli (307th place - €2,670), Ajay Gnanasambanthan (189th place - €3,310), Julien Martini (177th place - €3,780), ), Davidi Kitai (159th place - €3,780), Vadzim Lipauka (141th place - €4,270), PokerStars Ambassador Kalidou Sow (128th place - €4,270) and Sonny Franco (95th place - €5,820).
Only 76 players were still in the tournament by the dinner break including Raffaele Sorrentino, champion of the the €5,300 Main Event of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Monte-Carlo and Mario Lopez who won this event in 2015. However, they fell short from another title as they were eliminated before the last level of the night.
Day 3 of this four-day event picks up on Saturday August 24 at 12 noon at Level 28 with blinds of 40,000/80,000 with a 80,000 big blind ante. The remaining 46 players are all guaranteed a payout of €9,710, but all eyes will be on the first-place prize of €585,500, the title, and the trophy.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on the felt to provide you with all the action throughout the day.