Day 1a of the €2,200 EPT National High Roller is in the books at the 2019 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona held in the beautiful Casino Barcelona. No less than 1,012 entries were made on Day 1a of the tournament and 152 of them made it through to Day 2. Vamshi Vandanapu holds the chip lead for the flight after bagging almost 30 starting stacks, 898,000 to be precise. Others with a big stack are Tomasz Pajak (877,000), Yudong Yang (820,000), Jonas Palsgaard (683,000), and Mark Metsla (565,000).
All of the remaining players are in the money as they start Day 2 combined with the survivors from Day 1b but the prize pool information has yet to be announced.
Day 1a Action
The day started with about 200 players in their seats and EPT Main Event champions Michael Tureniec, Jasper Meijer van Putten, and Kalidou Sow, already started early in the day at noon. PSPC runner-up Julien Martini, Jack Salter, Sonny Franco, and Vojtech Ruzicka also joined the fun early in the day, but most of them failed to make it through the long 14-hour day.
The total number of entries stood at 1,012 when late registration was closed and the field size got up to 1,491 players which is a little bit less than last years 1,527 entries. The tournament staff announced that 15% of the field would make it through to Day 2 and into the money and that number was 152 for flight 1a.
The first twelve levels were in the books when 350 players enjoyed their dinner break before returning for the final stretch. Plenty of familiar faces were still in the tournament but some of them couldn't make it to the second day. One of those players was David Peters. Peters ran up a stack early in the event and was spotted with ten times the starting stack of 30,000. It is unclear how Peters was eliminated but he failed to make the money despite starting out great.
Others that didn't make it through the day include Conor Beresford, Jean-Noel Thorel, Sebastian Malec, Kenny Hallaert, Bart Lybaert, Anatolii Zyrin, Maria Lampropulos, Ognyan Dimov, Viliyan Petleshkov, and Angel Guillen. Most of the busted early enough to still have a shot at glory in Day 1b as there was only one reentry allowed in the tournament and that would be in the next flight.
The Bubble
The tournament directors decided to go hand-for-hand with 155 players remaining. That would mean that three more players would need to be eliminated for them to reach the money and bag up. The first hand of the hand-for-hand play saw two players eliminated from the tournament. One of them was Anton Bergstrom who was forced all in for his last 2 big blinds from the big blind with pocket fours. He, unfortunately, ran into pocket queens and was eliminated from the tournament. Julien Loire was the other player eliminated in the first hand.
It took another couple of hands and multiple double-ups before Matthew Moss ended as the last player without any money. He had ace-ten and had to win against the pocket nines of Rodney Lawrence. The flop immediately brought a nine and Moss wasn't able to catch up and he bubbled the tournament.
The other players will continue and play down to a winner on Day 2, starting at noon, Monday, August 26. PokerNews will provide live coverage until a winner is crowned in Barcelona.
Tags:
Anatolii ZyrinAngel GuillenAnton BergstromBart LybaertConor BeresfordDavid PetersJack SalterJasper Meijer van PuttenJonas PalsgaardJulien LoireJulien MartiniKalidou SowKenny HallaertMaria LampropulosMatthew MossMichael TureniecOgnyan DimovRodney LawrenceSebastian MalecSonny FrancoVamshi VandanapuViliyan PetleshkovVojtech RuzickaYudong Yang
with plenty in the middle and Mahmut Yildrim checked from the big blind to Ramon Miquel Munoz in the under-the-gun position. 
for a Broadway straight. Yildrim showed a 
before mucking the other card.
flop put Lawrence in a commanding lead, leaving Moss only with running cards to survive. The 
river.
