EPT BARCELONA: THE PLACE TO BE AS ESTRELLAS, SUPER HIGH ROLLERS DRAW BIG NUMBERS

By inserting the final tour stop of the Estrellas Poker Tour at the beginning of the EPT Barcelona Poker Festival, PokerStars were certainly hoping for a large field. But event the folks at PokerStars must be impressed by the massive 1,036 player field and the over 1M EURO prizepool - with 200K EURO to the winner - making it the largest poker tournament ever held in Spain!

A large number of poker pros have entered the ESPT Main Event with Italian player Lorenzo Sabato holding the chip lead following Day 2 play Friday.

Former EPT Champions Michael Eiler and Martin Finger as well as Canadian poker pro Jason Lavallee are three of the 49 players who survived Day 2 play as the money bubble burst six hours into Friday play.

TOP 15 CHIP COUNTS
Lorenzo Sabato 1,185,000
Samuel Bernabe Guilabert 1,018,000
Artur Alabart Urgelles 762,000
Andrey Demidov 741,000
Jason Lavallee 534,000
Antonio Luft 528,000
Mikel Diaz Allende 501,000
Rumen Nanev 498,500
Martin Clemmense 455,000
Carlos Lopez Salazar 454,000
Martin Finger 451,500
Vincente Zamorano 425,000
Michael Weiss 412,000
Miguel Mora Hernandez 411,500
Jonas Garstick 400,500


RE-BUY A GOOD MOVE FOR O'DWYER
2011 standout Steve O'Dwyer didn't have the WSOP everyone expected him to have this summer but he's hoping to make up for lost time as the EPT Barcelona Poker Festival rolls along with the 50K NLH Super High Rollers Event.

O'Dwyer was eliminated early during Day 1 play but thankfully, there were unlimited rebuys for the first day of play. O'Dwyer was one of three players to rebuy during Friday's opening day play - Jonathan Duhamel and Masa Kagawa were the other two with Duhamel being the only player to be ousted twice on Day 1.

Daniel Negreanu is another player who was eliminated during Day 1 play. Negreanu and any other player not currently in the field will have one last opportunity to rebuy before play starts on Day 2. All indications point towards Kid Poker re-entering the event Saturday.

The prize pool will be - at the very least - 1.8M EURO with the winner getting a nice pay check on Sunday once final table play is concluded.

TOP 15 CHIP COUNTS
Steve O'Dwyer 1,249,000
Erik Seidel 738,000
JC Alvarado 713,000
Ignat Liviu 656,000
Simon Ravnsbaek 640,000
Mike Watson 639,000
John Juanda 638,500
Dan Smith 585,000
Steven Silverman 580,000
Tobias Reinkemeier 565,000
Raffaele Gerbi 530,000
Jason Mercier 503,000
Ilari Sahamies 487,000
Vadzim Kursevich 477,000
Timothy Adams 442,000

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TOP 10 PAYOUTS (EURO) 1st 200,000 2nd 122,500 3rd 76,500 4th 59,200 5th 44,200 6th 30,100 7th 22,000 8th 16,000 9th 12,500 10th 12,500 RELATED POSTS > O SO CLOSE, O'DWYER 2ND IN VENICE > KATCHALOV THIRD AT BARCELONA > LUNDMARK WINS BARCELONA NEXT ESPT EVENT Season 4 Events TBA

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT ESTRELLAS POKER TOUR ESPT Barcelona NLH Main Event August 15-19, 2012 Casino di Barcelona | Spain Buy-in: $1,355 | Prizepool: $1,238,160 Entries: 1,036 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st position 120 2nd position 80 3rd position 55 4th position 45 5th position 38 6th position 30 7th position 28 8-9th position 25