It’s true what they say: everyone shows up in Barcelona.
OK, so Phil Ivey isn’t here. But just about everyone else is, and all the big names were out today to battle in the €10,300 High Roller – the last big buy-in event of this Championship festival.
Last year (when this stop was under the European Poker Tour banner) this same event attracted 470 unique entries, 95 re-entries, and 565 total entries, making it the largest €10K High Roller in EPT history. Well, we could be on pace to beat that.
When the chip bags were brought out, there were 424 recorded entries, plus 118 re-entries. Registration is open until the start of play tomorrow (12:30pm), and that means that not only is there still time for first timers to hop in, but everyone who busted today can still hop back in tomorrow.
But as it stands after Day 1, there are around 250 players who’ll un-bag at midday Saturday. And the player who’ll un-bag the most? That’s David Lopez with a stack of 362,100.
Joining Lopez at the top of the counts are Markus Durnegger (315,500), Adrian Mateos (299,800), Christopher Kruk (292,900), and Raul Martinez (281,500). Blinds will be 1,000/2,000 when action resumes, meaning Lopez has 181 big blinds.
Representing the red spade are Team PokerStars Pros Felipe Ramos (104,000), Jeff Gross (111,500), Jake Cody (204,500), Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (125,000). Gross was forced to re-enter after busting his first bullet, but that’s the beauty of the single re-entry; you always have another shot.
The likes of cash game legend Patrik Antonius and PokerStars Championship Macau winner Elliott Smith were even spotted in the casino area today, despite not having played any of the other major tournaments this stop. They must have flown in just for this event, and when play ended Smith bagged 54,900. Antonius hasn’t entered yet, but may well do tomorrow.
Most people who busted their first bullet are still in on their second, however we did have a couple of two-bullet misses. The most known of those is Daniel Negreanu; alas, Kid Poker won’t be back in action in Barcelona.
Tomorrow is Saturday. Wake up late, have a lie in, enjoy a nice breakfast, and then join us on the PokerStars Blog at 12:30pm for more High Roller coverage. In the meantime, you can also check out the business end of the Main Event, which went through Day 4 today. Team Pro Andre Akkari leads that with 16 left – vamoooooooo!
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