Thursday, 28th March 2024 16:35
Home / Uncategorized / Estrellas Ibiza: Soros soars as Pastor bubbles final table
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An action-packed start to the day awaited us today when we returned a little bleary eyed after the awesome PokerStars party at Privilege last night. The players found renewed energy and aggression and players busted in rapid fashion in the early levels of the day. From there it was a mixed bag as there were long periods where nothing much happened followed by a splurge of eliminations that would see several players busting within a short period of time.

Alvaro Santamaria secured the Estrellas Season 2 TLB title during play today and went on to celebrate by scooping enough chips to leave himself in second position coming into tomorrow’s final. It just goes to show that the cream can rise to the top within a great structured tournament. He only lost the chip-lead to Jeff Zsolt Soros in the very last hand of the day. He bagged up 1,710,000 chips after showing the same relentless aggression he shown throughout the tournament.

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Santamaria (left) & Soros are the men to catch tomorrow

He leads a final table that looks like:

Seat 1. Manuel Martinez – 777,000 chips
Seat 2. Raul Paez – 442,000 chips
Seat 2. Alvaro Santamaria – 1,533,000 chips
Seat 4. Jeff Zsolt Soros – 1,710,000 chips
Seat 5. Alvaro Marino – 220,000 chips
Seat 6. Carlos Simon Martinez – 727,000 chips
Seat 7. Javier Tazon – 346,000 chips
Seat 8. Grzegorz Gosk – 528,000 chips

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Pastor collecting his €7,450

The most prolonged period, as it so often is, was when the remaining players convened on to one table of nine. No player wants to bubble the final table and this results in players tightening all their ranges and making folds when they might make calls or raises under normal conditions. The status quo that existed couldn’t and did last forever. The unfortunate player who will have to painfully watch from the rail tomorrow is Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor who busted after nearly two hours of nine-handed play.

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Final table bubble hand

He was playing a short-stack for the whole day and had to rely on double or triple-ups to stay alive. That takes its toll on the mind and he will be very tired now after getting so close to making his first final table at an Estrellas Event. His final hand saw him push with pocket sixes and lose a race to Soros, who held ace-ten.

Play begins an hour earlier tomorrow, at 3pm, in the hope that a winner will be crowned before the end of season award ceremony that is scheduled to start at 11pm. Until then it’s goodnight from Casino Ibiza.

To catch up on all today’s action please click on the links below. You will also find a link to the Spanish blog.


Levels 16-18

Levels 18-25
Spanish blog

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Former Miss Spain Maria Jose Besora watching the action

PokerStars Blog reporting team at Estrellas Ibiza: Marc Convey. Photos by Rene Velli

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