The past 12 days in Barcelona have been a celebration of the PokerStars European Poker Tour, a chance to look back at the growth of the tour in the 20 years since its inception. And there is no better way to cap off the party than by having some of the biggest names in poker battling for a €818,100 top prize to close out the festival.
Just 28 players survived Day 2 of the €10,300 EPT Barcelona High Roller and will return tomorrow at noon local time to play down to a champion. Thomas Eychenne bagged up the chip lead with 1,755,000 after the 2023 PSPC finalist doubled up when his queens dodged Calvin Anderson’s straight draw, catapulting him up the leaderboard.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Eychenne | France | 1,755,000 | 70 |
| 2 | Enrico Camosci | Italy | 1,625,000 | 65 |
| 3 | Yves Bianchetti | Brazil | 1,610,000 | 64 |
| 4 | Malcolm Franchi | France | 1,445,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Enrico Coppola | Italy | 1,410,000 | 56 |
| 6 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | 1,380,000 | 55 |
| 7 | Markkos Ladev | Estonia | 1,095,000 | 44 |
| 8 | Joshua Hopkins | Canada | 1,025,000 | 41 |
| 9 | Kamal Bejjani | Lebanon | 795,000 | 32 |
| 10 | Brian Green | United States | 745,000 | 30 |
Enrico Camosci (1,625,000), Yves Bianchetti (1,610,000), Malcolm Franchi (1,445,000), and Enrico Coppola (1,410,000) round out the top five. Bianchetti eliminated start-of-day chip leader Sam Greenwood, while Franchi made a big hero call with second pair on the river when Saymon Dias bluffed for his last 307,000.
Further down the leaderboard is a star-studded field that hopes to track down the chip leaders on the event’s final day. They include Markkos Ladev (1,095,000), who’s already finished second in a €25,000 event here in Barcelona, two-time EPT champion Mike Watson (735,000), EPT Prague runner-up Jon Kyte (690,000), Candido Cappiello (650,000), Jesse Lonis (540,000), Anderson (480,000), Boris Angelov (380,000), and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel (310,000).
The day began with 45 new entries boosting the field up to 431 and building a prize pool of €4,180,700. Only the top 63 would be paid, and Maria Ho, Martin Zamani, Sam Grafton, Nick Petrangelo, and Nacho Barbero were among those who fell short. Ren Lin busted short of the money when Ladev made a flush to crack his aces.
Leonard Maue also had aces cracked on the money bubble as Kyte flopped a straight. Among the players to make the money were Teun Mulder (59th), Alec Torelli (57th), Greenwood (55th), Nick Palma (52nd), and Scott Margereson (50th). Benjamin Spragg fell in 49th place when he lost a race with king-queen against Eychenne’s sixes, while Alejandro Lococo was out in 35th when Anderson made a Broadway straight. Benjamin Pollak and Andre Akkari both busted in a three-way all in to Rodrigo Araujo to end the night and bring the field down to 28 remaining.
The action on Day 3 picks up on Level 23 with blinds of 10,000-25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante. Everyone left has already locked up €25,150, but they’ll all be chasing the top prize and the chance to leave Barcelona with the trophy once play resumes tomorrow.
PokerNews will be following all the action leading up to the final table and crowning of a new champion, so stay tuned tomorrow for all the updates.