Alwin Cairo shoved from under the gun for 103,000 and was called by Dorion Dizy in early position before Michael Kil shoved for 187,000 from middle position. Dizy, who covered both players, made the call.
Alwin Cairo: 7♥7♠
Michael Kil: K♣K♥
Dorion Dizy: A♦A♠
Dizy had the best hand preflop and held up on the 5♥6♥5♠5♦Q♣ runout to send both opponents to the rail on the stone bubble and drag in a colossal pot.
The third day of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona held two more flights in the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) Main Event playing out at the Casino Barcelona. Day 1f drew a chunky 758 entries and reached its conclusion during Level 19, the longest any opening flight has gone so far, when three players were eliminated during the same hand, leaving 113 survivors who all advanced to Day 2.
Italy's Marco Muzzarelli claimed the top spot after he managed to bag 611,000 chips in what is his first European Poker Tour (EPT) cash. The UK's Ryan Mandara sits second with 595,000 and earned a large portion of those chips being added to his stack on the bubble when he eliminated compatriot Longmao Fan.
End of Day 1f Top Ten Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
Marco Muzzarelli
Italy
611,000
2
Ryan Mandara
United Kingdom
595,000
3
Bernat Capdevila Montes
Spain
522,000
4
Dorian Dizy
Spain
500,000
5
Jacob Stone
United Kingdom
448,000
6
Oleksii Natoptanyi
Ukraine
447,000
7
David McConachie
United Kingdom
438,000
8
Tellefsen Enes
Norway
430,000
9
George Sandford
United Kingdom
427,000
10
Antonino Venneri
Italy
415,000
Dorion Dizy sits fourth in the counts with a stack of exactly 500,000 chips and also played his part on the bubble when he eliminated two players to bring the rest of the field into the money and onto Day 2.
Biao Ding, who sits third on China's all-time money list, pulled a stack of 377,000 through to Day 2 in his pursuit of a first EPT title. Ding has made countless EPT final tables but a title still eludes the Chinese player, whose best result was a runner-up finish in last year's edition of EPT Barcelona.
Samuel Ju advanced with 204,000 chips and is also seeking his first EPT title. Earlier this year, Ju finished second in a €25,000 event at EPT Paris and will be looking to build on that form when Day 2 commences.
Nicholas Palma
Nick Palma found his way into Day 2 after several attempts and will have 106,000 chips to play with when it gets underway. The American player gained momentum during Level 13 when his pocket aces came out on top in a rollercoaster runout against the pocket queens of Marc Alonso. Despite that boost to his stack, Palma never managed to get anything going and remained as one of the shorter stacks throughout the flight but will certainly be looking to change that once Day 2 kicks off.
After six of the eight opening flights have been completed, a total of 4,297 entries have been recorded with 642 players having already confirmed their place in Friday's Day 2.
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