EPT Barcelona 2018: Main Event Day 1A Attracts 589 Entries, Ben Wilinofsky Leads 240 Survivors

The key attraction at the 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona, i.e. the Main Event, opened on August 27. Consisting of two starting flights, Day 1A and 1B, the Main Event will witness a total seven days of poker action before crowning a champion on September 2.

Three $30,000 Platinum Passes will be awarded during the Main Event, one of which will be given to the winner of this event. The second will go to the longest lasting PokerStars qualifier, both live and online, while the winner of the third Platinum Pass will be determined through the Crazy Pineapple Flipout at the start of Day 2.

The last EPT Main Event held in Barcelona was in 2016 that was won by Poland’s Sebastian Malec. Making the victory special was the fact that Malec had entered the event through a €27 qualifier and outlasted a field of 1,785 entries to win the title.

With a buy-in of €5,300, the event pulled in a total of 554 unique players, with 44 runners making use of the single re-entry option. By the time the bags were brought out, roughly 240 participants were left in the running. Canadian Ben Wilinofsky (330,000) emerged as the chip leader, with China’s Haoxiang Wang (239,300) and Frenchman Miguel Use (228,900), rounding out the top three stacks.

Day 1A Recap

The first of the 396 eliminations that took place was Kyle Keranen. He was followed by several others including Alex Foxen, Patrick Stacey, Sam Greenwood, Ana Marquez, Celina Lin, Dietrich Fast, David Peters and Joey Weissman.

Amongst the pros who survived Day 1A were Timothy Adams (173,000), Felipe Costa (170,000), Indian origin player Harpreet Gill (163,200), Shaun Deeb (159,500) and Jack Sinclair (141,900). Olympic champion Fatima Moreira de Melo was also seen in action and bagged a workable stack of 64,000.

As the EPT7 Berlin champion Ben Wilinofsky (330,000) leads the 202 hopefuls to Day 2, the second starting flight Day 1B is expected to bring in an even larger playing field.

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1A

1. Ben Wilinofsky – 330,000

2. Haoxiang Wang – 239,300

3. Miguel Use – 228,900

4. Lawrence Bayley – 224,200

5. Kalidou Sow – 220,000

6. Benjamin Pollak – 219,800

7. Upeshka De Silva – 218,100

8. Antoine Labat – 210,800

9. Adrian State – 186,200

10. Luis Rodriguez Cruz – 182,400

Keep following all the latest updates from EPT Barcelona right here on PokerGuru!

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