Carruggi, Pettersson Lead EPT Barcelona

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 29 August 2011 / Leave a Comment

Day 3 of the European Poker Tour's Barcelona main event will start with 141 players still gunning for part of the €4,000,000-plus prize pool and €850,000 first prize. The top 120 spots pay, meaning the cash bubble should be bursting not long after play resumes on Tuesday. Xavier Carruggi currently sits atop the counts with 577,700, having run his stack all of the way up from just 38,000 to start Day 2. Carruggi is followed closely by Toni Pettersson of Finland with 534,100.

Also in the top ten to start Day 3 are Saar Wilf of Israel who enjoyed the chip lead near the end of the day before slipping back a few notches, and the pink-haired Frenchman Guillaume Darcourt who has been turning up on ESPN's WSOP Main Event coverage of late. Meanwhile, American Vanessa Selbst sits not too far behind in 11th place.

Other notables who will be returning to unbag chips at the Casino de Barcelona tomorrow include Victor Ramdin, Chris Moorman, Nigel Goldman, and Leo Margets, all of whom have above-average stacks. Also alive are Filippo Candio, Andre Akkari, Eugene Katchalov, Benny Spindler, Alex Kravchecnko, and Ivan Demidov.

And retired tennis star Boris Becker of Germany will be returning as well, although his stack of 54,600 will put him in danger of missing the cash once the all-in shoves commence on Tuesday. The schedule calls for a five-day tournament, meaning the final eight-handed table will be taking place this Thursday.

This year's EPT Barcelona main event, sporting a €5,300 buy-in, attracted a whopping 811 runners, breaking last year's record of 758 entrants. Kent Lundmark won the event last year (and €825,000), although this time around the Swede unfortunately failed to make it through the first day of play. In fact, as happened last year, a new record is being set once again this week for the largest poker tournament ever in Spain.

This is the second EPT event on the Season 8 calendar, following EPT Tallinn in Estonia earlier this month where Ronny Kaiser of Switzerland took the trophy and €275,000 first prize. Next on the EPT calendar is EPT London, scheduled to take place at the Hilton Metropole Hotel from September 30 to October 6.

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