Estrellas Poker Tour in Barcelona had 135 Players Remaining

The Estrellas Poker Tour is once again underway, this time in Catalunya, where Casino Barcelona plays host to the last event of the season. The €1,000 + €100 main event takes place from the 15th to 19th of August. On Wednesday’s day 1a, a record-breaking number of 372 players began their tournament, including 65 who qualified online at PokerStars.com.

When play concluded for the day, after nine levels of play, there were 135 players remaining.

It was a fierce battle today in Barcelona and many players were eliminated, including Team PokerStars Online member Javier 'El_Cañonero' Dominguez and Alejandro Piñeiro, winner in Alicante last year. But the highlight of the day was the early elimination of Jaume Niell Alomar, finalist this year in Valencia, Ibiza and San Sebastian. Nevertheless, we will, for sure, see him at the tables of the ESPT side events if he wants to keep his leadership on the Estrellas Poker Tour tournament leaderboard 2012.

Daniel Rauta, currently second on the Estrellas Poker Tour tournament leaderboard 2012, and American player Kevin Mac Phee, EPT Berlin 2010 winner, both played today and made it through the day. They will be back on Friday for day 2 of the Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona.

Our current chip leader is Thomas Butzhammer with 184.000 chips, followed by Samuel Bernabe Guilabert with 180.000 and Rudi Van Mol with 140.500 chips.

Thursday’s day 1B will see a host of Team PokerStars Pros taking part: Ana Marquez and Juan Manuel Pastor from Spain, Belgian twins Team PokerStars Pro Matthias y Christophe De Meulder, Polish player Marcin Horecki and his fellow countryman Grzegorz “Da Warsaw” Mikielewicz from Team PokerStars Online. Estrellas Poker Tour 2011 Tournament Leaderboard winner Álvaro Santamaría Velasco and Ahmed Iqbal, second at the UKIPT Nottingham in April, will also be in attendance.