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The flagship event of the EPT12 Barcelona Poker Festival kicked off today as 459 players took part in the €5,300 Main Event on Day 1a.
Imad Derwiche collected 170,000 to seize the lead tonight - certainly a better day for him than Sunday when he fell just two places shy of the money in the €50k Super High Roller. Derwiche last caught our attention on the final day of the EPT11 Grand Final when he was runner-up to Charlie Carrel in the €25k High Roller, taking €750,000 for second place.
Other notable big stacks among today's 273 Day 1a survivors are Vladimir Troyanovskiy (115,600), Daniel Dvoress (111,000) and Patrik Antonius (103,800). Team PokerStars Pro Online's Mattias "Mati312" Brandner also had an excellent time today, bagging 108,700. On Day 2, he'll be joined by several more Team Pros - Isaac Haxton (79,200), Leo Fernandez (74,700), Naoya Kihara (69,400), Leo Margets (55,300) , Grzegorz Mikielewicz (52,200) and Friend of PokerStars Natalie Hof with 35,800.
Dozens of famous players sat down on Day 1a including the Spain's first EPT champion Adrian Mateos (who took down the EPT11 Grand Final), 2014 PCA winner Dominik Panka, Russian all-time #1 Igor Kurganov, triple crown winner Davidi Kitai, WSOP Main Event champ Martin Jacobson, Mike McDonald, Stephen Chidwick, Ole Schemion, Erik Seidel and many others.
Last year, the EPT celebrated its historic 100th festival here in Barcelona. There were 1,496 players competing then, making it the biggest EPT Main Event ever held on the European soil. Andre Lettau from Germany scooped the title along with €794,058 after beating USA's Samuel Phillips heads-up.
EPT BARCELONA MAIN EVENT HISTORY: Season 1: 229 players (€229,000 prize pool), Alexander Stevic from Sweden won the inaugural EPT event for €80,000 Season 2: 327 players (€1,300,000 prize pool), Jan Boubli from France for €416,000 Season 3: 480 players (€2,304,000 prize pool), Bjorn-Erik Glenne from Norway for €691,000 Season 4: 543 players (€4,181,100 prize pool), Sander Lyloff from Denmark for €1,170,700 Season 5: 619 players (€4,952,000 prize pool), Sebastian Ruthenberg from Germany for €1,361,000 Season 6: 479 players (€3,832,000 prize pool), Carter Phillips from the USA for €850,000 Season 7: 758 players (€3,790,000 prize pool), Kent Lundmark from Sweden for €825,000 Season 8: 811 players (€4,055,000 prize pool), Martin Schleich from Germany for €850,000 Season 9: 1,082 players (€5,247,700 prize pool), Mikalai Pobal from Belarus for €1,007,550 Season 10: 1,234 players (€5,984,900), Tom Middleton from the UK for €942,000 Season 11: 1,496 players (€7,255,600 prize pool), Andre Lettau from Germany for €794,058
