For the next two weeks, Barcelona will once again become the poker capital of Europe. On Sunday, August 16th, Casino Barcelona opened its doors to participants of the 26th edition of EPT Barcelona, which will last until August 29th.
The tournament tables began filling up by morning, and the first hours of the festival brought the exact atmosphere Barcelona is known for - an international field of players, numerous online qualifiers, familiar faces, and a buzz that will only grow with each passing day.
PokerStars Open Main Event Launches the Entire Festival
The main highlight of the opening day was the start of the PokerStars Open Main Event with a buy-in of €1,650. On Sunday, the first two opening flights were played, with more qualifying days continuing until Wednesday. Yesterday saw a total of 250 entries, with the top 37 players bagging their chips. Among them is Czech-Slovak representation, thanks to the interim 15th place by Peter Hoclar.
The PSO is rightfully considered the 'little brother' of the main Main Event, and it breaks participation records year after year. Whether it will do so again this year will be revealed in the coming days – there are still six flights to go until Wednesday, with all qualifiers meeting in the joint Day 2 on Thursday, August 20th.
List of Players Advancing from Days 1A/1B:
| # | Player | Country | Stack |
| 1. | Hugo Quintas | Portugal | 790,000 |
| 2. | Daniel Hernandez De Lorenzo | Spain | 578,000 |
| 3. | Ezequiel Kleinman | Argentina | 539,000 |
| 4. | Jamie O'Connor | United Kingdom | 390,000 |
| 5. | Robin Ylitalo | Sweden | 367,000 |
| 6. | Daniel Ciancio | USA | 304,000 |
| 7. | Boris Kuzmanovic | Croatia | 271,000 |
| 8. | Vasyl Pidhrusnyi | Ukraine | 253,000 |
| 9. | Lei Yu | China | 230,000 |
| 10. | David Lopez Hernandez | Spain | 224,000 |
| 11. | Sil Damstra | Netherlands | 223,000 |
| 12. | Bjoirn MacDonald | Netherlands | 219,000 |
| 13. | Viktor Jensen | Sweden | 212,000 |
| 14. | Longmao Fan | China | 211,000 |
| 15. | Peter Hoclar | Slovakia | 208,000 |
| 16. | Brock Wilson | USA | 203,000 |
| 17. | Tor Beer | Israel | 199,000 |
| 18. | Nicholas Palma | USA | 184,000 |
| 19. | Valentin Rotkopf | France | 183,000 |
| 20. | David Melki | Armenia | 171,000 |
| 21. | Guiseppe Calio | USA | 163,000 |
| 22. | Kimon Fountoukidis | USA | 162,000 |
| 23. | Hang Xu | China | 155,000 |
| 24. | Alexey Neofitov | Russia | 147,000 |
| 25. | Jonathan Woolley | South Africa | 143,000 |
| 26. | Pavel Tatarnikov | – | 112,000 |
| 27. | Matheus Rocha | Brazil | 102,000 |
| 28. | Ruben Gomez | Spain | 83,000 |
| 29. | Alejandro Belles | Spain | 75,000 |
| 30. | Alessandro Saracino | – | 72,000 |
| 31. | Mantas Liachauskas | Lithuania | 58,000 |
| 32. | Jakob Karlsson | Sweden | 57,000 |
| 33. | Rui Bouquet | Portugal | 55,000 |
| 34. | Alexandre Fournier | Canada | 51,000 |
| 35. | Thomas Clack | United Kingdom | 47,000 |
| 36. | Luis Sequeira | Argentina | 40,000 |
A Rich Program for Everyone
The festival also launched tournaments with buy-ins of €1,100, a Seniors Event for players aged 50 and above, and the first pricier €5,200 NL Hold’em 6-Max. The schedule also included qualifiers for the PokerStars Open and the upcoming EPT Main Event. You can find the complete schedule on the official PokerStars Live website.
The first major highlight of the festival comes on Friday, August 21st. In addition to the PokerStars Open High Roller with a €2,700 buy-in, the prestigious €100,000 EPT Super High Roller will also kick off, attracting the biggest names in the global high stakes scene.
On Saturday, August 22nd, the €5,300 EPT Main Event will commence. It's in this event that players will compete for one of the most coveted titles in European poker and a seven-figure prize for the new champion. The final table is scheduled for Saturday, August 29th. Additionally, from August 23rd, seven days of live broadcasts will offer card-exposed action from the Super High Roller and the EPT Main Event.
Finally, we bring you a photo gallery that captures the atmosphere of the festival's opening hours, which in the coming days will allure recreational players, online qualifiers, and top poker stars to Casino Barcelona.
Sources – Pslive, PokerNews, flickr/pslive, Photo Credits: Manuel Kovsca @Rational Holdings Limited