Chris Dowling Leads Last 17 of the �10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller in Barcelona
Day 1 of the 2018 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona �10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller is in the books and 17 players remain out of an 80-entry strong field, consisting of 62 unique players and 18 re-entries. The money spots are still six eliminations away, as only the top 11 spots share a portion of the �776,000 prize pool. A min cash is worth �19,400 and the winner takes home the trophy and a payday of �213,400.
Leading the field after Day 1 is Irishman Chris Dowling who bagged up 509,000. Denmark's Alexander Petersen was one of the hopefuls to enter twice and managed to spin his second attempt up to 417,000, good enough for second place. Laszlo Bujtas (393,000), Dan Shak (387,000) and Anson Tsang (349,000) round up the top five after Day 1.
Further notables still in contention include Seamus Cahill (329,000), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (190,000), Martin Kozlov (173,000), Felix Stephensen (172,000), Alex Lindop (142,000) and Cord Garcia (104,000). All remaining 17 players will return to Casino Barcelona on August 30th, 2018, at 12.30 p.m. local time to play down to a champion and the action resumes with blinds of 4,000/8,000.
Among those to bust throughout the day were Sylvain Loosli and Pedro Zagalo, who finished 1st and 2nd respectively in this very event under the umbrella of the PokerStars Championship in 2017. They were joined on the rail by such big names as Jan Suchanek, Niklas "lena90" Astedt, Sam Greenwood, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Max Silver, Alex Komaromi, Ryan Riess and Cary Katz.
Zagalo was eliminated by Alexander Petersen when he got it in after a jack-high flop with suited queens, Petersen looked him up with kings and queens as well as the spades flush draw and locked up the elimination with another spade on the turn. Cord Garcia scored a rare triple elimination with trips only and among the casualties in that hand were Silver and Jan-Peter Jachtmann.
Dany Chidiac was the first player to bust after only 15 minutes, but his second bullet appeared to be deemed for success after he quickly claimed the top spot. However, things went downhill from there and Chidiac was eliminated by Seamus Cahill. Another Irishman then made headlines in the late stages of the day and Chris Dowling took over the lead after sending �50,000 Single-Day High Roller runner-up Jean-Noel Thorel to the rail. Dowling and Thorel both turned the nut straight and had a flush redraw with clubs and diamonds respectively. A club appeared on the river and Downling jumped into the top spot, which he didn't surrender anymore until bagging and tagging.
Late casualties on Day 1 included Cary Katz and Shyngis Satubayev, while Laszlo Bujtas, Felix Stephensen and Martin Kozlov scored very late double ups.
Day 2 Seat Assignments
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Chris Dowling | Ireland | 509,000 | 64 |
| 1 | 2 | Alexander Petersen | Denmark | 417,000 | 52 |
| 1 | 3 | Murad Akhundov | Azerbaijan | 122,000 | 15 |
| 1 | 5 | Martin Kozlov | Australia | 173,000 | 22 |
| 1 | 6 | Laszlo Bujtas | Hungary | 393,000 | 49 |
| 1 | 8 | Panagiotis Sotiriadis | Greece | 149,000 | 19 |
| 2 | 2 | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | Ukraine | 190,000 | 24 |
| 2 | 4 | Hon Cheong Lee | Hong Kong | 98,000 | 12 |
| 2 | 5 | Alex Lindop | United Kingdom | 142,000 | 18 |
| 2 | 6 | Dan Shak | United States | 387,000 | 48 |
| 2 | 8 | Samuli Sipila | Finland | 138,000 | 17 |
| 3 | 3 | Felix Stephensen | Norway | 172,000 | 22 |
| 3 | 4 | Niko Soininen | Finland | 175,000 | 22 |
| 3 | 5 | Cord Garcia | United States | 104,000 | 13 |
| 3 | 6 | Ville Mattila | Finland | 153,000 | 19 |
| 3 | 7 | Seamus Cahill | Ireland | 329,000 | 41 |
| 3 | 8 | Anson Tsang | Hong Kong | 349,000 | 44 |