Abitbol Leads Colillas, Mizrachi After Day 2 in �1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event
A long and eventful Day 2 of the �1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event at the 2022 PokerStars and Barcelona?Casino European Poker Tour has wrapped up with 96 players remaining, and leading the way is France's Raphael Abitbol with a stack of 6,745,000.
Abitbol, who with $67,875 in Hendon Mob earnings is after his biggest live score, will be joined on Day 3 by fellow big stacks Gabriel Martini Nobrega (5,030,000) and Samir Benabdelaziz (5,170,000) as well as big names like four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi (1,160,000), PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas and India's Nikita Luther (2,650,000) in the largest live tournament in PokerStars history, which drew 6,313 entrants spanning 79 countries.
The day began with 938 players and started off slowly after a series of delays due to technical difficulties with the electronic seat card system. But with the money bubble already burst, it still didn't take long for hundreds of players to bust and the tournament area to shrink.
Some of the players who bowed out early include Jon Kyte (912th - �1,820), Alexandre Reard (908th - �1,820) Marton Czuczor (851st - �1,820) and Marle Spragg (831st - �2,040).
Luther had a fantastic day that included a hand in the middle of the day where she five-bet jammed with pocket jacks and ran into the pocket kings of Day 1f chip leader Mateusz Moolhuizen. A jack on the flop saved Luther from busting and she received a massive double to become one of the chip leaders.
Colillas, a Spanish pro who notably won the 2019 PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Players Championship for $5.1 Million, also had a strong showing on Day 2 and ran hot early, including when he picked up Cowboys to score a double knockout.
There were some setbacks Colillas and late in the day he doubled up fellow Spaniard Sergi Panella Navarro in a two pair versus two pair confrontation that put a hefty dent in Colillas' stack.
Players who were eliminated as the day played on include Dara O'Kearney (554th - �2,700) Yuliyan Kolev (422nd - �3,120) PokerStars Ambassador Steve Enriquez (394th - �3,600), Kenny Hallaert (393rd - �3,600), Chino Rheem (312th - �4,130), Alessandro Pichierri (308th - �4,130) and Dominik Panka (226th - �4,740).
Day 3 will commence on Saturday, Aug. 13 at noon local time on Level 27 with blinds of 30,000/60,000/60,000. The top prize of �600,000 and the trophy still await the eventual champion.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow at Casino Barcelona to bring readers coverage of the Day 3 action in the ESPT Main Event.