"Do you know where Kitty Kuo is sat?" Danny Tang asked.
Players often ask where their friends are sat, and after pointing them out, Tang headed over in Kuo's direction to check up on her progress. The reason for Tang's visit was not so much a supportive one, but more a competitiveone.
A classic poker last longer, only with more than money at stake.
"If I bust first," said Tang, "Then Kitty's going to make me do one of those gym classes with the bikes."
Spinning, Danny, they're called spin classes.
"Yeah, that," he said, "And if she busts first, then I get two 5% Main Event pieces."
Tang laughed.
"It's a lose-lose situation really!" he said jokingly.
With 1,233 entries on Day 1b and counting, the 2016 record EPT Main Event total of 1,785 has been shattered. Currently, 1,831 entries in total have been made in the EPT Barcelona Main Event, with late registration still open.
Viktor Blom sat down with 30,000 in chips and, being Blom of course, quickly doubled up his starting stack. It was cause for celebration, and his left-hand neighbor Cesario Andrade joined in on the fun. The pair both ordered what appeared to be a gin-tonic to quench the thirst.
"You are my hero!" Andrade cheered, while Blom sipped stoically from his drink. Andrade then furiously shook Blom's hand and raised glasses with him.
Claiming the overnight chip lead is always a highly sought after affair, especially at the EPT. Anthony Chimkovitch from Belgium, who finished 20th in this very event in 2016 and 114th last year, has set himself up as the top contender to add the chipleader badge to his name after a massive clash with Pierre Merlin.
It all started with a raise from the Belgian in early position. Dean Clay called one seat over and Pierre Merlin called from the big blind. On the flop, Merlin checked, Chimkovitch bet 3,600, Clay called, Merlin check-raised to 14,400, Chimkovitch called and Clay folded.
The turn brought the and Merlin continued his aggression with a bet of 25,500. Chimkovitch shoved all in and Merlin instantly called it off for around 37,000 more.
Pierre Merlin:
Anthony Chimkovitch:
It was a brutal cooler for Merlin, who could only hope for a chop on the river. Instead, it was the and Merlin's tournament came to a sudden end. Chimkovitch, on the other hand, stacked heaps on top of his already massive stack and sits at 330,000 with fifteen minutes to go in the day.
Anthony Chimkovitch is the overall Day 1 chipleader
Over the years, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona has always been the most popular EPT-stop, and it comes to no surprise it's the one that has been featured on the calendar every single year. Two years ago, the record for biggest EPT Main Event was set at 1,785 and today, that number got shattered as no fewer than a staggering 1,903 total entries of €5,300 each were made in total, with 1,305 of them coming from Day 1b.
Late registration will be open up until the start of Day 2, which means the number is expected to rise even higher. While the total prize pool and payouts will be announced shortly after the start of Day 2, one thing is for certain: the winner on Sunday, September 2 will walk away with a life-changing seven-figure payday.
This is what a record EPT Main Event field looks like
As expected, Day 1b featured a who's who of poker, with all of the big dogs from Europe duking it out with some of the overseas stars to set the first step towards the payday of a lifetime. After ten levels of 60 minutes each, it was Anthony Chimkovitch from Belgium who led the 535 survivors and bagged the overall Day 1 lead with 390,000 in chips.
Chimkovitch is no stranger when it comes to performing in this event: in 2016, he finished in 20th place and last year, he ended up in 114th. With 390k after the first day, the young Belgian has set himself up quite nicely to make the third time the charm. Pivotal towards Chimkovitch's big lead was a pot against Pierre Merlin in the late stages of the day. Merlin had flopped the nut straight but Chimkovitch turned a higher straight to stack the Frenchman for heaps as the day drew to a close.
The only other person to cross the 300k threshold was Patrick Clarke (321,500), who was able to get himself in some distance of Chimkovitch after a late-night surge. Clarke, already one of the bigger stacks, held king-five of diamonds in a four-bet pot and shoved the turn on an ace-trey-four-eight board with two diamonds. His opponent called with ace-king but Clarke rivered a diamond to stack up to over 300k.
Other top stacks on Day 1b belonged to Fabien Motte (233,000), Pavel Plesuv (221,400), Justin Ligeri (221,300), Dominik Panka (217,000), Andres Korn (212,600), and Niall Farrell (209,000). Defending champion Sebastian Malec (78,000) and last year's winner Sebastian Sorensson (18,800) both advanced as well.
Team PokerStars Online Jamie Staples had an excellent showing on Day 1b
After Fatima Moreira de Melo had advanced on Day 1a, the vast majority of Team Pokerstars Pro showed up for Day 1b and at the end of the day, nearly all of them were able to find a bag, The team was led by online star Jaime Staples, who bagged 186,000 to find himself back in the higher echelons of the leaderboard. Andre Akkari (71,300), Randy Lew (65,500), Maria Konnikova (57,500), Muskan Sethi (51,200), Leo Fernandez (49,200), Jeff Gross (34,700) and Daniel Negreanu (31,700) also advanced. Celina Lin didn't make it through.
With 535 out of 1,305 advancing, there were plenty of those that had to wave the white flag in their quest to claim a share of one of the juiciest prize pools in Europe. Among those that busted were Ludovic Geilich, Paul Berende, Barny Boatman, Michal Mrakes, Ari Engel, Anthony Zinno, Joep van den Bijgaart, and golf star Sergio Garcia, who each fired either one or both of the allowed bullets in this event to no avail.
On Wednesday, cards will be back in the air at 12 p.m. local time for the second of six days. which will feature five levels of 90 minutes each. The tension in the room will be palpable right off the bat, as one of the three $30,000 Platinum Passes up for grabs in this tournament will be awarded. With the Crazy Pineapple Flipout, everyone has an equal shot to punch their ticket to the Bahama's. Win all the flips? The Platinum Pass is yours!
Day 2 will also mark the start of the PokerStars TV coverage. The cards-up live stream will be airing on Wednesday and every subsequent day, starting at 12:30 p.m. (with hole cards up, on a security delay). PokerNews covers the biggest EPT Main Event of all time from start to finish, so make sure to come back tomorrow to not miss any of the action from the vibrant Casino Barcelona, where good times are shared. Cheers!
Viktor Blom & Cesario Andrade
All photos in this article courtesy of Neil Stoddart / PokerStars.
and opponent Will Kassouf held 
. "It's a flip" said Kassouf, as talkative as usual.
giving Zinno a pair."Oh my God what a life". 
. "Anthony Zinno ladies and gentlemen". 
. "Oh, overkill. Queen-seven everyone"
flop, Merlin checked, Chimkovitch bet 3,600, Clay called, Merlin check-raised to 14,400, Chimkovitch called and Clay folded.
and Merlin continued his aggression with a bet of 25,500. Chimkovitch shoved all in and Merlin instantly called it off for around 37,000 more.
