Wuai-Cheng Tsang ended up getting his stack of approximately 80,000 in from middle position, Anton Sazonau had gotten his stack in from the button, and both players were at risk against Francisco Benitez in the hijack.
Wuai-Cheng Tsang:
Anton Sazonau:
Francisco Benitez:
Sazonau was in good shape with the cowboys and the flop kept him ahead. The turn gave Benitez additional outs, however, and the spiked the river to give Benitez a straight and the sizable pot, while Sazonau and Tsang were eliminated.
In the first hand of the day at Table 1, Erik Seidel was all in for 45,000 against Teun Mulder, who had him covered.
According to the table, Seidel held to be in good shape against the of Mulder. However, an eight on the river improved Mulder to a set to eliminate Seidel in gut-wrenching fashion.
PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton will be coming back with a solid stack of 221,000 chips, while Stephen Chidwick (94,500) and Poker Hall of Fame inductee Erik Seidel (45,000) are among those returning with less than the starting stack of 100,000, but they will still have time to make a run.
Erik Seidel
All players, however, will be chasing Estonia’s Igor Pihela Sr., who bagged the biggest stack of Day 1 by a wide margin with 519,500 chips. Pihela will be turning 69 years old later this week, and he will soon have the opportunity to give himself a nice birthday present.
Igor Pihela
There are 45 players returning to the felt out of 66 entries so far, and late registration will remain open through Level 10, at approximately 1:30 p.m. The prize pool will be announced at the close of late registration, and the Mystery Bounty prize pool will be announced 60 minutes later.
The Mystery Bounty aspect of the tournament will commence at the start of Level 13, at which time all players will receive a Mystery Bounty Token. Players who eliminate others will collect the Mystery Bounty Token from the eliminated player, which can be redeemed at a designated area where an envelope will be drawn for a prize.
€10,200 Mystery Bounty Top Ten Day 1 Counts
RANK
PLAYER
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Igor Pihela
Estonia
519,500
173
2
Igor Yaroshevskyy
Ukraine
272,000
91
3
Daewoong Song
South Korea
258,500
86
4
Orpen Kisacikoglu
Turkey
256,500
85
5
Marcelo Bonanata
Uruguay
245,500
82
6
Paulo Brombim
Brazil
242,500
81
7
Ashkan Fattahi
Iran
225,000
75
8
Sam Grafton
England
221,000
74
9
Steve Savio
France
218,000
73
10
Dimitar Danchev
Bulgaria
202,500
68
Play will resume on Level 9 with blinds at 1,500/3,000 with a 3,000 big blind ante, and levels will continue to be 30 minutes each.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team continues to provide updates from Casino Barcelona until a champion is crowned.
flop kept him ahead. The 
turn gave Benitez additional outs, however, and the 
spiked the river to give Benitez a straight and the sizable pot, while Sazonau and Tsang were eliminated.
against the 
of Watson, and the completed board showed 
to improve O'Dwyer to the best hand, securing his double.
