Tom Orpaz has been chatty and playing loose and fast all day, building a sizeable stack along the way. He finally had to give a chunk of it away recently as he got over 70,000 chips in the middle on the button against Rui Ferreira in early position on a flop of
Rui Ferreira:
Tom Orpaz:
The board completed with the and to double up Ferreira and take about a third of Orpaz's stack away from him.
Like other events during EPT's return to Barcelona after a three-year hiatus, the High Roller attracted a big field of 500 and even bigger names. Some of the well-knowns who bagged on Day 1 include Vanessa Kade, Dario Sammartino, Chino Rheem, Ben Heath, Anton Wigg, Niklas Astedt, Nacho Barbero, Francisco Benitez and PokerStars Ambassadors Andre Akkari and Ramon Colillas.
There were also some EPT champions in the Day 1 field, including John Juanda, who took down the 2015 EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1,022,593, as well as reigning 2019 EPT Barcelona champ Simon Brandstrom.
Another player who found a bag was high-stakes American pro Dan Smith, who played a memorable hand late in the day where he busted Australia's Michael Addamo, who was quick to sit back down on a final bullet but who busted out during the last level of play.
Those who weren't fortunate enough to find a bag include Martin Jacobson, Andras Nemeth, Joao Vieira, Will Kassouf, PokerStars ambassadors Sam Grafton and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, who has made two final tables this series and finished second in the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller for €1,286,490.
Day 2 action will pick up Saturday, Aug. 20 at 12:30 p.m. local time and will play with 50-minute levels and 15-minute breaks every two levels after some changes to the event schedule. The day will begin on Level 12 with blinds of 1,000/2,000/2,000.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on-site tomorrow as EPT Barcelona starts wrapping up here in Catalonia.