Smadga Leads, Spragg Advances After Day 1e of Estrellas Main Event
The biggest starting flight so far of the €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona wrapped up late tonight with 220 players remaining of the 1,467 runners who registered the Day 1e flight. Leading those remaining players is Israel's Avihai Smadga, who scored back-to-back eliminations to burst the money bubble and end the day.
Other players who found bags on Day 1e include PokerStars ambassadors Benjamin Spragg and Ramon Colillas, along with Adam Hendrix who is after another big score in Barcelona after finishing runner-up in the 2019 €1,100 EPT National for $384,231. They will join the few hundred players who bagged the first four starting flights, as well as those who find bags in the 1f, 1g and 1h flights.
End of Day 1e Top Ten Chip Counts
| RANK | NAME | COUNTRY | CHIP COUNT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avihai Smadga | Israel | 983,000 | |
| 2 | Emmanuel Lopez | Argentina | 829,000 | |
| 3 | James Akenhead | United Kingdom | 804,000 | |
| 4 | Oleksii Natoptanyi | Ukraine | 781,000 | |
| 5 | Nabil Benchaouch | France | 729,000 | |
| 6 | Vasyl Laba | Ukraine | 671,000 | |
| 7 | Marcos Antolin | Spain | 570,000 | |
| 8 | Byeolram Yu | South Korea | 561,000 | |
| 9 | Andrej Desset | Slovakia | 557,000 | |
| 10 | Sandro Pitzanti | Netherlands | 531,000 |
As the biggest of the four starting flights that have taken place so far, there was no shortage of action across the more than 12 hours of play on Day 1e.
The notable hands came early as Timur Margolin scored a double knockout when his Broadway held up against the flush draw of Eugen Pop and the top two pair of Deddi Or-Paz.
A few levels later, EPT villain Will Kassouf had a bluff picked off by Ramiro Gonzalez, who called with ace-high on a double paired board to beat out Kassouf's queen-high.
Kassouf wasn't the only recognizable face in the massive Day 1e field as PokerStars ambassador Alejandro Lococo was in contention before bowing out late in the evening with top pair against the two pair of Gabriel Nobrega.
Other notable players who were in the Day 1e field include PokerStars online pro Sebastian Huber, Britain's David Docherty and American pro Jason Wheeler.
Day 2 action will pick up on August 25 at noon local time. Before that, Days 1g and 1h will take place on August 24 and will follow a similar structure as previous flights.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews team will be back tomorrow for continued coverage of the Estrellas Main Event action here on the Barcelona coast. Check out the EPT Barcelona live reporting hub in the meantime.
