Lefrancois Leads After Day 2 in Barcelona; French Singer Bruel in Second Place
![[user38873]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
The record-setting 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona €10,300 Main Event at the Casino Barcelona is one step closer to crowning three new millionaires in one of the hotbeds of Europe's poker circuit. The lion's share of the €11,397,500 prize pool is still up for grabs.
What started with 329 hopefuls out of a field of 1,175 entries has been whittled down all the way to just 58 players after 10 levels of 60 minutes each, and Canada's Pascal Lefrancois, who started into the day as one of the short stacks with just 1.2 million, has taken over the lead after bagging up 66.525 million in chips.
The money bubble burst at the end of the sixth level of the day and secured all remaining players a payday of €25,000, while all survivors of Day 2 have already €35,000 locked up for their efforts. Day 3 will recommence on Saturday April 14th, 2018, as of 1 p.m. local time with blinds of 200,000/400,000 and a button ante of 400,000.
Second in Chips for Day 3 is well-known French singer and poker enthusiast Patrick Bruel with 48.45 million in chips, while Sergey Lebedev follows in third place with 40.925 million. Other notables in the top 10 include Jan-Eric Schwippert (38 million), Julian Stuer (31.5 million), Balazs Botond (31.5 million) and Ognyan Dimov (29.45 million. A string of double ups, a double knockout and a big double with aces against the ace-king of Jonathan Clark lifted Bruel from short stack to contender.
A host of big names remains in contention for the title and €1,700,000 first-place payout. Stephen Chidwick (29.375 million), who finished second in the €101,000 Super High Roller, and Sam Greenwood (23.735 million), who won the €51,000 Super High Roller, already scored seven-figure scores during the festival and bagged up above-average stacks. Same also applies for Sean Winter (27.4 million), Mikhail Rudoy (27.05 million), Upeshka De Silva (26.15 million) and team partypoker's Philipp Gruissem (22.875 million). His team mates Johnny Lodden (12.75 million) and Sam Trickett (10 million) will also return for Day 3.
| Tournament Day | Date | Further Information |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1a | Wednesday, April 11, 2018 @ 12:00 | 93 out of 338 players advanced to Day 2 |
| Day 1b | Wednesday, April 11, 2018 @ 17:00 | 40 out of 150 players advanced to Day 2 |
| Day 1c | Thursday, April 12, 2018 @ 12:00 | 110 out of 383 players advanced to Day 2 |
| Day 1d | Thursday, April 12, 2018 @ 17:00 | 86 out of 304 players advanced to Day 2 |
| Day 2 | Friday, April 13, 2018 @ 13:00 | 329 of 1,175 entries upon restart, 60 min Levels, 10 levels played |
| Day 3 | Saturday, April 14, 2018 @ 13:00 | 58 of 1,175 entries remain upon restart, play 10 Levels or Down to Final Table |
| Day 4 | Sunday, April 15, 2018 @ 12:00 | 60 min Levels, Play Down to a Winner |
In the first four levels the eliminations kept coming at an electric pace and among those to depart without anything to show for were Kenny Hallaert, Gus Hansen, 2017 MILLIONS Russia champion Aleksandr Gofman, Alex Foxen, Erik Seidel, and Niall Farrell to name just a few. The partypoker team was also reduced rapidly as Kristen Bicknell, Anatoly Filatov, Joao Simao, team online's Josip Simunic, Isaac Haxton and Roberto Romanello were all felted before the money bubble. Romanello was involved in a three-way all in with pocket tens against the pocket nines of Georgios Vrakas and Upeshka De Silva's pocket aces in the big blind.
When almost all players were already gone into the dinner break after the end of the sixth level and the additional hand on their tables, the bubble burst. Patrik Korsar was the last player to leave empty-handed when he four-bet shoved pocket queens into the pocket aces of Preben Stokkan. Once all other hopefuls returned to their seats and were given the good news, the applause started and the chips went flying with around 40 casualties in one hour.
Ryan Riess was gone way earlier than he'd hoped for after his pocket sixes on a five-high turn ended up second best to the pocket sevens of Sam Greenwood. Dominik Panka, Maria Ho, Matthias De Meulder, [Removed:17] and Nick Maimone were just some of the big names that busted outside of the top 100.
They were followed by Paul Newey, Chris Brammer, Anthony Zinno, €2,700 Warm Up runner-up Bartlomiej Machon and 2017 MILLIONS Russia runner-up David Laka. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom's bid to claim the second Main Event title of the tour ended in 68th place. The Swede check-raised a nine-high flop with ace-nine for top pair and called the shove of Aymon Hata, but failed to improve against pocket kings.
All remaining 58 players bagged up around 2 a.m. local time and will aim to play down to a final table on the penultimate tournament day. As usual the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to cover all the action until a champion is crowned.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | 1 | Jan-Eric Schwippert | Germany | 38,000,000 | 95 |
| 58 | 2 | Vitalii Pankov | Russia | 33,150,000 | 83 |
| 58 | 3 | Henrik Hecklen | Denmark | 6,075,000 | 15 |
| 58 | 4 | Vicent Bosca Ramon | Spain | 8,575,000 | 21 |
| 58 | 5 | Sergey Lebedev | Russia | 40,925,000 | 102 |
| 58 | 6 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 11,975,000 | 30 |
| 58 | 7 | Adam Owen | United Kingdom | 24,025,000 | 60 |
| 58 | 8 | Joe Serock | United States | 15,450,000 | 39 |
| 59 | 1 | Roberto Duek | Brazil | 16,500,000 | 41 |
| 59 | 2 | Sirzat Hissou | Germany | 17,500,000 | 44 |
| 59 | 3 | Anton Wigg | Sweden | 13,400,000 | 34 |
| 59 | 4 | Pierre Calamusa | France | 18,600,000 | 47 |
| 59 | 5 | Johnny Lodden | Norway | 12,750,000 | 32 |
| 59 | 6 | Kenneth Smaron | United States | 25,375,000 | 63 |
| 59 | 7 | Luuk Gieles | Netherlands | 4,375,000 | 11 |
| 59 | 8 | Diogo Veiga | Portugal | 21,375,000 | 53 |
| 60 | 1 | Paul Vas Nunes | United Kingdom | 10,275,000 | 26 |
| 60 | 3 | Anson Tsang | Hong Kong | 12,750,000 | 32 |
| 60 | 4 | Mustapha Kanit | Italy | 8,475,000 | 21 |
| 60 | 5 | Thomas Boivin | Belgium | 19,300,000 | 48 |
| 60 | 6 | Julian Thomas | Germany | 9,325,000 | 23 |
| 60 | 7 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | 21,850,000 | 55 |
| 60 | 8 | Oliver Price | United Kingdom | 14,150,000 | 35 |
| 61 | 1 | Alexander Ivarsson | Sweden | 21,650,000 | 54 |
| 61 | 2 | Pascal Lefrancois | Canada | 66,525,000 | 166 |
| 61 | 3 | Patrick Bruel | France | 48,450,000 | 121 |
| 61 | 4 | Ben Farrell | United Kingdom | 13,450,000 | 34 |
| 61 | 5 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | 10,625,000 | 27 |
| 61 | 7 | Julian Stuer | Austria | 31,500,000 | 79 |
| 61 | 8 | Philipp Gruissem | Germany | 22,875,000 | 57 |
| 62 | 1 | Amir Touma | Lebanon | 8,675,000 | 22 |
| 62 | 2 | Aymon Hata | United Kingdom | 28,300,000 | 71 |
| 62 | 3 | Sam Trickett | United Kingdom | 10,000,000 | 25 |
| 62 | 4 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 29,375,000 | 73 |
| 62 | 6 | Honglin Jiang | New Zealand | 14,975,000 | 37 |
| 62 | 7 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 23,735,000 | 59 |
| 62 | 8 | Mikhail Rudoy | Russia | 27,050,000 | 68 |
| 66 | 1 | Dominik Nitsche | Germany | 14,125,000 | 35 |
| 66 | 2 | Tomas Jozonis | Lithuania | 16,200,000 | 41 |
| 66 | 3 | Pawel Brzeski | Poland | 9,475,000 | 24 |
| 66 | 5 | Israel Oliver Carriazo | Spain | 12,525,000 | 31 |
| 66 | 6 | Andrei Konopelko | Belarus | 12,125,000 | 30 |
| 66 | 7 | Michael Bailey | Canada | 19,100,000 | 48 |
| 66 | 8 | Marton Czuczor | Hungary | 30,775,000 | 77 |
| 67 | 1 | Ognyan Dimov | Bulgaria | 29,450,000 | 74 |
| 67 | 2 | Martin Kus | Canada | 38,975,000 | 97 |
| 67 | 3 | Balazs Botond | Hungary | 31,500,000 | 79 |
| 67 | 4 | Marco Fontanella | Italy | 7,625,000 | 19 |
| 67 | 6 | Jonathan Clark | United Kingdom | 7,000,000 | 18 |
| 67 | 7 | Sean Winter | United States | 27,400,000 | 69 |
| 67 | 8 | Jack Salter | United Kingdom | 10,175,000 | 25 |
| 100 | 2 | Byron Kaverman | United States | 17,150,000 | 43 |
| 100 | 3 | Morten Mortensen | Denmark | 22,550,000 | 56 |
| 100 | 4 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 5,700,000 | 14 |
| 100 | 5 | Upeshka De Silva | United States | 26,150,000 | 65 |
| 100 | 6 | Manuel Martinez Solsona | Spain | 24,275,000 | 61 |
| 100 | 7 | Zhong Chen | Netherlands | 21,750,000 | 54 |
| 100 | 8 | Bart Lybaert | Belgium | 25,425,000 | 64 |
.
turn and 
river run out failed to improve the online legend from Sweden and he departed in 68th place.
and Bruel quickly called with 
.
and Bruel hit a second set within fewer than 15 minutes to now score a double knockout and jump up to two times the average.
and Kus held up with his pocket pair. It didn't take long for him to send the next player packing, as 2018 MILLIONS Germany 9th place finisher Yiannis Liperis also fell victim to his hot streak.
. The board came 
and Kus rivered the two outer to crack the aces.
, and Greenwood had to pay off Mortensen's stack of 12 million on the river. According to Mortensen, it was Joris Ruijs that had raised on the button and was called by both players in the blinds.
failed to improve Parssinen, instead Riess further improved to a flush and reduced the field by one.
, Michael Addamo was at risk for 1.25 million and Blom called with 
left Romanello drawing dead on the turn and the meaningless set on the river was no good. He left the feature table with a smile and the words "I guess I am not going to win this one."
