After four starting days and ten levels on Day 2, the record-setting 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Grand Final Barcelona €10,300 Main Event at Casino Barcelona has seen a field of 1,175 entries reduced to all but 58 hopefuls in contention for the lion's share of the €11,397,500 prize pool. They all have €35,000 guaranteed, but a first-place payout of €1,700,000 awaits for the eventual champion.
Leading the survivors is Canada's Pascal Lefrancois, who had a stellar day at the tables and turned 1.2 million into 66.525 million in chips. French singer Patrick Bruel follows in second place with 48.45 million in chips, while Sergey Lebedev rounds up the overnight podium with 40.925 million. Further big names in the top upon restart include Jan-Eric Schwippert (38 million), Julian Stuer (31.5 million), Balazs Botond (31.5 million) and Ognyan Dimov (29.45 million).
Team partypoker will be represented by Philipp Gruissem (22.875 million), Johnny Lodden (12.75 million) and Sam Trickett, while Stephen Chidwick (29.375 million) and Sam Greenwood (23.735 million) (10 million) are vying for their second seven-figure payday of the festival in one of Europe's favorite poker destinations.
Plenty of other notables remain in contention such as Sean Winter (27.4 million), Mikhail Rudoy (27.05 million), Upeshka De Silva (26.15 million), Pierre Calamusa (18.6 million), Anton Wigg (13.4 million), €25,500 Super High Roller II champion Davidi Kitai (11.975 million) and Mustapha Kanit (8.475 million). The Italian is among the shorter stacks for upcoming blinds of 200,000/400,000 and a button ante of 400,000.
Goal of the day are up to 10 levels of 60 minutes each or down to the final table, whichever of the two comes first. Action is set to resume at 1 p.m. local time with live updates right here on PokerNews, and the action of the live stream table is broadcasted on a security delay of 30 minutes.
Pierre Calamusa raised to one million on the button and Johnny Lodden three-bet to 3.5 million from the small blind. Calamusa moved all in and Lodden almost beat him into the pot.
Johnny Lodden:
Pierre Calamusa:
"Hey guys, I am all in," Lodden said in Norwegian to his rail, who came closer to the table and have a look. The board came and Calamusa got there with two pair to eliminate Lodden.
Andrei Konopelko raised from early position and called the shove of Henrik Hecklen in the big blind for 7.4 million, tabling the . Hecklen was well ahead with the and the board came .
Another Russian-speaking player is running much better in Ramin Hajiyev. The Azerbaijani raised from the button and called Paul Vas Nunes' check-shove in the big blind on the flop.
Paul Vas Nunes:
Ramin Hajiyev:
The turn and river brought no help for Vas Nunes and he became the next casualty of the day.
Upeshka De Silva limped in with the on the feature tabnle and Byron Kaverman on the button raised to 2 million with . Mikita Badziakouski three-bet to 6 million in the big blind with and Kaverman called.
On the flop of , Badziakouski bet 2.8 million and Kaverman called before the appeared on the turn. Badziakouski moved all in for 14.38 million and Kaverman used all three time bank extensions before making the call.
A blank on the river failed to improve Badziakouski and he was felted in 42nd place.
It all started with a raise to 1.3 million by Ramin Hajiyev from under the gun and he was called by Pascal Lefrancois from one seat over, Patrick Bruel and Philipp Gruissem in the big blind. All four players checked the flop and the fell on the turn.
Action checked to Lefrancois, who bet 3 million. Bruel called and Gruissem check-raised to 8 million in order to force out Hajiyev, while both Lefrancois and Bruel called. Gruissem checked the river and Lefrancois bet 20 million, which had both opponents covered. Bruel quickly called for 13 million and Gruissem folded.
Lefrancois turned over for a full house and Bruel flashed for a rivered straight before heading to the rail.
Aymon Hata doubled through Michael Bailey in a battle button versus big blind when the latter three-bet all in with the and the former called for 18.425 with the . The board came and Bailey was left with 2.5 million, but wouldn't be next to bust.
At the same time one table over, a raising war between Adam Owen with and Martin Kus with brought both their stacks into the middle. Owen held up on a queen-high board and dealt the final blow to Kus.
Back to the other table, Upeshka De Silva shoved from the button for 7.85 million with the and Zhong Chen called in the big blind with , the board of brought no help for De Silva. Right after that, Bailey busted and that reduced the field to the last 26 hopefuls.
Sam Greenwood three-bet an open raise over on the featuree table to 6.4 million out of the small blind and Diogo Veiga in the big blind four-bet to 13.8 million. The initial raider folded and Greenwood used his remaining time bank extensions before moving all in for 37.6 million. Veiga quickly called for 34.75 million and the cards were tabled.
Diogo Veiga:
Sam Greenwood:
The board ran out and Greenwood was left with crumbs.