Smith and McDonald lead EPT Barcelona high-roller

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Aug 19, 2012 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

 The final table of the €50,000 buy-in High Roller event at the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona has eight players, but essentially it is a three-man race between Dan Smith, Mike McDonald, and JC Alvarado, considering the three players control nearly 13 million of the 16 million chips in play! The remaining five players have roughly the same combined chip-count as Alvarado, with around 3.1 million.

The tournament attracted 58 players on Friday, and with rebuys an option (even at the start of Saturday’s Day 2) the prize-pool swelled to an impressive €3,072,960, with a first place prize of over €1,000,000.

The remaining players include some of the biggest names in poker such as Erik Seidel and Ilari “ziigmund” Sahamies, and some of the top performers in 2012 like Dan Smith and Mike McDonald, both of whom are in the hunt for the 2012 Player of the Year races. Add to those names Mike “SirWatts” Watson, JC Alvarado, Talal Shakrechi, and Jim McKrink and you can see why these high-roller tournaments are so tough to beat despite the relatively small field size.

Here is a look at the final table chip-counts heading into Sunday’s final table:

* Dan Smith — 5,108,000

* Mike McDonald — 4,650,000

* JC Alvarado — 3,116,000

* Erik Seidel — 698,000

* Ilari Sahamies — 685,000

* Talal Shakerchi — 670,000

* Mike Watson — 604,000

* Jim McCrink — 500,000

Obviously the smart money is on Smith, McDonald, or Alvarado to take down the tournament, but it’s hard to discount Erik Seidel in high-roller tournaments, considering the guy practically owned these events during 2011.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the tournament:

* 1st place: €1,075,500

* 2nd place: €676,100

* 3rd place: €399,500

* 4th place: €291,900

* 5th place: €215,100

* 6th place: €153,600

* 7th place: €138,300

* 8th place: €122,960

EPT Events have incorporated the PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour this season, and now feature full tournament series, including the High-Roller event from above, and the €10,000 buy-in Championship events that will consist of different poker formats at each stop on tour (Barcelona’s Championship tournament will be a Heads-Up event).

Sunday will also mark the start of the EPT Barcelona Main Event, the first stop on Season 9 of the tour. The tournament will feature two separate starting days, and a huge field, chock-full of top players, is expected in Barcelona. The players will also find some changes to the structure for Season 9 of the EPT as a number of levels have been added to the structure sheet and level times have been increased from 60 minutes to 75 minutes in the early stages and to 90 minutes from Level 14 on for all EPT Main Events.

 

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