The World Poker Tour stop at the Casino Barcelona in Spain has finished off its second Day One, with a Spaniard storming through the Day 1B field to take the overall chip lead in the event.
As expected for the second Day One, there was a rush to get in on the action for this latest WPT stop. Several players who were eliminated on Day 1A, including Matt Salsberg, Giacomo Fundaro and Michael Benvenuti took advantage of the second chance through the re-entry process, and they were joined by a host of newcomers that included Raul Mestre, Leo Margets and Bruno Lopes. From the start, the players wasted little time in getting their chips in action.
On the very first hand, Mestre and Alessandro Longobardi went to battle. After a bet from the button, Longobardi three bet the action from the small blind and Mestre four bet his action up to 1600. The button got out of the way, but Longobardi made the call and the twosome saw a K-9-5 flop. Both players would check their option to see a seven come on the turn, at which point Longobardi fired off a 1600 chip bet. Mestre made the call and, after another seven came on the river, the fireworks (for just the first hand) went off.
Longobardi took another shot at the pot, betting 3775, but Mestre nearly beat him into the pot with a reraise to 11,200. After agonizing over his decision, Longobardi would release his hand and about 7000 chips into the stack of Mestre.
Salsberg would have much the same fortunes as he had during his Day 1A run yesterday. He would give up some chips to Efstathios Stamoulos when Salsberg couldn’t call a river bet, then Jack Salter would take some more to drop the WPT champion under the starting stack. It would be a long battle for Salsberg through the day, but he would make it to the final bell with a 43,300 stack.
Through the evening hours in Barcelona, some players began to separate themselves from the pack. Mestre was able to rocket up the leaderboard in a clash with Davidi Kitai that found all the chips in the center with Mestre at risk for elimination. His 7-6 looked mighty weak against the powerful pocket Kings of Kitai, but the board made the weak strong. The 10-9-8 board left Kitai drawing extremely thin to Mestre’s flopped straight, but a Jack on the turn opened up Kitai for a better straight if a Queen came on the river. Alas, a deuce fell, doubling up Mestre to 90K and dropping Kitai down to only 13,500.
The news wouldn’t be as good for some notable names on Saturday, however. Fundaro would fall at the hands of Luis Larossa, Zimnan Ziyard departed when his pocket Jacks were run down by pocket tens and Benvenuti would be knocked off also. The true story of the day, however, was a local player who somehow flew under the radar for most of the day.
Mostly a cash game player, Sergio Fernandez picked up his seat to the WPT Barcelona through a local satellite event. He was able to stay out of the limelight throughout the day on Saturday, a difficult task considering that he blasted past Day 1A chip leader Manuel Bevand to hold a sizeable chip lead coming to the felt for Sunday’s Day Two play.
1. Sergio Fernandez, 170,600
2. Ognjen Sekularac, 143,400
3. Manuel Bevand, 141,200*
4. Simon Berntsen, 121,500*
4. Besim Hot, 121,500*
6. Kevin Vandersmissen, 120,200*
7. Igor Rodov, 117,000
8. David Konstandoff, 112,900*
9. Paul Berende, 108,800
10. Paul Testud, 106,500*
* – Day 1A players
The final numbers for the tournament have to be considered successful, considering the rather large event currently underway in Australia. After Day 1B’s 143 players came to the tables, the total field size was 249 entrants (no final numbers on the prize pool or places paid has been released at this time). 89 players made it through the action on Saturday and they will join up with the 59 finishers from Friday to continue on to the crowning of the next WPT champion next week.
