The €1,100 Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event, running at Casino Barcelona, is officially the biggest tournament in PokerStars live event history. Flight 1h, the last of eight starting flights, has now concluded.
Across all starting flights, a total of 7,398 entries were made from 3,291 unique players, up 17 percent compared to last year, which pulled 6,313 entries. That made for a total prize pool of €7,102,080.
Players from 86 countries entered the event, with 17 percent of the field coming from France and 12.9 percent of the field hailing from the host nation of Spain. Italy, the Netherlands and Germany were also well represented.
Day 1h attracted 1,267 entries and 190 players made it through the flight to Day 2. After 20 levels of action, Philippe Le Touche emerged as the flight chip leader with 657,000 chips.
In second place was Thomas Pearn with 576,000, and in third was Grigorii Rodin with 562,000. PokerStars Ambassador Parker Talbot bagged up 539,000 chips and finished the flight in fourth place. Max Burney of the UK rounds out the top five with 538,000.
End of Day 1h Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philippe Le Touche | France | 657,000 |
| 2 | Thomas Pearn | United Kingdom | 576,000 |
| 3 | Grigorii Rodin | Russia | 562,000 |
| 4 | Parker Talbot | Canada | 539,000 |
| 5 | Max Burney | United Kingdom | 538,000 |
| 6 | Florens Feenstra | Netherlands | 480,000 |
| 7 | Luis Rosero Ramirez | Netherlands | 462,000 |
| 8 | Hamza Nasir | United Kingdom | 460,000 |
| 9 | Antonio Silva | Brazil | 454,000 |
| 10 | Matas Cimbolas | Lithuania | 450,000 |
Across all starting flights, Benjamin Tessier is the overall chip leader with 1,016,000 and is the only player to breach the one million mark. He’s followed by Avihai Smadga in second place with 983,000, and then Emmanuel Lopez in third place with 829,000.
Many more notable players made it through to Day 2, including David Lappin (88,000), Gabriel Schroeder (595,000), Conor Beresford (78,000), Antoine Vranken (129,000), Fintan Hand (126,000) and Benjamin Spragg (59,000).
Day 2 will commence tomorrow, 25th of August at 12 p.m. local time. A total of 1,109 players will return to the felt and everyone who does will have already made the money. Payouts will be announced at the start of the day.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as reporters bring live updates of the Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event straight from the tournament floor.
