Jaime Soler Puig Leads 205 Survivors After Day 1b; Leo Margets Among Big Stacks

The second starting day of the WPT Barcelona Season 2018-2019 €3,300 Main Event is in the books and as expected, a bumper field has emerged at the Casino Barcelona to put the event on track to meet the €3,000,000 guarantee. A total of 350 entries emerged on Day 1b, of which 205 players advanced to Day 2 and avoided the trip to the registration desk for another shot at the spectacular prize pool.

In a tight race towards the end of the day, it was Jaime Soler Puig (pictured above) who came out on top with a stack of 163,400, well behind Day 1a leader Pierre Calamusa. Further Day 1b big stacks include Milan Rabsz (131,500), Leo Margets (125,100), Alexander Ivarsson (119,800), Adrian Dacic (110,000), Gustavo Moscon (104,800), Timur Margolin (105,600), and Jack O’Neill (104,400).

Especially for Margolin it was a relief, as he was eliminated early on Day 1a and the very same happened on Day 1b. Margolin flopped top pair against Pedro Oliveira with king-eight suited, however, Oliveira had the best of it with ace-king to end the first bullet. Margolin took advantage of the single re-entry option and the two-time WSOP bracelet winner ran up big stack for Day 2 eventually.

Timur Margolin

partypoker ambassador Anatoly Filatov was among those to take advantage of the late registration throughout the day and entered before the dinner break. The accomplished poker pro from Russia advanced with 70,000 and other well-known names such as Florian Duta (74,400), Govert Metaal (70,700), Dominik Panka (70,100), Jason Tompkins (61,100), Evangelos Bechrakis (54,800), David Boyaciyan (40,000), and Per Linde (19,300) will all be back for Day 2.

However, there was also a host of big names on the national and international poker circuit that were less successful. Noah Boeken shared the starting table with Chino Rheem and Juha Helppi, and neither Boeken nor Rheem made it to the bagging and tagging. Bart Lybaert, Antoine Labat and Joris Ruys were among those to fire twice and run out of chips as many times.

Lybaert was first caught bluffing with ace-king high and Marcello Miniucchi called with a flopped set. In the second attempt, the stack of the Belgian was reduced severely when his two pair ran into bottom set, and Lybaert was gone soon after. Also among those who will have to re-enter on Day 1c or within the first four levels of Day 2 are also Jasper Wetemans, Parham Ahoor, Sandro Pitzanti, Ozgur Arda, and Thomas Hofmann.

The third and final starting day, which kicks off at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, March 13th 2019, is expected to gather yet another big field here in Barcelona and the WPT.com team will be on the floor to provide all the action.