Pierre Calamusa Leads 60 Survivors After Day 1a in Barcelona

The first of three starting days of the Main Tour WPT Barcelona Season 2018-2019 €3,300 Main Event has come to a conclusion with Pierre Calamusa at the top of the counts, having turned his starting stack of 30,000 into 230,000. Out of a field of 123 entries, only 60 players bagged up chips after eight levels of 60 minutes each.

Day 1a started with some delay, as the restart for Day 2 of the WPT500 required nearly all poker tables at Casino Barcelona, but as soon as the cards were in the air, some 50 hopefuls had taken their seats. It didn’t take long for the field to grow also thanks to the rapid eliminations in the money in the WPT500 Barcelona, and the field for Day 1a of the flagship event with a guaranteed prize pool of €3,000,000 grew step-by-step as several big names joined the mix.

However, it was all about French poker pro Calamusa, who essentially went wire-to-wire after winning a big pot off two-time WSOP Bracelet winner Timur Margolin with queens full a few minutes into the day and claimed the remainder of Margolin’s stack. Calamusa also scored a crucial near double with kings against ace-ten suited when he dodged an overcard and hearts flush draw before building his stack further with the elimination of Ioannis Angelou-Konstas thanks to a rivered flush with king-ten suited.

Second behind Calamusa in the counts is Finland’s Joni Jouhkimainen with 175,000, followed by Alejandro Roman (160,900) and Jon Gurrutxaga (148,500) and David Leja (145,200). Further notables that bagged and won’t have to re-enter on the remaining two starting days are Luca Marchetti (120,500), Imad Derwiche (115,000), Keith Lehr (113,100), James Romero (888,000), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (85,100), Denys Shafikov (80,600) and Triple Crown winner Davidi Kitai (61,000).

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier bagged up on Day 1a

Among those to bust were Barny Boatman, Paul Jux Holderness, Sylvia Hewitt, Antoine Labat, David Lappin, Ka Kwan Lau, Zachary Smiley, Javier Gomez Zapatero, and Justin Ligeri. Both Boatman and Jux Holderness fell victim to the early hot run of Hassan Sey, who was paid off with an overpair by Boatman and then turned the nut straight with queen-jack suited to send Boatman to the rail. Jux Holderness flopped top pair in a four-bet pot only to see Sey call his jam on the turn with pocket kings for an overpair.

Just before the dinner break at the end of level four, Yotam Bar Yosef won a big pot worth nearly five times the starting stack with ace-nine for two pair on the river. However, an action-loaded table that also included eventual chip leader Calamusa saw Bar Yosef go from hero to zero until bagging and tagging.

The following two starting days, which both kick off at noon local time in the following two days at Casino Barcelona, are expected to draw a large crowd and the WPT.com team will be on the floor to bring you all the action from the hotbed of poker in the heart of Europe.