Home / Poker News September 2009 / EPT Barcelona Day 2: Grospellier starts rolling
EPT Barcelona Day 2: Grospellier starts rolling
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-09-11 05:15
240 players remained in the books following Day 1A and Day 1B of the EPT’s Barcelona Main Event. These guys convened on Day 2 to further reduce the field and to draw closer to the money bubble and sure enough, they set off with such a momentum that the first two levels claimed the tournament lives of no fewer than 100 participants.
Daniel Negreanu had managed to build up a six-figure stack at the end of Day 1B, despite the fact that he started out in a bad mood on account of the fact that his wallet had been stolen earlier in the day. As he vented his anger though, his stack got hit too. He dropped two massive pots within a few minutes of the Day 2 session’s start and he never managed to recover. He was eliminated a few hands later.
Freddy Deeb was another notable early victim on Day 2. Deeb did manage to survive Negreanu, but eventually he ran his pocket Qs into an opponent’s pocket Ks for the bust. The two name pros were soon joined on the rail by Sandra Naujoks, Florian Langman and Leo Margets.
Matt Woodward, who started the day in the provisional chip lead (after he had built a 193,000 chip stack on Day 1B), found the going much easier though. Aided by his large stack, he picked his spots well and it only took about 2 hours for him to double his already impressive stack. He took his A,K against Craig Bergeron’s A,Q and sure enough, he managed to eliminate him, effectively doubling his own stack to about 400,000 chips. Later on though, the attrition took his toll on him too and after having dropped a few large pots, he found himself back at the 200,000 mark, where he eventually remained for the rest of Day 2.
Two other players who made sizable progress on Day 2 were Bertrand Grospellier and Samer Rahman. The latter started out in an extremely aggressive fashion and his involvement in several large pots meant that he encountered some pretty radical variance too. Grospellier however played much better poker and stayed out of the danger zone for most of the day. As the money bubble approached though and play began to tighten up, the Frenchman turned more and more aggressive, scoring pot after pot against those looking to tide themselves through to the money, and keeping them under constant pressure. This textbook maneuver earned ElkY a stack that placed him near the top of the provisional day 2 leader board.
As the money bubble drew closer, Lex Veldhuis suffered a bad beat that ultimately claimed his tournament life, just a few places off the bubble. In the decisive hand, he had a set going up against a player’s pair and straight draw. Unfortunately for him, his opponent completed his straight on the river and he lost nearly all his chips. A few hands later, he was gone for good.
When the day was called, 72 players were still in contention, among them Mike McDonald, Noah Boeken and Roland De Wolfe.
The Day 2 chip lead ended up in Matt Lapossie’s possession, after the Canadian managed to shoot to 700,000 chips in the closing stages of the day’s action.
