Just 79 Survive in EPT Barcelona Main Event as Mystery Bounty Winner Duarte Flies High

Day 3 of this year’s EPT Barcelona Main Event saw just 79 players survive as the cull included busting the money bubble, with 303 players from the 2,120 entries being paid. At the close of play, Santiago Plante led the field with 3,025,000 chips – a huge lead over the remaining field.

Carl Shaw Chasing Lead

Just 79 players remain, but all eyes are on the top as players battle for the top prize of over $1.5 million in the Catalan capital. Spanish players are at a premium, as they bid to change history and provide a home country hero at a venue that has never before seen a homeland player lift the title in 19 years.

Leading the field is Plante, and his stack of over 200 big blinds is some way clear of United Kingdom player Carl Shaw with 2.2 million chips (147 big blinds). Elsewhere in the top five, Mystery Bounty winner Mathias Duarte hovers in third place on the leaderboard with 2,115,000 chips, while it is rounded out by appearances from Spanish player Ka Kwan Lau (2,110,000) and Ezequiel Waigel of Argentina (also 2,110,000).

The top ten also sees appearances from players of repute such as Samuel Fournier from France (1,780,000) and Brazilian player Pedro Lopes  (1,635,000), both of whom have comfortably more than 100 big blinds.The chip leader Plante already came 45^th in the Estrellas Main Event so is bang in form and will be hoping to hold off the experienced Shaw – who beat Tony Dunst heads-up for a WSOP bracelet in 2019 and land the top prize of €1,488,000.

Is Mathias Duarte the Man to Watch?

Mathias Duarte won the €10,200 Mystery Bounty event earlier this series in the first event of the festival and may well be one to watch as play narrows towards the final table. He made the final table in last year’s Mystery Bounty event in Barcelona too, so his win earlier this series is no fluke.

Bursting the bubble on Day 3, plenty of players made the money but not the final 79. Overnight chip leader Eduard Bargesyan survived the day but lost half his stack. He remains in with a great shout of victory, however, making the cut with 410,000 chips. With others such as PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin Spragg busting in 147^th place, and others such as Maria Ho, Anton Wigg and John Juanda all cashing but missing out on the latter stages, the next cash will be worth €20,550.

No-one wants to settle for that, however, and with a final table appearance in eighth earning a minimum of €179,000 and that seven-figure top prize dangling in front of them the remaining ten tables will all be laser-focused on making it to the next day and remaining in with a chance of glory.

Salter, Hall and Saliba Star in EPT Barcelona Staking

With plenty of EPT Barcelona events still to come this series, you can invest in some of the best players in the world and take home some of their winnings yourself. Jack Salter has a superb track record in big field events and is selling action in the €10,300 buy-in High Roller event, with two bullets on offer. He’s also offering up 50% of his €10,200-entry Six-Max event, and with his previous results in short-handed poker, that looks a steal.

Tom Hall has been selling packages to EPT Barcelona since it began and has already finished 46^th in the Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event, the biggest PokerStars event in history, won by Lucien ‘The Ratman’ Cohen in stunning style at the weekend. Hall is offering up action in the €10,300 High Roller event, at 1.22 mark-up.

Also selling action in a high roller event is American Justin Saliba. He’s selling 20% of his €25,000 buy-in in Event #58, the NLHE High Roller. With a great history of big buy-in success, Saliba is offering it at mark-up of only 1.05, and has sold 17% of the 20% at the time of going to press. Get in quick!

Here are how the top ten players currently sit in the EPT Barcelona Main Event: