EPT Barcelona Draws Largest Field in Spanish History

The European Poker Tour saw another record broken this weekend, as 811 players turned out to play in EPT Barcelona. The €5,300 buy-in event held at Casino Barcelona became the largest poker tournament ever held in Spain, beating out a field of 757 who played in the same event last season.

At the end of the first day of play, 407 players remained in the hunt for the €850,000 first prize. The early leader is Guillaume Darcourt, who many will remember as the pink-haired Frenchman who made a deep run in this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event. Others near the top of the leaderboard include Martin Schleich, Vyrautas Milvydas, and American pro Eugene Katchalov.

Overall, the players will be competing for a prize fund of just over €4 million. While the attendance is record setting, the prize pool is not; last year, Madrid hosted the EPT Grand Final, which featured a prize pool of well over €6 million. However, that event only drew 686 players, allowing this tournament to claim the title of largest ever in Spain.

Last year’s winner was Kent Lundmark, who topped a field of 757 players to win €825,000.

The European Poker Tour is currently in its 8^th season. This year’s season has seven events scheduled so far, of which EPT Barcelona is the 2^nd. The second half of the season is yet to be scheduled; as of now, events only run through early February, when EPT Deauville will be held. Season 7 featured a dozen events in total.