Updated on 22 Feb 26 by

EPT Barcelona Day 1a: Veldhuis and Danchev Off to Great Starts

Season 9 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour is underway in Spain. Day 1a of the EPT Barcelona is in the books, and the 222 players that made it through the day include plenty of familiar faces on the tour.

Aku Joentausta
Aku Joentausta

The PokerStars European Poker Tour is finally back! The EPT Barcelona Main Event began yesterday and marks the beginning of Season 9 of the EPT.

Attendance for Day 1a was impressive, with 403 players parting with €5,300 to take a seat. At the end of the day, 222 of them were still left with chips to bring to Day 2.

What happened on Day 1a?

The leader - The overall chip leader at the end of the day was Finnish Aku Joentausta. Joentausta has never made a deep run in a major event, but he did win a side event of the EPT San Remo for €74,500. He'll bring 236,200 chips with him to Day 2.

Who else still has chips? - Plenty of well-known pros are still alive, including both Lex Veldhuis (5th) and Dimitar Danchev (7th) in the top 10. Danchev will certainly be hungry for an EPT victory after his 2nd place finish at the EPT Sanremo last season. Two former EPT champions are still alive as well - Zimnan Ziyard (8th) and PokerStrategist Martin Schleich (37th). Check the table below for several more famous players that still have chips.

Who hit the rail? 
- Several of the most noteworthy players who lost their chips before the end of Day 1a include Arnaud Mattern, Liv Boeree, Sorel Mizzi, Andrey Pateychuk, Andrew Lichtenberger, David Vamplew, Benny 'psychobenny' Spindler, Martins Adeniya, and Scott Seiver.

Day 1b will begin today at 12:00 CET.

 Live Updates Via PokerStars Blog

EPT Barcelona

End of Day 1a Chip Counts

Place Name Chips
1st Aku Joentausta 236,200
2nd Guy Thomas 211,000
3rd Emanoil Savin 190,600
4th Mauro Canavese 155,400
5th Lex Veldhuis 148,800
6th Antonin Duda 140,600
7th Dimitar Danchev 138,100
8th Zimnan Ziyard 137,900
9th Alexander Debus 132,900
10th Samuel Rodriguez 123,200
...
15th Vojtech 'vojtar' Ruzicka 109,400
25th Sebastian 'miamivice' Ruthenberg 95,700
34th John Juanda 84,200
37th Martin Schleich 81,800
43rd Pius Heinz 78,400
68th Barny Boatman 62,100
96th Joao Barbosa 51,500
130th Daniel Stern 41,000
175th Matthias De Meulder 29,900
181st Leo Margets 27,500
220th Martin Jacobson 9,200
Blinds: 300/600/75  |   Players: 222 (403)   |   Prize pool: TBD

Check out some videos from the EPT Barcelona:









by Matt Kaufman