In a preflop confrontation a player in the cutoff was all in for about 35,000 and up against Vivian Saliba who was on the button with a covering stack.
Cutoff: Q?Q?
Vivian Saliba: A?K?
The board ran out 5?A?5?3?A? giving Saliba aces full of fives to take the pot and send her opponent to the rail in one of the final hands of the evening.
The action has come to a close for Day 1b of the Main Event. The second starting flight attracted 141 total entrants and 46 players were able to find a bag at the end of the night.
Stay tuned for full updated chip counts and a recap of the night's action.
The action has come to a close on the second of four starting flights in the 888poker LIVE Barcelona �888 Main Event here at Casino Barcelona. Day 1b attracted a total of 141 entrants, bringing the total prize pool to $183,416 so far. By the end of the night 46 players managed to find a bag and advance to Day 2.
Romania's Gabriel Podovei finished the night with the biggest stack across the first two starting flights, ending with 469,000 chips. That stack will be worth 156 big blinds going into Day 2. Podovei's most closely followed by Argentina's Luis Zamora (386,000) and Spain's Jordi Diaz (371,000).
888poker Ambassador Lucia Navarro also bagged a top ten stack, finishing the night with 264,500. Navarro flopped quads and got paid in the penultimate level of the night en route to finishing with the sixth-largest stack.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Gabriel Podovei
Romania
469,000
156
2
Luis Zamora
Argentina
386,000
129
3
Jordi Diaz
Spain
371,000
124
4
Mohamed Chanda
-
285,500
95
5
Fran Garcia
Spain
270,500
90
6
Lucia Navarro
Spain
264,500
88
7
Paul Minzariu
Italy
258,000
86
8
Marc Oller
Spain
233,000
78
9
Alexander Ellison
United Kingdom
220,500
74
10
Ariel Galactico
Spain
215,500
72
Gabriel Podovei
Other 888poker ambassadors to advance include Vivian Saliba (150,500) and Alexandre Mantovani (33,000). Fellow ambassadors Ian Simpson, Nick Eastwood and Aaron Barone also played in day 1b but were not as fortunate and ultimately busted before the end of the night.
Vivian Saliba
Online qualifiers Fran Garcia and Francesc Subirada also managed to advance to Day 2 tonight. Fran Garcia bagged a top five stack, finishing with an impressive 270,500 while Subirada ended in the middle of the pack with 125,000.
Two starting flights remain with Day 1c starting at 3:00 p.m. local time tomorrow May 18 and a turbo Day 1d flight, featuring 20-minute levels, taking place at noon on the following day on May 19. The fields will combine for Day 2 at 5:00 p.m. local time the same day, which will play 12 45-minute levels.
The PokerNews team will be on hand to provide all the action until a winner is crowned on the final day taking place on May 20.
