The €5,300 EPT Barcelona Main Event has reached its final stages of play after a dramatic Day 3 inside Casino Barcelona. Out of a field that generated a staggering €9,918,250 prize pool, only 103 contenders remain in the chase for the €1,436,000 top prize.
Leading the way is Martin Nielsen from the Faroe Islands, who ended the day with 1,683,000 chips. His rise to the top came in spectacular fashion just after the dinner break when Matas Cimbolas check-called him down before committing the rest of his stack on the river with a modest pair of sixes. Nielsen turned over quad kings for the stone-cold nuts, sending Cimbolas out and propelling himself into the chip lead.
Top Stacks After Day 3
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Nielsen | Faroe Islands | 1,683,000 | 140 |
| 2 | Julian Pineda Lozano | Colombia | 1,481,000 | 123 |
| 3 | Damien Gayer | France | 1,455,000 | 121 |
| 4 | Rifat Palevic | Sweden | 1,442,000 | 120 |
| 5 | Tobias Leknes | Norway | 1,432,000 | 119 |
| 6 | Lars Tungel | Denmark | 1,271,000 | 106 |
| 7 | Artus Gimenez | Spain | 1,242,000 | 104 |
| 8 | Matthew McEwan | United States | 1,240,000 | 103 |
| 9 | Lauri Saaskilahti | Finland | 1,237,000 | 103 |
| 10 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | 1,110,000 | 93 |
Colombia’s Julian Pineda Lozano sits just behind with 1,481,000, while France’s Damien Gayer rounds out the top three. Gayer secured his climb when his pocket aces held strong against pocket kings, earning him a vital double-up and cementing his place among the chip leaders.
Bubble Bursts in Dramatic Fashion
When play began on Day 3, the field was still ten eliminations away from reaching the money. The bubble came quickly, and after just two hands of hand-for-hand play, it ended in brutal fashion with three eliminations occurring simultaneously.
- Merijn van Rooij was the first to go, losing a flip with ace-jack against pocket eights.
- Alejandro Ganivet’s pocket kings were no good against a full house after he made a gutsy call.
- Robert Kaggerud suffered the harshest beat, watching his pocket kings cracked by ten-nine suited after all the chips went in preflop.
All three players split two min-cashes, each walking away with €5,700.
Notable Survivors
The international field still features plenty of well-known names heading into Day 4:
- Thomas Eychenne – 959,000
- Joris Ruijs – 825,000
- Luka Bojovic – 792,000
- Leo Worthington-Leese – 715,000
- Brock Wilson – 204,000
- Julien Sitbon – 198,000
- Adam Hendrix – 174,000
- Tim van de Riet – 73,000 (shortest stack)
Remaining Payouts
- 1st – €1,436,000
- 2nd – €898,350
- 3rd – €641,200
- 4th – €493,250
- 5th – €379,350
- 6th – €291,800
- 7th – €224,450
- 8th – €172,700
- 9th – €132,800
- 10th–11th – €102,150
- 12th–13th – €85,100
- 14th–15th – €70,900
- 16th–17th – €61,000
- 18th–20th – €53,050
- 21st–23rd – €46,100
- 24th–27th – €40,050
- 28th–31st – €34,800
- 32nd–39th – €30,150
- 40th–55th – €26,300
- 56th–71st – €22,800
- 72nd–95th – €19,850
- 96th–103rd – €17,250
What’s Ahead
Day 4 resumes at 12:00 p.m. local time with blinds at 6,000/12,000 and a big blind ante of 12,000. Levels remain 90 minutes in length, and while every returning player is now guaranteed €17,250, the focus is firmly on the seven-figure prize at the top and a shot at one of the most prestigious titles on the European poker calendar.
