Day 1 comes to an end

Day 1 has come to a close. Less than 110 players will return at 4pm CEST where we will endeavour to play down to a final table.

The overnight chip leader seems to be Peter Csecsetka with 130,150 chips. This will be confirmed before play starts on Day 2 along with all the other official counts.

The latest Fantasy Poker standings will also be published before play starts tomorrow. Until then it's good night, or good morning even, from Barcelona.

We've seen the back of Haigh

Robert Haigh was stood by the bar enjoying a beer. I'm no Sherlock but I figured he was out of the tournament.

He confirmed this fact for me after his nine big blind shove with ace-four failed to improve against the big blind's ace-king.

It was a hand earlier that had him bothered though. He made a big fold with ace-ten after an opponent check-raised all-in on the turn of a T-2-3-5 board. Robert said that this player told him they had the same hand, after he was eliminated.

The German is still smiling as he has a big sweat for the rest of the tournament as he hopes to maintain his Tour League leading position. Ronnie Espensen is also smiling as he has a clear goal in front of him now; 47th place or better and the title is his.

Piotr making his mark

Piotr Gajdecki has quietly amassed a stack throughout the ten levels of play. He's up to 90,000 chips after eliminating a local player to the frustration of his railing friends.

The local player committed his last 13,500 with pocket nines but ran smack bang into the Pole's pocket kings that held through the As6c5d 8s Qd board.

One more level to go

Level nine has come to an end, meaning we have just one more level to go before we bag up for the night.

Here's some news in brief:

• "Back in business," shouted Tibor Boris with a big smile as he raked in pot to put him up to 48,000 chips.
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• Ronnie Espensen saw this encounter from the next table and commented, "A battle will make it exciting", referring to the Tour League battle. The Dane is over the 50,000 mark after he moved all-in over the top of an opponent's raise on a [th][6h][ah] flop. His opponent folded and Ronnie quickly held up the cards so only we could see (Ad Kc) before throwing them into the muck.
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• Peter Csecsetka seems to be the first player to break the six-figure barrier. He's on 106,000 chips.
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• Robert Haigh moved in for his last 7,200 but got no takers.
  
  

A new twist

All our Tour League contenders have been in battle today but battle from afar as they were all on separate tables. That just changed as Bastian Bluem just got moved to the the right of good friend, Rob Haigh.

Both players are short though and in desperate need of a double-up. Bluem is on 11,000 and Haigh is on just 8,700.

Ronnie Espensen is on a nearby table and very interested in the new dynamic. He is continuing to build his stack and is up to 42,00.

The four must go on

With the loss of Lukasz Gebica, it was worth finding out how the other four contenders were getting on:

Robert Haigh's stack had slid down to 22,000.

Tibor Boros was going steady with an average stack of 30,000.

Bastian Bluem was down in Gebica land and struggling with 7,700.

Ronnie Espensen, meanwhile, had a great level as he saw he stack grow to 32,000 from 8,000. He explained how he moved all-in for 8,000 with six-seven suited from the small blind and was called by the big blind who held ace-nine. The Dane flopped seven to double-up. From there he won lots of small pots and eliminated one short stack.

The famous five become the fantastic four

We've been very lucky today that the the top five (in attendance) players vying for the player-of-the-year crown have made it deep into the day. Until now that is.

Lukasz Gebica (pictured) is normally known for playing lots of hands. He got short early on today and had to grind it out, knowing there was too big of a prize on offer. His stagck hovered around the 6,000-mark for what seemed like an age, but now he is no more. In our last venture onto the tournament floor, we noticed his seat was filled by another. We're sure he'll be back next year for another crack at the title.