Hilly the Shark

Hilly on a heater - Steve Hill of Poker Player fame

UK blog readers may well be familiar with a certain British player in our field, one Hilly the Fish - aka Steve Hill - of Poker Player magazine fame.

The card-playing journalist is on tour with us here in Barcelona and is currently catching his breath after a red hot run that swelled his stack to around 37,500.

Mixing in a hero call, winning race and a few pre-flop manoeuvres, a humble Hill has considered taking a break to avoid the rush going to his head!

First up he faced down a super aggressive opponent, first calling his pre-flop raise from the big blind with J10 and sticking to his read when his top pair was put to the test.

The villain fired off a 10,000-chip bet on the river, with the board showing flush potential, but it only roused our Steve's suspicions - and he found the courage to make the call for half his stack.

That was swiftly followed by a race for another rival's life, Hill's 88 holding up vs AQo and further adding to his chip count. Watch out PPT, Hilly the Shark is on the prowl.

Mixed fortunes for popular fantasy picks

Fantasy Poker has attracted around 127 entrants in all - if you count the PP Blog's own shot at glory - and so far the most popular picks are enduring some contrasting fortunes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, top of the pile was PPT2 League champion Ronnie Espensen (19 teams) and the Dane is still alive despite taking some blows to his stack, while second in line was the now eliminated Robert Haigh (17 teams).

Another well-backed player was Zoltan Kapitany (16 teams), the Hungarian who final tabled in Vienna and is highly thought of in his native land. He currently boasts around 18,000 chips.

Disappointing his selectors was Ferenc Bartha, however, after Vienna's 3rd-place finished bowed out after his AQ failed to improve against a villain's 66.

Also among the most fancied were Alejandro Rodrigo (12 teams; 21,450 chips), David Gonzalez (10 teams), David Pishvafar (11 teams; 40,000 chips) and Bastian Bluem (9 teams; 39,000 chips).

No slowing down the Germans

The before shot - David (pre-hair cut) at the WSOP

German poker has rarely enjoyed a stronger spell, with Pius Heinz claiming the WSOP Main Event earlier this month and their 'national' team claiming glory at the recent Nations Cup in London.

And as if inspired by their compatriots, our regular German contingent are lighting up the Barcelona event with a hot streak that has seen the likes of David Pishvafar and Bastian Bluem move among the bigger stacks in the room.

Pishvafar, who was the Team Paradise star performer in the summer, has since cut off his trademark locks but is suffering no Sansom syndrome at the moment - with 40,000 chips now in his armoury.

His defining hand so far came when he called a pre-flop raise from a villain holding 88, floated a J-6-2 flop and turned his set. Displaying his trademark composure, David smooth-called turn and river bets and allowed his rival to ship the rest of his stack across the table,

Bastian meanwhile is sitting on around 39,000 having twice made trips and once flopped a set and been paid off on each occasion. Ably supporting the pair is Mischa Dankert on 28,000 who has been three-barrelling to good effect, pushing one rival off his top pair and avoiding too many showdowns.

Prompt prizes

Our players have long climb ahead if they're to scale the money ladder but their incentive has now been announced, with a top prize of €33,000 bringing a sparkle to one or two eyes about the room.

With 292 players pulling up a chair in the Gran Casino Barcelona, the total prize pool is a mouth-watering €146,000, and at least four players will be guaranteed a five-figure sum to line their pockets by Sunday night.

27 players will be paid with the lowest reward around three times the buy-in at €1500. Here's the full breakdown:

Prize Structure
1st - €33,000
2nd - €20,500
3rd - €15,000
4th - €11,500
5th - €9,000
6th - €6,800
7th - €5,300
8th - €4,450
9th - €3,850
10th - €3,300
11th - €2,800
12th - €2,400
13th-15th - €2,100
16th-18th - €1,800
19th-27th - €1,500

PPT reunion at Table 14

Table 14 is bearing resemblance to a PPT old boys reunion right now as the re-shuffle has pitted the likes of Carlos Oliveira and Ronnie Espensen against one another.

At the same table are former winners Aleksandar Abutovic and Christos Xanthopoulous but in spite of a little sparring, none of these regulars have yet come to blows.

Espensen came off worse for a clash with another villain however, making a river call on a board with four spades, only for his opponent to show the nuts.

The Dane had raised pre-flop, continuation-bet the K♠-4♣-10♠ and after both players checked the 8♠ turn the river 5♠ only enticed Ronnie into a call of 5,800 on the end.

The almost cut the the PPT2 League champion's 20k stack in half, but with blinds at 100/200, he remains in contention.

Abutovic meanwhile was pointing to the heavens in his 'lucky casino' after getting away all but unscathed from cracked Aces. The Spaniard had limped utg with his pocket rockets and somehow wriggled away unharmed after all players limped to the flop and his opponent flopped a set of 10s.

An old friend departs

Luis at the WSOP in 2010

We have a full cardroom once again in Barcelona as dinner has drawn to a close, but we're without one familiar face to long-time blog readers.

Luis Rufas was part of Team Paradise 2010, as we braved Vegas for WSOP poker and a little more 18 months ago.

The Spanish player made the money on Day 2 of the $1500 NLHE Event, but he could not repeat the trick this time around.

Cracked Aces were his downfall as a persistent villain eventually caught up on the river and left Luis to drown in defeat.

The board had come 10x-7&hearts:-4♥ when Luis pushed out a pot-size bet, followed by a second barrel on the 3♠ turn. It wasn't enough to put off his opponent mind, who ensnared a river 10♠ to catch trips with Q10. Ouch.

Dinner break

The 2nd half of the field is now enjoying the fine cuisine of the Gran Casino Barcelona - and so this blogger is off to join them.

UPDATE - We're struggling to fit all the entries into a post for your viewing, so we'll wait until Day 1 concludes before posting the teams still in contention. You can see your picks in the My Team section. Apologies!