Fantasy Poker dealine passes

The deadline for entering the last Fantasy Poker competition of the season has passed. A total of 80 teams have been entered via our new automated system.

Those who entered manually will still be counted but will not appear in our daily updates of the standings. At the end of the tournament we will work out your scores and see if you are in contention of winning the PPT prize package!

Just to remind you the top 50 finishers in the Main Event score Tour League points.

Good luck to all teams and we look forward to welcoming the winner at some point during Season 3.

It's very cold in Barcelona

Barcelona is known for being scorching this time of year but there is an area of the tournament floor that is very very cold indeed. Just ask Benjamin A.

A tournament can't be won in the early stages so we won't be reporting that many hands today but when you see quad kings beaten by a royal flush, it's worth taking note.

Benjamin A (as he would like to be known, and pictured on the left) was left with 625 chips (from a starting 15,000) after he committed all his chips along with Ramon Casasas (pictured on the right), his neighbour on his left. The commotion this caused prompted us to rush to the action. We missed the hand but you can gage the mood on the two players from the inserted picture.

Benjamin managed to work his way back up to 1,650 in chips before Ramon, again, took them all, to finish off the job, in a battle of the blinds. He's the early chip leader on 40,000 chips.

Leaderboard battle nearing climax

As this is the final leg of the season, the battle to see who tops the leaderboard is at its hottest. Below you can see all those still in with a chance of claiming the prize of €10,000 plus entry into all Season 3 events:

PLACE	NAME	POINTS
1	Robert Haigh	91
2	Ronnie Espensen	88
3	Lukasz Gebica	64
4	Paulo Calado	64
5	Tibor Boros	61
6	Bastian Bluem	57
7	Christos Xanthopoulous	50
7	Gabor Skrinyar	50
7	Pablo Baldor	50
7	Radoslav Průcha	50
7	Sérgio Almeida	50

A total of 11 players can still claim the coveted prize and the bragging rights for all of Season 3 but there are two tour regulars clear at the top. We caught up with Robert Haigh and Ronnie Espensen to see how their position on the leaderboard will affect their strategy coming in to the tournament.


A veteran of eight PPT events, Robert managed a seventh place finish in Madrid to add to his fourth place finish in Vienna to give him a total of 91 points.

Asked about his strategy he responded with, "I plan to play for the win and hope the other guys don't win"
















Ronnie has been overtaken at the top of the leaderboard by Robert after leading for a long while due to consistent finishes in the top 50.

"I will see how Robert is doing and adjust my strategy. I can play freely for the first few levels and hopefully build up a big stack and continue to play that way," he commented.

"I think Robert will play tight," he continued.






We'll be tracking these two players today, along with the other nine players in with a shot of the prize. A reminder that a player has to finish in the top 50 to earn points. Victory earns 50 points and the scale slides all the way down to 50th spot who earns one point.

The calm before the storm

Players are now entering the casino and finding their way to their seats. The cash desk is busy taking last minute registrations. Here are a few photos to set the scene:

Welcome to PPT Barcelona

In less than one hour (4pm CEST) the final stop on PPT Season 2 will begin. We’re at the Gran Casino Barcelona for the 6th and final leg of this fabulous and fun tour around some of Europe’s best cities.

Season 1 didn’t stop in Barcelona, so the lucky winner on Sunday will be the inaugural champion taking home a nice fat cheque and a trophy for their mantelpiece.

We’re hoping for a sell-out crowd of 300 players who will compete over the next three days for a share of the Guaranteed Prize Pool of €125,000.

This festival of poker is not just about the €550 Main Event though. If you are unfortunate to bust out then there are a bunch of side events to jump in to. Here are the details:

Side events
Side event 1
Event date: Saturday July 30th @ 18:00
Game: No Limit Hold'em Freezeout
Buy-in: €200 + €20
Cap: 200
Starting chips: 10000
Blind intervals: 30 minutes

Side event 2
Event date: Saturday July 30th @ 21:00
Game: Pot Limit Omaha
Buy-in:€100 + €15
Cap: 150
Starting chips: 5000
Blind intervals: 25 minutes

Side event 3
Event date: Sunday July 31st @ 17:00
Game: No Limit Hold'em Freezeout
Buy-in: €100 + €50 + €20
Cap: 200
Starting chips: 10000
Blind intervals: 15 minutes

Fantasy Poker - back and easier to enter!

Fantasy Poker has been to Las Vegas and back this summer and now we're set to give away a €1,100 prize package to Season Three!

Play for free as the €125,000 PPT Main Event hits the Gran Casino Barcelona from July 29th-31st.

Simply enter your team using our brand new system (so no more writing comments) by no later than 17.00 CEST (that's 16.00 BST) on Friday 29th to be in with a shot. Here's the how to...

How to Play
1. Log-in to your ParadisePoker/Sportingbet account above
2. Click the My Team tab, name your team and select three players from the list
3. The top 50 finishers in the Main Event score Tour League points
4. And the highest scoring fantasy team wins a €1,100 PPT prize package!

Follow your team’s progress right here on the blog or by following @ParadisePoker on Twitter.

Good luck everyone!

Please note: The player list currently includes online qualifiers/buy-ins only. An updated list will be published on Friday as soon as it is available. Entrants can only pick players on the list.

Team Paradise in Vegas - WSOP gallery