As Bugs Bunny famously says, “thats all folks!”
Day 1b is over after eight levels of super-charged excitement, and as we headed towards the final four hands of the night there were 62 players remaining from a starting cast of 122. Total attendance was 216 players giving us a prize-pot of €691,200. There were 54 players left when the smoke cleared yesterday so as long as no-one bit the dust during the last four hands 116 players will return for day 2 tomorrow at 15:00 (CET).
We were always going to be guaranteed action with the cast that we had on display today. “Mad” Marvin Rettenmeier, Dominik Nitsche, Guillame Darcourt, Dragan Galic and Martin Jacobson, just a few of the players who like to put a chip or two in the middle of a pot.
But despite all of that testosterone wafting around in the air it was the estrogen that got the attention of our noses. Day 1b was ladies day as the likes of Irene Baroni, Margoux Duplantier, Vanessa Hellebuyck, Maria Maceiras and Barbara Martinez not only proved to everyone that they could look damn good but they could also play damn good too. All five finishing the day with chips in a plastic bag meaning they will be returning tomorrow for day two.
There were two people who grabbed our early attention. The first was Oscar Carrasco who quickly amassed a stack in excess of 100,000 as he eliminated players of the quality of Dominik Nitsche. Nitsche had to head off to his hotel early and lets hope he did not participate in any extra curricular activity, and instead just headed straight to bed, because he will need that arm for flicking chips around in his next tournament! The second player to catch our attention was the young Eric Sullivan. During a hand involving Dalil Masaud, Sullivan managed to get a bluff through on the river despite the continual poking and probing of his opponent. After Masaud finally folded Sullivan threw open the bluff, stood high in the air and shouted.
“I am the xxxxing boss of this room!”
At the time we thought Sullivan was having a bit of a laugh but as it turns out he wasn’t too far from the truth!
There was a small chasing pack pursuing Carrasco and it contained a former WPT Champion in the shape of Mclean Karr. Karr was full of voice all afternoon and seemed to be cruising until he proved that anyone can lose in this weird and wonderful game; Artem Romanov finally ending the Americans dream of a second WPT title.
It was fitting that a lady should emerge from that chasing pack and finally overtake Carrasco as the chip leader. Barbara Martinez was her name and she had some mighty battles with Dragan Galic and Jean Jacques Mars on her way to the top of the tree. Clinging onto the branches just below the top were Martin Jacobson, Dan Morgan, Corneliu Cretu, Szymon Pieszczoch, Jean Paul Pasqualini and one Eric Sullivan.
Despite playing superbly well all day young Sullivan did eventually overtake Martinez at the top of the chip lead living up to his earlier declaration that it was not Bruce Springsteen who was the Boss.
Eric Sullivan is the xxxxxing boss in this room!
Check out the hilarious moment when Sullivan told everyone who was the Boss!
For a full commentary of the WPT Spanish Championships day 1b live reports check out the live blog.
WPT Spanish Championship picture gallery
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