August 28 2011, Marc Convey

The tournament room at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona was full Sunday because 465 players turned up with the hope of scooping the whopping “850,000 first-place prize. The field totaled out at 811 players, creating a prize pool of “4,055,000. The man at the top of the chip counts is Guillaume Darcourt, who bagged up 195,300 chips and will lead the field coming back for Day 2.

Darcourt amassed his stack by running a huge multi-street bluff with on a board. His river shove finally got his opponent off his hand. The Frenchman showed and then utilized this image to build his stack all the way to the end of the day. He has a history of using a big stack well, including his 35th place finish at this year’s WSOP Main Event and a WPT title are.

He’ll have to be on top of his game though because the chasing pack from today’s field has formidable talent including Eugene Katchalov (153,100), Leo Fernadez (148,600) Vytautas Milvydas (172,400) Marvin Rettenmaier (114,200), Matthias De Meulder (110,000) and James Mitchell (84,000).

Those remaining from Team PokerStars Pro, apart from the three above, are Ivan Demidov (36,600), Jason Mercier (25,500), Arnaud Mattern (21,400) and Victor Ramdin (21,400). And we can’t forget Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker who seemed to have a very enjoyable knockabout with Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier en route to building a 47,500 stack.

The talent on show Sunday confirmed what we thought Saturday; EPT Season 8 is well and truly alive and kicking. Those who came but failed to progress included: Chris Moneymaker (coolered), John Duthie (queens never good), Viktor Blom (sophisticated bluff fail), Roberto Romanello (stuck in the blocks), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (Beckered), Daniel Negreanu (missed the world) and Liv Boeree (three-outered). The list goes on. The omens for the live tournament scene in Europe this coming year look very good indeed.

The remaining 228 players will combine with the 179 survivors from Day 1a, meaning 407 players will return at 1200 CEST (0300 PDT). Only 120 on those will walk away with a payday. The min-cash will net them “8,000 and if you make the final table the money starts at “73,000 and rapidly increases in ever bigger jumps. Of course there is always the chance for stardom as well tomorrow since the TV set is built and ready to go for the feature table that will be in action until the sweet end of the tournament on Thursday.

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Thu, 07/28/2011 – 11:22 – PokerPages Staff

Looking at the various rooms on offer at PokerStars,beginning poker players will notice that in addition to the various variations of poker available, there are two ways to play the game, in tournaments, and cash ring game tables. The main difference to these methods of play is to do with the way you stake your money, and the prizes you can win.

Cash Ring Games

A cash ring game is the sort of game you may find played in a room at a party, and it’s certainly what you will have played if you’ve sat down at a poker table after just walking into a casino. Cash ring games consist of players staking their own money for each bet, and winning real money for each hand that they win. The risks and rewards are higher for this type of poker, as the stakes can become high.

Tournament Play

In tournament play, rather than betting with your own money, an entry fee, known as a buy-in is paid. This buy-in purchases a stack of chips that you use to bet in play. These chips have no monetary value, and you play until you either run out of chips or opponents. Players cannot walk away and cash in their chips in tournament play. Usually the number of players who cash in a tournament is predetermined, and is based on how many players have entered. In some tournaments, players battle it out for massive sums of money, like in the WSOP Main Event, where players can earn multi-million dollar prizes for a $10,000 buy-in.

Want to learn more? PokerSchoolOnlineis the Internet’s #1 source for poker information.