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Day 1b of the European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event went down yesterday, and the PokerStars-sponsored live tournament was filled to capacity. A staggering 465 players arrived, all in pursuit of the incredible 850,000 Euro reserved for first place. Including the players from Day 1a, a total of 811 individuals paid buy-ins to generate a prize pool of well over 4 million Euro.

The overall chip leader at present is Guillaume Darcourt of France, who holds 195,300 chips following an impressive performance on Day 1b. The pivotal moment came when Darcourt managed to bluff his opponents with Q-4 on a garbage board, finally stealing the pot on the river. Darcourt’s 35th place finish in this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event, not to mention a WPT title and a penchant for big-stack play, lends credence to the notion that he could contend for the EPT Barcelona title.

A number of others have the same thing in mind, with names such as James Mitchell, Matthias De Meulder, Marvin Rettenmaier, Vytautas Milvydas, Leo Fernandez and Eugene Katchalov close behind Darcourt’s chip lead. Katchalov is especially dangerous at 153,100 chips, while Milvydas is even closer with 172,400.

A number of PokerStars Pros also remain in the action, albeit with smaller chip stacks, including Victor Ramdin, Arnaud Mattern, Jason Mercier and Ivan Demidov. Famed tennis pro Boris Becker, who also has a unique sponsorship deal with PokerStars, earned nearly 48,000 chips after a series of battles with Bertrand Grospellier.

Just as many household names were ejected from the field prior to Day 2, including Liv Boeree, Daniel Negreanu, Roberto Romanello, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom, John Duthie and Chris Moneymaker.

The top 120 finishers will receive a payout, with 8,000 Euro reserved for 120th place and 73,000 Euro set aside as the minimum final table cash.