From a huge, record-smashing turnout of 3,292 players, just eight players remain within the Estrellas Barcelona Main Event, with the overall table set to play out this afternoon and evening. The massive field for this €1,000 + €100 tournament added as much as a €3,193,240 prize pool, and almost €1.39 million of that remains up for grabs to be divided some of the final eight.

The ESPT6 Barcelona Main Event final table

With play set to start out in about an hour, let's get to grasp a bit more about each of today's final tablists:

Seat 1: Mario Lopez (Argentina) -- 14,410,000

Mario Lopez

A 38-year-old doctor and businessman, Lopez began playing poker over a decade ago and has met with an excessive amount of success, accumulating numerous tournament cashes including many at the Latin American Poker Tour where he's been an ordinary player since nearly the start of the LAPT's eight seasons. Indeed, with today's cash the Argentinian crosses the $1 million mark in career tourney earnings.

In March 2014, Lopez became an LAPT Main Event champion, winning LAPT7 Chile for just about $118K after a last table deal. Then this past summer he picked up his biggest cash ever within the $1,111 Toddler for One Drop event on the World Series of Poker, finishing runner-up out of 4,555 entries for just below $400K.

Seat 2: Daniel Selles (Spain) -- 3,120,000

Daniel Selles

One of 2 Spaniards at today's final table, 32-year-old Daniel Selles has only a few small cashes on his poker tournament résumé to this point, with a win in a $1K event on the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas in 2013 earning him his biggest cash by far of $31,494.

Seat 3: Jose Carlos Garcia (Poland) -- 8,855,000

Jose Carlos Garcia

Despite being only 22, Jose Carlos Garcia has already gathered a number of experience playing at final tables by which big cash prizes are at the line.

As "TryToExploit" on PokerStars, Garcia has accumulated significant earnings in tournaments including a Sunday Million win in March 2014 worth greater than $230K. We have seen the young player from Stalowa Wola at big final tables at the EPT this year as well, as he finished fourth within the LAPT Bahamas Main Event on the PCA in January (winning nearly $120K) and fifth within the EPT Grand Final Main Event at Monaco in May (winning slightly below $300K).

Seat 4: Eduard Sanchez (Spain) -- 7,420,000

Eduard Sanchez

From Mataró just outside Barcelona, Eduard Sanchez learned to play poker while a student and has recently made the move to become a certified. Like both Lopez and Forst, the 25-year-old "Edu" Sanchez earned his way into this event by qualifying online (which he prefers over live). He has only one small tournament cash previously for a third-place showing in a €150 event here at Casino Barcelona a year-and-a-half ago, so today will mark his biggest score by far, without reference to his finish.

Seat 5: Knut Nystedt (Norway) -- 7,705,000

Knut Nystedt

Norwegian Knut Nystedt has a couple of previous cashes to his credit from the Norwegian Championships, a tournament series many are surprised to search out have been held in England, Latvia, and Ireland. It was in Dublin that the 43-year-old earned his biggest career cash of €6,425, this means that he's joining other players at this final table enjoying a career-high score today. He learned the sport from his grandfather who way back taught him five-card draw.

Seat 6: Simon Sennhauser (Switzerland) -- 13,490,000

Simon Sennhauser

A 26-year-old builder, Simon Sennhauser has earned three dozen cashes in Las Vegas tournaments during the last three years, the biggest coming for a second-place finish in a $1,600 Deepstack Extravaganza event on the Venetian, good for a $74,431 score.

Seat 7: Kondah Abdelhadi (Morocco) -- 2,895,000

Kondah Abdelhadi

Longtime player and businessman Kondah Abdelhadi has nearly 100 tournament cashes to his credit, the vast majority of which he's earned in Marrakech in his native Morocco, with total lifetime earnings exceeding $440,000 -- adequate for second all-time at the Morocco money list.

Seat 8: Jonn Forst (Austria) - 24,090,000

Jonn Forst

The 31-year-old chip leader Jonn Forst of Vienna grabbed the lead clear of Garcia late yesterday with 10 players left, calling an enormous bluff after which adding still further to his stack to start out today's final table with nearly a 3rd of the chips in play.

Forst final tabled the Eureka 5 Main Event in Hamburg back in May, finishing fifth for a career-best €22,940 that he'll be exceeding today regardless of where he finishes.

When the general eight return today, here's what they'll be playing for:

1st: €491,0002nd: €256,5003rd: €168,0004th: €139,5005th: €116,5406th: €93,6007th: €71,4008th: €52,100

Play begins at 12:30 p.m. Central European Time -- that's six hours prior to Eastern time, and two hours in front of GMT. We'll have live updates inside the final table, so stick with regards to see who among this group sticks around for those huge payouts up top, and which one emerges with the coveted ESPT Barcelona Main Event trophy and €491,000 first prize.

To get the entire latest news, chip counts and payouts from EPT12 Barcelona, make sure you download the EPT App on both Android or IOS.

Haven't gotten a PokerStars account yet? Join the world's biggest site now.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Estrellas Poker Tour]