Six levels changed the shape of the PokerStars Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final today, as the remaining 394 players were ground down mercilessly in Europe’s biggest event, to a last 130, led by chip leader, Team PokerStars Pro Massimiliano Martinez.

Martinez took the lead at the very close of play, pulling off what some had noticed was a remarkable comeback. Yesterday the Italian had plummeted to just 10,000 after losing a vital flip against Vladimir Gehskenbein. Then, earlier today, he had his aces cracked by Fabrice Soulier. Undeterred he outflanked them all to grab the lead tonight, bagging up 456,300, succeeding where others had repeatedly failed.

Max Martinez

Nick Yunis has led a few times this season, each time though he has been unable to hold onto it, struggling with stage fright. Only Yunis will be able to explain it, and he pointed towards a mistake counting an opponent’s stack; but Monaco proved no less unforgiving for the talented Chilean who went from chip leader to the rail at the mid-way point.

The Italian rail in action

Vladimir Geshkenbein, who took the lead soon after Yunis gave it up, suffered a similar fate, although his self-confessed maniacal style might have had something to do with it. He also crashed out as the field began to thin.

As always the chip lead was proving a tricky token to hang on to.

Justin Bonomo, who started the week by winning the €100,000 Super High Roller, took it then lost it, although he managed to spend the day among the leaders. David Sands did the same, one of the first players past the 300,000 mark before Mohsin Charnia stretched that to 380,000 and then more, looking like the likely chip leader until Martinez turned on the heroics.

David “Doc” Sands

Mohsin Charnia

Joining him will be the remaining 130 or so players who will first face the task of breaching the bubble before securing a place in the penultimate day. They include the likes of Chris Brammer, Erik Seidel, Nacho Barbero, Richard Toth, Rupert Elder, Pius Heinz, Angel Guillen, Annette Obrestad, Nicolas Chouity, Martin Finger, Ilan Boujenah, Johnny Lodden, Faraz Jaka and Liv Boeree.

Liv Boeree

For many though, Season 8 of the European Poker Tour is already over. Gone today were Steve O’Dwyer, Barry Greenstein (C’est fini), Humberto Brenes, Isaac Baron, Ondrek Vinklarek, Chris Moneymaker, Phil Ivey, William Reynolds, Freddy Deeb, Tobias Reinkemeier, (breathe), Ana Marquez, John Eames, Chris Moorman, Dario Minieri, Toby Lewis, Daniel Negreanu, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Joe Cada, Fabrice Soulier, John O’Shea and Sam Trickett, the list goes on and on, and can be viewed here, as can the live coverage and chip counts from the day’s play.

Daniel Negreanu

The rest you can find in the articles published today, links to which can be found below…

Into Day 2 at Le Sporting

Day 2 seat draw

Your chip leader Nick Yunis

O’Shea seeks assistance from abroad

New look for TV table, same look for Obrestad

De Meulder and Mattern take on the media

So you want to be a high roller?

Northug and Hellner take their battle to the courts

Petersen on his EPT Berlin backroom analysis

Naujoks catching the eye

It takes us to Day 3, which begins tomorrow at 12 noon when the field will be reduced to just 24 players across three tables.

Monaco from Le Sporting

Until then, it’s goodnight from Monaco.

All photography &copy Neil Stoddart

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Christophe De Meulder is on my nemesis list. He may smile that twin grin beneath a swoop of well-coiffed hair but I know what’s going on. He’s evil. He must be. No-one with a clear conscious slowrolls aces in a media tournament freeroll surely? Especially not a Team PokerStars Pro who knows that you’re writing an article about the event to appear on their sponsor’s blog. What kind of sadist does that?

De Muelder joins EPT photographer Neil Stoddart on a scribbled piece of paper headed with the title ‘TheY mUSt PAy’. The snapper is another soulless beast: he slowrolled me with aces to bust me out of the last media tournament on tour. Native American Indians used to believe that a camera could steal a person’s soul. They were right, Stoddart has been harvesting them for years. If you’ve played an EPT then chances are a little piece of your humanity is locked up in the photographer’s hard drive. If you’ve played a ladies event then it definitely has, he circles those tables like a vulture.

Christophe De Meulder

Yesterday a €2,000 media freeroll was laid on by the Monte-Carlo®Casino mixing local and tour press with members of Team PokerStars Pro and, as it would happen, some random promotional girls who were just hanging around texting and showing their legs off.

My plan was to sit down, interview a Team Pro at the table, bust and write up the account. My table draw did not permit this. Across the four tables there were Vanessa Selbst, Arnaud Mattern, Richard Toth, Joe Cada, Ville Wahlbeck and, of course, De Meulder. None of them were at my table. I may be one of the only players to ever be gutted that they’ve got a soft draw; the ‘star draw’ at my table was PokerStars Blog video presenter Laura Cornelius. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t last long. Thankfully neither did our table, it was a turbo freeroll after all.

Joe Cada, today at the TV table

I was bumped onto Mattern and De Meulder’s table. This was more like it. Mattern I know well, he’s always willing to help out with the media, a forward thinking sponsored player. I told him as much and asked why he was always happy to get involved. Was it for the PR? Was he bored or was he thinking about his career?

“I have a lot of free time on my hands to be honest. I lead a very boring laugh,” said Mattern with a straight face before laughing. The Frenchman likes to laugh.

“It’s not that I never hang out with players, I do sometimes with normal players like Vanessa Selbst, but a lot of players are making bets all the time or only talking about poker. I like this sometimes but I really like normal people and in this world that means hanging out with the media, the dealers, the interviewers and the TV crew. They’re normal fun people to hang out with. Most of them have good and funny personalities. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like the players, it’s just that when you’re away so much it’s nice to have a break from the game,” said Mattern.

Arnaud Mattern

If he was playing the media long game then he was doing some with aplomb, which is obviously somewhat different from doing so with a plum (which would cost you approximately €12 here in Monaco).

“I think I had the best table draw but not only was it the funniest but I was beside the two cutest chicks and I had Mad (Harper) on my right, which is good value. She’s good to have around,” said Mattern.

I think he meant it in terms of good table chit-chat but given that Harper, the EPT media co-ordinator, tried to fold her option on the big blind and couldn’t get her head around the denomination of chips he could just as easily have meant about her play.

Mattern, having already said that he was ‘not made for gambling, I’m made for love,’ proved his point by getting sent to the rail but, quite possibly still (unsuccessfully) trying to hit on the ladies at the table, the Team Pro took to the dealer’s seat. A couple of misdeals later the Frenchman dealt my short stack pocket sevens and my chips went into the middle.

“Oh, it’s a good one,” said De Meulder, picking up his cards from the big blind, the last player left in the hand.

The Belgian peeled out the second card.

“Hmmm, this one’s pretty good too,” he said with friendly grin.

De Meulder slowly put the cards down on their back, smiling way too much for my liking. Aces. And Mattern was dealing… Okay, false accusations of collusion aside, De Meulder did seem to be a nice guy. But it was true about Stoddart; he is harvesting souls. You have been warned.

Tournament snapshot
Level 11: blinds 600-1,200, ante 100
Players: 252 of 665
Click here for live coverage and more features from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

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If you hadn’t already heard, there’s a new television set for The PokerStars Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final, not to mention the new name. It’s a beacon of joy and loveliness, bringing with it either fame and fortune, or belittling humiliation in front of a worldwide television audience.

Televised feature tables are getting more and more visually spectacular on their way to what can be the only inevitable setting, the inside of a hollowed out dormant volcano. But even then someone else will simply recreate the same set in a live volcano. This table is no less stunning.

Gone is the brown velour, in has come neon and LED lighting, a bank of it running along the back of the stage with the EPT logo in the middle, the whole structure made out of what looks like plastic bricks linked together.

There’s no noise up here on the stage, with the exception of Robbie Thompson quietly calling the cards for the guys in the truck out back, logging the action. I say no noise, there are of course the sounds of regular lunatics from the tournament floor, yelling about their success, or possibly their defeat; the security guards edging near them finding it difficult to tell.

There’s also some noise coming from the secondary feature, just off camera, where Daniel Negreanu, Marcel Luske and Freddy Deeb play. But on the main stage all is quiet, except for the audible hum of the generator behind the set.

The main draw comes in the form of three particular players; former World Series Main Event winner Joe Cada, former World Series of Poker Europe main event winner Annette Obrestad, and Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree.

Boeree sits with her head resting on her arm, which is leaning on the edge of the oversized table. Cada on the other hand, leans forward slightly, ready to play. Obrestad meanwhile looks like she always does; calm, still, ferocious, like a kitten with a machine gun. She may be the smallest here but hers is the biggest presence.

Annette Obrestad

She just dispatched Joackim Fissenko without fanfare. He got up to leave while Obrestad smiled at something another player said. Funny perhaps, but she’s coming after him next.

Harking back to our comments made yesterday about dressing for the occasion, Obrestad is in full battle dress, a red one actually, with a red scarf, heels, and red nail varnish. Another version of Obrestad exists somewhere dressed in all white. This version though is everything you would fear at a poker table.

Off the table Obrestad isn’t half as scary.

“I think it looks great,” she said, talking about the new set at the break. “I think it looks so much better than the old one. I actually commented on that a few days ago. They changed it and it looks really good.”

And did she choose the red dress to look menacing at the table?

“It’s not red, it’s pink! Pink is supposed to be a sweet colour, it’s not scary.”

Well a little bit scary.

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The Day 2 seat draw below shows that we have 394 players remaining from the 665 that started. Chip leader Nick Yunis, yes he of joint fourth place in the EPT Player of the Year race, sits on table 1 with the likes of Tony Gregg (double PCA final table finisher), Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin and EPT regular Manuel Bevand.

We’re slated to play six 75-minute levels today with a dinner break after the fourth level of the day. We suspect a seventh level may be played if we’re close to popping the money bubble. Click here for live coverage and more features from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Daniel Negreanu will be grinding his 22,400 stack

(Table, seat, name, chips)
1 1 Hafiz Khan 71,500
1 2 Thomas Wahlroos 24,300
1 3 Nicola Bordignon 41,400
1 4 Tony Gregg 34,700
1 5 Nick Yunis  191,700
1 6 Michel Carvin 59,800
1 7 Manuel Bevand 16,300
1 8 Victor Ramdin 7,000
1 9 Vadzim Markushevski 49,500

2 1 Andrew Badecker 83,800
2 2 Beatrice Sitbon 17,100
2 3 Aneris Adomkevicius 46,100
2 4 Aage Ravn 57,200
2 5 Barry Greenstein 71,100
2 6 Christophe Benzimra 25,000
2 7 Claus Bek Nielsen 37,700
2 8 Lawrie Inman 100,800
2 9 Casey Kastle 10,600

3 1 Martin Wendt 53,600
3 2 Suat Uyanik 33,200
3 3 Craig McCorkell 8,500
3 4 Ole Schemion 64,400
3 5 Patrick Renkers 23,700
3 6 Thibaud Genegou 16,900
3 7 Nils Svensson 76,800
3 8 Levon Bouchikian 45,400
3 9 Andrew Pantling  91,500

4 1 Jose Manuel Nadal 69,800
4 2 Andrey Gulyy 59,100
4 3 Philippe Narboni 16,200
4 4 Ricky Tang 23,200
4 5 Andrey Bondar 29,900
4 6 Mats Gavatin 48,100
4 7 Santiago Nadal Sordo 85,600
4 8 Alessio Isaia 139,600
4 9 Stephane Albertini 38,000

5 1 Ermo Kosk 10,600
5 2 Ivan Kudriavtcev 186,200
5 3 Daniel Studer 50,100
5 4 Vito Lonigro 31,900
5 5 Phillippe Rouas 17,800
5 6 Jeffrey Gross 26,800
5 7 Nathan Schoo 65,100
5 8 Emin Aghayev 82,500
5 9 Mick Graydon 40,500

6 1 Daniel Di Pasquale 65,400
6 2 Stephen Reynolds 78,200
6 3 Fioroni Aroldo 11,500
6 4 Vojtech Ruzicka 43,400
6 5 Marc Colomé 34,800
6 6 Andrea Benelli 53,200
6 7 Xavier Detournel 25,800
6 8 Lothar Meier 19,100
6 9 Vladimir Geshkenbein 103,900

7 1 Bryn Kenney 30,600
7 2 Bruno Launais 77,500
7 3 Edward Teems 59,700
7 4 Tom Marchese 112,000
7 5 Sergiy Baranov 23,700
7 6 Clayton Mozdzen 40,700
7 7 Marat Begenov 10,500
7 8 Olivier Douce 48,600
7 9 Kevin MacPhee 16,800

8 1 Mikhail Korotkikh 61,300
8 2 Marc-Andre Ladouceur 101,300
8 3 Adrian Veghinas 84,600
8 4 Dieter Albrecht 42,100
8 5 Cristea Ionut 52,100
8 6 Alain Daien 24,200
8 7 Andrei Stoenescu 17,700
8 8 Evgeny Taranyuk 11,200
8 9 George Danzer 31,200

9 1 Ignat Liviu 36,700
9 2 Rade Jovanovski 16,000
9 3 Sandor Demjan 43,000
9 4 Sorel Mizzi 61,600
9 5 Oleh Okhotskyi 74,000
9 6 Steve O’Dwyer 101,600
9 7 Alexey Sudarikov 22,800
9 8 Ziv Caspi 27,600
9 9 Mikalai Pobal 51,800

10 1 Zoltan Szabo 35,400
10 2 Fowzi Baroukh 28,600
10 3 Lucien Cohen 21,900
10 4 Mickael Tribert 45,600
10 5 Alain Goldberg 74,700
10 6 Vanessa Selbst 54,900
10 7 Yulius Sepman 16,000
10 8 Aubin Cazals 93,500
10 9 Ville Wahlbeck 61,700

11 1 Kenny Hicks 40,000
11 2 Giuseppe Pantaleo 19,600
11 3 Marco Leonzio 58,800
11 4 Mesbah Guerfi 24,300
11 5 David Peters 67,400
11 6 Toby Lewis 12,500
11 7 Scott Seiver 99,800
11 8 Clyde Tjauw Foe 82,600
11 9 Javier Garcia 48,000

12 1 Idris Ambraisse 125,000
12 2 Ariel Mantel 48,200
12 3 John Eames 157,200
12 4 Geert-Jan Potijk 116,000
12 5 Martin Schleich 59,300
12 6 John O’Shea 39,900
12 7 Yury Kerzhapkin 23,600
12 8 Johnny Lodden 12,600
12 9 Tudor Grangure 30,400

13 1 Benoit Albiges 43,400
13 2 Rumen Nanev 51,300
13 3 Jeffrey Hakim 25,900
13 4 George Lind 35,900
13 5 Vanessa Rousso 17,000
13 6 Sam Trickett 65,800
13 7 Nacho Barbero 105,400
13 8 Juan Gonzalez Venzano 85,500
13 9 Griffin Benger 10,600

14 1 Daniele Guidetti 42,300
14 2 Gaelle Baumann 35,400
14 3 Francis-Nicolas Bouchard 26,200
14 4 Mike Carter 12,400
14 5 Basil Yaiche 54,300
14 6 Ramon Romero Lanz 63,300
14 7 Jesse Martin 93,500
14 8 Seamus Cahill 78,900
14 9 Samuel Chartier  18,400

15 1 Bruno Fitoussi  14,000
15 2 Jonathan Villeneuve 58,500
15 3 Jean-Noel Thorel 100,400
15 4 Yannick Del Curto 30,400
15 5 Ognjen Sekularac 47,900
15 6 Igor Malyshkov 20,200
15 7 JP Kelly 83,700
15 8 Sinel Anton 69,100
15 9 Nicolas Chouity 38,700

16 1 Jason Somerville 13,200
16 2 Dimitar Danchev 67,000
16 3 Roman Romanovsky 58,300
16 4 Andrey Zaichenko  42,000
16 5 Mikhail Petrov 19,550
16 6 Dragan Kostic 34,400
16 7 Michael Kolkowicz 93,600
16 8 Justin Bonomo 79,000
16 9 Vincenzo Andrea 26,400

17 1 Matthias De Meulder 23,900
17 2 Leon Viellevoije 30,900
17 3 Kyle Julius 16,600
17 4 Phil Ivey 72,000
17 5 Anton Ionel 7,200
17 6 Sebastian Veghinas 48,600
17 7 Martial Blangenwitsch 60,000
17 8 Andrey Demidov 104,400
17 9 Maksim Kolosov 40,700

18 1 Marc Zaicik 35,800
18 2 Timofey Kuznetsov 99,700
18 3 Humberto Brenes 77,700
18 4 Carlos Sanchez Vegas 53,600
18 5 Kut Fu Chow 27,600
18 6 Daniel Negreanu 22,400
18 7 Marcel Luske 63,200
18 8 Maxim Panyak 6,700
18 9 Elliot Smith 45,700

19 1 Vladislav Varlashin 20,700
19 2 Maria Ho 55,500
19 3 Adham Beainy 47,000
19 5 Maroun Jazzar 25,300
19 6 Walid Bou-Habib 85,700
19 7 Ben Warrington 104,800
19 8 Dermot Blain 66,000
19 9 Marco Falanga 34,300

20 1 Keven Stammen 46,800
20 2 Dmitry Grishin 81,300
20 3 Jose Carlos Garcia 12,100
20 4 Paul Testud 28,900
20 5 Spencer Hudson 57,900
20 6 Bolivar Palacios 65,600
20 7 Giacomo Maisto 23,200
20 8 Kunimaro Kojo 36,900
20 9 Dario Minieri 94,700

21 1 Yann Brosolo 18,200
21 2 Chanracy Khun 43,700
21 3 Andrey Kuznetsov 33,900
21 4 Zachary Clark 24,100
21 5 Michael Telker 60,900
21 6 Ole Nergard 80,500
21 7 Patrick Sacrispeyre 8,500
21 8 Jason Mercier 52,200
21 9 Mickey Petersen 98,800

22 1 Joackim Fissenko 24,000
22 2 Flavius Puica 54,400
22 3 Pavel Gonchakov 67,200
22 4 Christopher Hunichen 32,200
22 5 Annette Obrestad 82,400
22 6 Anatoly Gurtovoy 118,100
22 7 Joe Cada 17,000
22 8 Vincent Verdickt 4,700
22 9 Liv Boeree 44,900

23 1 Amit Makhija 32,000
23 2 Yury Gulyy 26,500
23 3 Joao Nunes 14,000
23 4 Sergey Baburin 21,400
23 5 Fabrice Soulier 73,300
23 6 Jonathan Karamalikis 89,600
23 7 Andrey Danilyuk 60,000
23 8 Terje Augdal 49,500
23 9 Jude Ainsworth 41,000

24 1 Malte Moennig 136,900
24 2 Rasmus Vogt 25,000
24 3 Marcus Hellner 17,800
24 4 William Thorson 31,000
24 5 Marius Pospiech 12,500
24 6 Cengiz Ulusu 114,300
24 7 Alexander Venovski 48,500
24 8 Isaac Baron 40,100
24 9 Pratyush Buddiga 69,900

25 1 Javier Gil Candelas 10,800
25 2 Rodrigo Dos Santos Caprioli 36,800
25 3 Martin Kabrhel 167,800
25 4 Richard Toth 52,900
25 5 Samir Moukawem 24,000
25 6 Bryan Piccioli 60,900
25 7 Oleksandr Vaserfirer  43,200
25 8 Robert Sova 17,400
25 9 Martin Finger 85,900

26 1 Ilan Boujenah 117,000
26 2 Noah Boeken  83,900
26 3 Erik Cajelais 45,300
26 4 Raphael Kroll 27,100
26 5 Chris Oliver 58,900
26 6 Darko Stojanovic 13,300
26 7 Tibor Nagygyorgy 19,900
26 8 Konstantin Tolokno 39,600
26 9 Andrey Pateychuk 67,800

27 1 Thomas Muhlocker 40,200
27 2 Mathew Frankland 81,500
27 3 Frank Koopmann 113,900
27 4 Andrea Dato 30,700
27 6 Ben Vinson 65,500
27 7 Pierre Neuville 51,100
27 8 Janos Molnar 16,700
27 9 Chris Moneymaker 24,000

28 1 Klimashin Nikolaevich 80,400
28 2 Habib Esses 12,600
28 3 Matt Perrins 95,100
28 4 Chao Fei Wang 44,700
28 5 Adria Balaguer 18,700
28 6 Fady Kamar 62,300
28 7 Martins Adeniya 24,900
28 8 Vadzim Kursevich 53,300
28 9 Anders Berg 31,800

29 1 Jason Wheeler 112,900
29 2 Erich Kollmann 12,300
29 3 Martin Staszko 26,600
29 4 Juha Lauttamus 35,700
29 5 Vladimir Troyanovski 86,700
29 6 Michael Watson 45,800
29 7 Mikhail Semin 59,000
29 8 Roberto Menache 68,200
29 9 Emile Petit 21,000

30 1 Andres Artinano 125,200
30 2 Jamie Rosen 9,100
30 3 Damien Rony 49,900
30 4 Paul Vas Nunes 21,700
30 5 Imad Derwiche 27,400
30 6 Vasili Firsau 87,300
30 7 Jonathan Azoulay 33,700
30 8 Adam Levy 66,800
30 9 Oleg Larichev 41,300

31 1 Thomas Dolezal 54,700
31 2 Kristian Lunardi 20,200
31 3 Lucille Cailly 63,500
31 4 Jonathan Ben Soussan 99,000
31 5 Paul Berende 82,100
31 6 Rupert Elder 36,100
31 7 Andrew Dean 14,300
31 8 Simeon Naydenov 28,200
31 9 Tony Viklund 46,000

32 1 Christopher Brammer 67,500
32 2 Igor Sharaskin 47,300
32 3 Ghosn Fadi 30,400
32 4 Mikhail Ustinov 58,000
32 5 David Vamplew 15,500
32 6 Franck Blanc 160,800
32 7 Dorde Jovanovic 40,000
32 8 Pedro Pellicer 21,400
32 9 Ana Marquez 85,200

33 1 Nikolay Losev 59,500
33 2 Michele D’Aniello 71,500
33 3 Michael Dietrich 88,600
33 4 Vadim Vadimovich Belov 22,100
33 5 Dan Shak 33,200
33 6 Jean-Philippe Piquette 15,110
33 7 Mikael Azoulay 41,200
33 8 Omar Jadaa 27,200
33 9 Stephen Chidwick 49,000

34 1 Tobias Reinkemeier 35,625
34 2 Eric Qu 51,600
34 3 Riu Cao 90,600
34 4 Jan Petersen 61,200
34 5 Daniel Gomez 41,800
34 6 Chady Merhej 75,300
34 7 Yngve Andersen 20,200
34 8 Giulio Mascolo 10,210
34 9 Tauras Narmontas 27,600

35 1 Salman Behbehani 41,400
35 2 Shane Sigsbee 52,300
35 3 Carlos Mironiuk 75,700
35 4 Philip Gurian 19,300
35 5 Samantha Cohen 93,500
35 6 Jorge Galino Lopez 5,100
35 7 Torsten Brinkmann 24,200
35 8 Emanoil Savin 60,700
35 9 Robert Shields 32,900

36 1 Oleksii Kovalchuk 65,600
36 2 Adrian Schaap 76,400
36 3 Erik Seidel 56,500
36 4 Hamad Almannai 91,400
36 5 Joao Ribeiro 29,600
36 6 Alexander Uskov 36,000
36 7 Talal Shakerchi 45,100
36 8 Viktor Ivanov 13,800
36 9 Amichai Tzvi Barer 22,900

37 1 Anton Thorarinsson 22,100
37 2 Bruno Lopes 57,600
37 3 William Reynolds 29,900
37 4 Jeffrey Rossiter 39,600
37 5 Pius Heinz 87,100
37 6 Thomas Gabriel 68,500
37 7 Tristan Clemencon 121,100
37 8 Marvin Rettenmaier 45,400
37 9 David Sonelin 12,200

38 1 Faraz Jaka 42,900
38 2 Salvatore Bianco 71,600
38 3 Martin Vallo 88,600
38 4 Kevin Vandersmissen 29,700
38 5 Michael Winkels 16,100
38 6 Angel Guillen 60,200
38 7 Viacheslav Goryachev 51,100
38 8 Ilkin Amirov 36,000
38 9 Toni Judet 22,500

39 1 John Andress 41,900
39 2 Marco Della Tommasina 60,200
39 3 Chris Moorman 19,100
39 4 Jorge Carlos Delgado 73,800
39 5 Joris Springael 11,600
39 6 Guillaume Darcourt 49,500
39 7 David Sands 160,300
39 8 Thomas Mjeldheim 34,600
39 9 Liutauras Armanavicius 25,500

40 1 Freddy Deeb 114,600
40 2 Ibrahim Ghassan 20,900
40 3 Daniel Reijmer 32,100
40 4 Antonino Venneri 15,000
40 5 Joel Bez 45,000
40 6 Georges Ghossan 53,500
40 7 Ondrej Vinklarek 83,200
40 8 Fatima Moreira de Melo 61,500
40 9 Philipp Gruissem 24,600

41 1 Isabelle Mercier 23,900
41 2 Jonathan Turner 40,200
41 3 Noshrevan Gadelia 1,000
41 4 Cristiano Guerra 31,400
41 5 Kenny Hallaert 61,300
41 6 Dan Abouaf 89,100
41 7 Alessandro De Michele 49,800
41 8 Jesus Esteve 75,200
41 9 Alain Roy 16,400

42 1 Anatoly Chen 26,200
42 2 Eduardo Borio Carlini 21,300
42 3 Philip Parsons 67,300
42 4 Georges Dib 96,300
42 5 Dori Yacoub 14,100
42 6 Oleg Bychkov 82,600
42 7 Sandra Naujoks 37,100
42 8 Leo Margets 55,100
42 9 Borge Dypvik 46,200

43 1 Dominykas Karmazinas 81,600
43 2 Bernard Guigon 57,300
43 3 Joep van den Bijgaart 13,400
43 4 Mohsin Charania 68,300
43 5 Reza Mostafavi Tabatabaei 110,900
43 6 Mathieu Clavet 30,100
43 7 Jose Angel Latorre 46,800
43 8 Jesus Cortes 23,500
43 9 Freddy Darakjian 39,900

44 1 Robert-Andrei Pescaru 27,600
44 2 Andoni Larrabe Sánchez 181,300
44 3 Max Martinez 63,400
44 4 Jason Gray 34,600
44 5 Melanie Weisner 15,900
44 6 Sergio Castelluccio 83,100
44 7 Sergey Kishnev 50,600
44 8 JC Alvarado 43,000
44 9 Antoine Saout 22,300

Tournament snapshot
Level 9: blinds 400-800, ante 100
Players: 394 of 665
Click here for live coverage and more features from The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

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The opening day of any European Poker Tour event tends to be without real plot. It’s mainly a matter of surviving through the day’s eight levels to return on Day 2 when it becomes interesting. Invariably there are some weighty movers on Day 1A, players who can at least be plucked from the rest as having done some good that could serve them well as the week progresses.

Today those players were John Eames and Martin Kabrhel.

The pair shared the same table from the start, between them just a dealer and Freddy Deeb, each amassing the two big stacks that were out front when all were bagged up. For Kabrhel 167,800, for Eames 157,200. David “Doc” Sands finished in between that on 160,300.

The Salle des Etoiles tournament room

The two players cut differing figures at the table. English Eames is a solid player, unlikely to fluster easily. He was massaged to the finish, the soothing effects of a big stack doing as much good as the back rub; a triple up with a flopped straight giving him the opportunity to proceed with caution.

John Eames

martin Kabrhel

Kabrhel is an altogether different figure who needs only a pair of sunglasses and a lift to the tournament room to excel, as those who saw him dominate side events last season will know. “I just play funny,” he said, trying to account for his success. He’s right, funny strange and funny ha-ha in equal measure.

The Twitter Wall

The rest of the field of 271 followed in their shadow in the Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final.

Deeb, Scott Seiver, JP Kelly and Nicolas Chouity will all return, as will current Player of the Year leader Ondrej Vinklarek. Joining them will be Mickey Petersen, Phil Ivey, Joe Cada, Luca Pagano, Ville Wahlbeck, Richard Toth, Mike McDonald, Vanessa Selbst and Jude Ainsworth.

Not returning, at least not for the main event will be Arnaud Mattern, Jake Cody, Xuan Liu, Andrew Chen, Isaac Haxton, Elio Fox, Antony Lellouche, James Akenhead and Roberto Romanello, who will probably be found in every side event until next week, trying to top Vinklarek to the PoY title.

The Grand Hotel hairpin, part of the Grand Prix circuit

Find all the scores from Day 1 on the Official Chip Count page, with colour features, including news from the head-up event, the Super High Roller and of the new EPT Season 9, can be found below.

Main event about to begin as new season announced

The glitz and glamour

Healthy, wealthy and wise

The Twitter wall above Moorman’s head

The men in white suits

Justin Bonomo looking ahead to main event after Super High Roller win

Coren and Weisner heads up for the title

Play continues tomorrow when the bulk fo the day one field will take their seats in the Salle des Etoiles. They start at 12 noon tomorrow.

What looks to be the God of hats, in Monaco today

Until then it’s goodnight from Monaco.

All photography &copy Neil Stoddart

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In celebration of national stalking awareness day we’re going to give you the Twitter addresses of a whole bunch of Team PokerStars Pros. Go figure. As we mentioned yesterday, Twitter is a great way to keep a close eye on your favourite players when they’re on tour and at home (but in a safe sanctioned manner).

Some may be more prolific than others but you’ll certainly get some insight into the lives of the sponsored grinders, their tournament lives if not their day to day grind.

Theo Jorgensen: ‘What do you mean you don’t follow me?’

Just copy and paste the addresses of the pros that you’d like to follow into your Twitter search box to get started.

Alexander Kravchenko @kravchenko71
Ana Marquez @AnaMarquez86
André Akkari @aakkari
Angel Guillen @Boloban1
Arnaud Mattern @ArnaudMattern
Barry Greenstein @barrygreenstein
Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier @elkypoker
Bryan Huang @BryanHuang_
Celina Lin @Celina_Lin
Chad Brown @downtownchad
Charlotte Van Brabander @sjlot
Chris Moneymaker @CMONEYMAKER
Christian de Leon @Grillo24
Christophe de Meulder @crispokers
Dag Palovic @dagpalovic
Daniel Negreanu @realkidpoker + @Dnchips (for tournament updates)
Dario Minieri @DarioMinieri
David Williams @dwpoker
Eugene Katchalov @EugeneKatchalov
Fatima Moreiro de Melo @FatimaMdM
George Danzer @trickyscarfy
Henrique Pinho @Henrique_Policy
Humberto Brenes @humbertoshark
Ivan Demidov @IvanDemidovPs
Jan Heitmann @JanHeitmann
Jason Mercier @JasonMercier
Joao Nunes @jomanepokerpt
Joe Cada @Cada99
Johnny Lodden @johnnylodden
Jonathan Duhamel @JonathanDuhamel
Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero @nacho_barbero
Juan Manuel Pastor @pastorpoker
Jude Ainsworth @jainsworthpoker
Lex Veldhuis @RaSZi
Liv Boeree @liv_boeree
Luca Pagano @LucaPagano
Marcel Luske @MarcelLuske
Marcin Horecki @MarcinHorecki
Martin Hruby @AABenjaminAA
Martin Staszko @MStaszko
Matthias de Meulder @mattionfire
Maxim Lykov @superdecay
Michael Keiner @DocPoker
Nuno Coelho @zumytime
Pier Paolo Fabretti @P_Fabretti
Pius Heinz @MastaP89
Raymond Wu @RaymondSWu
Richard Toth @TothRichard
Rino Mathis @RinoMathis
Sandra Najouks @SandraNaujoks
Theo Jorgensen @Theo_Jorgensen
Toni Judet @toni_judet
Vanessa Rousso @VanessaRousso
Vanessa Selbst @vanessaselbst
Vicky Coren @VictoriaCoren
Victor Ramdin @victorramdin
Viktor Blom @realisildur1

Tournament snapshot
Level 15: blinds 1,500-3,000
Players: 132 of 745
Average stack: 169,500
Click here for live coverage and more features.

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Nick Yunis promised the story would get better, and it did.

The man who won a satellite entry to the PCA $25,000 High Roller last night, busted out in the first three levels today and then won a last-minute single table satellite to get back in and finish Day 1 with the chip lead.

Yunis’ 407,100 stack is the best of the 56 players remaining in the event tonight.

Nick Yunis

Yunis’ story is one for the books to be sure, but if there was another equally unlikely tale today, it came in the form of multimillionaire venture capitalist and amateur poker player Bill Perkins. The man from Houston, Texas has been trying his hand at high stakes poker and seems to have found a foothold in this event. His 345,700 is good for second place headed into Day 2.

Bill Perkins

There are not a great many poker players in the world who can afford to casually sign up for a $25,000 buy-in poker tournament. There are even fewer who can afford to rebuy if they bust out early. Most of those people are on Paradise Island this week. One hundred forty-one of them showed up today. Seven of them bought in twice.

This field highlights poker’s elite: former PCA champions, WSOP title-holders, Team PokerStars Pro, a multimillionaire amateur, and some of online and live poker’s greatest high stakes specialists. That is to say, if we were to list the notable players, we’d be listing the entire remaining field (which, by the way, you will find on the Chip Counts tab of our $25,000 High Roller coverage). With that understood, still contending for the title tonight are several members of the PokerStars family.

Jonathan Duhamel (WSOP champion and Team PokerStars Pro) 226,300

Pierre Neuville (Team PokerStars Pro) 150,700

Ville Wahlbeck (Team PokerStars Pro) 128,600

Barry Greenstein (Team PokerStars Pro) 83,000

Joe Cada (WSOP champion and Team PokerStars Pro) 91,400

Randy Lew (Team PokerStars Online) 25,600

Barry Greenstein

Randy Lew

Jonathan Duhamel

Tomorrow (or let’s be honest….later today), the top 16 will make the money on the way to Saturday’s final table of eight. Whoever comes out on top will win $1,134,930.

During the 15 hours we spent on the clock today, we managed to find a ton of great stories around the big event. Here’s a rundown of all of them:

Texas millionaire Bill Perkins takes another shot

The multimillionaires’ table

Negreanu threatened with a punch in the face

High rollers finding things to do

Canada Cup winner David Labchuk’s secret

Pierre Neuville, proving how poker keeps you young

Jason Mercier: player, model, failed coffee drinker

Viktor Blom booted by Texas venture capitalist

How the high rollers are different from everybody else

Whispering Rousso racking up chips

The unlikely story of Nick Yunis & the $25,000 High Roller

Late nights, lots of noise

Ville Wahlbeck’s quads

The bad part about busting Erik Cajelais

Two world champs and a McLovin

Also, we can’t let the end of the night pass without mentioning the amazing final table of the PCA main event. The top three players are all separated by one big blind. One of those players is Xuan Liu who now holds the distinction of having gone the deepest of any woman in PCA history. For a wrap-up of the day and all you need to know about the final table, visit the 2012 PCA main event live updates, chip counts, and payouts page.

Given that we are able to drag ourselves from our beds, we’ll be right back here in about nine hours to resume our coverage of the PCA $25,000 High Roller (not to mention full coverage of the final table). The math tells us it should take all day and night to get down to the final table of eight. Here’s to hoping the math is wrong.

In the meantime, thanks for sticking with us tonight. We’ll see you in a few hours to see if Nick Yunis and Bill Perkins can continue to amaze.

All High Roller photography © Neil Stoddart

Tags: Baltic Poker Festival | ept | European Poker Tour | festival | italian | joe cada | news | planets | portugal | TOC

What is McLovin doing playing in the $25,000 High Roller? Hold on one second, that’s not McLovin, that’s Noah Schwartz, winner of the $5,000 PLO turbo side event of last week. But it does look like him, so much so he’s even wearing a McLovin t-shirt.

If you don’t know who McLovin, well, you’re missing out. The character from SuperBad was a teenage hero: a ludicrous and unbelievable alter-ego adopted through fake ID by a young geek called Fogel. Schwartz, a talkative and somewhat excitable player, must have realised that there was no point fighting it. He’s embraced McLovin and so far he’s embraced the High Roller seeming happier than most to get involved in pots.

Noah Schwartz: aka McLovin

Schwartz is currently sat in seat four where his 45,000 stack holds position over two World Champs in form; Joe Cada in seat one, who won a $2,000 side event for $175,550, and Jonathan Duhamel, who finished fourth in the $100,000 Super High Roller then took down a $5,000 side event for another $239,830.

Jonathan Duhamel: a world champ

Joe Cada: another world champ

Cada is stacked up with 85,000, Duhamel with a top ten stack of 230,000, but still Schwartz wants to play, now with a little more than 20 big blinds.

Cada: “Hey kid, what’s your real name?”
Schwartz: “Schwartz… It’s Schwartz.”
Duhamel: “Schwartz? F*** that, we’re calling you McLovin!”*

Ah, McLovin, McLovin, McLovin, McLovin.

*This conversation never took place, more’s the pity. It’s a parody of a scene from SuperBad.

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Ville Wahlbeck started today on the most tricky of tables. Described earlier right here, it was also the home of Joe Cada, Jonathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov, ElkY and Philipp Gruissem. While Duhamel in particular has prospered, up to more than 200,000 right now, Wahlbeck has been finding the going tough. He never really got over his starting stack of 50,000. More recently he had slid down to 22,200.

On the button, and facing an opening raise from the player in the cut-off, the Team PokerStars Pro decided to make a stand, shoving with [kh][qs]. After a few moments in the tank, his opponent elected to call with [ac][9s]. Although his tournament life was on the line, Wahlbeck was not that far behind.

Ville Wahlbeck with Theo Jorgensen offering support

If you’re going to come from behind to win a hand, however, it may as well be like this: the flop came [qc][qd][qh] to make Wahlbeck quads, ensuring a double up back over his starting stack for the first time.

Gualter Salles

Not so much good fortune for Team PokerStars SportStar Gualter Salles, who just busted in horrible fashion to Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald.

“I had about 120,000 and got it all in pre-flop with kings against his queens. He turned a queen,” Salles, a former racing driver and team owner from Brazil explained ruefully to me.

Mike McDonald

Even though one or two members of Team PokerStars Blog are about to die on their feet, we’ve still got two more hours to play this morning in the high roller. About 72 of the 148 entries remain, and the long night is necessary to ensure we can get down to a final table of eight by end of play tomorrow.

Please send buckets of hot coffee to media row.

Tags: 10th anniversary | eureka poker tour | European Poker Tour | portugal poker series | russian poker series | sports | TOC | wbcoop | World Series of Poker | world-series

Bill Perkins isn’t a quitter. That much we know.

Known in other circles as William O. Perkins III, the Texas titan founded the venture capital firm Small Ventures to focus on energy, technology, and entertainment. For the past 15 years, he’s been making start-ups’ dreams come true, and he’s done pretty well for himself in the process. The one-time University of Iowa Hawkeyes football player is a film buff and uses some of his massively accumulated wealth to fund movie projects in addition to other energy and technology-related efforts. Now living in Houston with his wife and three kids, Perkins is an opinionated, wealthy Renaissance man. He’s also a poker player.

Bill Perkins in the $100,000 Super High Roller

Before last week what we knew of Perkins was that he had played on the PokerStars Big Game and High Stakes Poker. After last week we knew Perkins wasn’t a quitter.

After putting $100,000 into the 2012 PCA Super High Roller, Perkins busted out in fairly short order. So, he did what any other Texas millionaire might do. He found $98,500 and bought in again. He ended up busting a couple of hours later and we thought that might be the last we saw of him for a while.

Instead, Perkins is once again proving he is no quitter. Today, as the $25,000 High Roller kicks off, Perkins is in the field again and looking to put himself up against the best in the world. While the $100,000 event might have been a curiosity for the guy, the $25,000 is a different beast. While the fields are similar, Perkins is likely to face people and styles he has never seen before. While we don’t yet know everyone who is showing up, here’s a shortlist of early registrants.

Erik Cajelais

Jonathan Little

Marcelo Mesqueu

Lawrence Greenberg

Daniel Negreanu

Shawn Buchanan

Yevgeniy Timoshenko

David Sands

David Labchuk

Bolivar Palacios

Scott Baumstein

Eui Woong Kim

Govert Metaal

Micah Raskin

Anton Makievskiy

Taylor Paur

Ricardo Tavares

Elijah Berg

Bill Perkins

David Benefield

Justin Smith

Pierre Neuville

Vanessa Rousso

Shaun Deeb

Kevin MacPhee

Liv Boeree

ElkY

Eugene Katchalov

Jonathan Duhamel

Phillip Gruissem

Joe Cada

Randy Lew

Mike McDonald

Vanessa Selsbt

Pius Heinz

Jude Ainsworth

Leo Fernandez

Sami Kelopuro

If Perkins’ prior poker history is any indication, this could be a short day for the venture capital titan. However, there isn’t any reason to bet against him. After all, the smart money knows this: Bill Perkins is no quitter.

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