Phil Ivey

EPT8 Monaco $25,000 High Roller: Unstoppable Bonomo blazes again

Certain things are just easier in a High Roller’s world. You need to get to Monte Carlo from Nice? Helicopter it is, or maybe give the Ferrari a spin. You want a round of drinks, and one for the nanny, there’s your €1,000, no problem. Similarly, if you need to get to the final table of a poker tournament before the sun comes up, rely on the High Rollers to get it done.

They may have parted with at least €25,000 a head and be eyeing a first prize of more than a million, but we eased through day two of this event at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final. There were 45 players at noon, but only room for eight big reputations at the final tomorrow, so they duly set about deciding who it would be.

The answer they came up with was as follows:

Seat one – Philip Gruissem – 990,000
Seat two – Igor Kurganov – 1,288,000
Seat three – Daniel Negreanu – 660,000
Seat four – Justin Bonomo – 2,202,000
Seat five – Max Lykov – 271,000
Seat six – Artem Litvanov – 331,000
Seat seven – Noah Schwartz – 522,000
Seat eight – Nathan Schoo – 387,000

As ever that is a spectacular final table for a single poker tournament, and demonstrates once again what an off-the-charts brilliant season a couple of those guys are having.

Justin Bonomo described himself earlier today as running “hotter than the sun”, and he wasn’t only responding to a pot in which he sent two players to the rail with the worst hand.

Justin Bonomo: When you’re hot you’re Bonomo

In that spot, Bonomo had called all in with jacks against queens and kings, but turned a jack to send two out. But really Bonomo was referring to his victory earlier in the week in the €100,000 Super High Roller event, which netted him more than a million.

He is taking a massive lead to this final again, a huge chunk of which he won on the last hand of the night. He was up against Phil Ivey, which is formidable enough. But when you take on Phil Ivey, who is holding a set of kings, and still win, you know this is your time.

When they got all the money in on the turn on what would prove to be the final pot, Bonomo had top pair and a flush draw. The latter hit on the river and Ivey was out in ninth.

“When you’re hot, you’re hot,” Bonomo said. Two High Roller titles in a week – plus a main event cash – is positively ElkY-esque.

Grospellier himself flamed out of this tournament, but that doesn’t mean Team PokerStars Pro isn’t represented. The ever-reliable High Roller supremo Daniel Negreanu booked his place at the party tomorrow with a display of characteristic grit.

Daniel Negreanu: looking at another final table

As big pots were taking place all around him, Negreanu stuck to his small ball game – and all of a sudden he had a huge stack. If you small ball it enough in the right spots, that tends to happen.

Negreanu on form is a pleasure to watch, and he too is running hot. He made the same Super High Roller final table that Bonomo won, so tomorrow will be a match between the form players of the month.

Negreanu isn’t the only Team PokerStars Pro heading to the final tomorrow. Maxim Lykov is another who is a delight to see in full flow, and the way he ground up from being a short stack at bubble time demonstrated just how complete this young man’s game has become. We’ve seen him destroy tournaments with a big stack (EPT Kyiv, for example), but he has many, many gears.

Max Lykov: pretty good with the short-stack too

All of that is before we even begin with another sensational story. What a year is being had by Philip Gruissem. The young German won the High Roller in Barcelona (for €234,000), he won the High Roller in London (€450,200) and final tabled High Roller events in both Prague and San Remo.

If you chopped him in half at the waist, the words High Roller run through him like a stick of Monte Carlo rock. Gruissem is third in chips heading into his fifth High Roller event of the season. I’m not sure anything even close has ever been achieved before.

Philip Gruissem: Unstoppable high roller

Did I forget anyone? Well, there was almost Phil Ivey until he flew too close to the Bonomo sun. So it rests on the shoulders of any of Igor Kurganov, Artem Litvinov, Noah Schwartz or Nathan Schoo to write their own story tomorrow. Otherwise it’s the same old, brilliant, faces.

Play begins at noon, and we’ll have full coverage here. Click through if you want to check out how things went down in the main event today, or look back on today’s action with the links below.

Andrey Pateychuk bubbles
Daniel Negreanu fits in among the leaders
Andrew Badecker: chip leader
A Round With … Phil Ivey and Liv Boeree
Bright stars shining brightest
The run-good myth
The return of the High Rollers

Thanks again to Lina Olofsson for pictures. See you tomorrow.

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EPT8 Monaco $25,000 High Roller: Badecker more than holds his own

Andrew Badecker had a long wait at bagging time last night. As is customary on the EPT, the clock was stopped when it still showed 15 minutes in the day’s final level, then tournament staff told dealers to distribute five more hands. This stops people stalling to miss out on the big blind and nonsense like that, and is pretty much established policy around the world.

It also means that tables finish their day at slightly different times. Five big pots can take up to an hour longer to play than five very small ones and Badecker’s table got their last quintet done in double quick time. Badecker quickly scrawled 350,000 on his bag as his overnight count, but then had to wait an excruciating amount of time to discover whether he was the leader. Vincent van den Fluit was his closer challenger but was on the table where Max Lykov and Chris Moorman were involved long beyond anyone else.

As it turned out, Badecker got the result he was hoping for. Van den Fluit lost a small pot to peg him back to 341,000, so Badecker saw his name at the top of the pops overnight.

Andrew Badecker: big stack

And today in the Salle des Etoiles it is something we have grown used to seeing. Badecker has continued to crush, despite sitting with Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius, Liv Boeree, Faraz Jaka et al. As the tournament lost its 17th player and went down to two tables of eight, it didn’t get much easier for Badecker: Daniel Negreanu came to sit on his right, Philip Gruissem to his left and Maxim Lykov opposite.

“The thing about playing good players is that it’s fun and challenging and stuff, but I also like playing bad players too,” said a smirking Badecker. “It’s easier to win.”

So much for that refrain among new players, who sometimes foolishly claim they prefer to play against the best because only then can their sophisticated moves pay dividends. “It’s fun, but I think I’s also like to have eight whales here too,” Badecker said.

And Badecker knows. This is far from his first rodeo as he’s mixed it with players like this many times before. He won a World Series bracelet in Vegas last summer – in a $1,500 no limit shootout tournament – and a few months later he won another $388,000 for winning a $2,500 buy in at the Borgata.

As we get towards the money here in Monaco, Badecker has been responsible for at least four eliminations and is still in the chip leader, with 883,000. Just before the most recent break, he sent William Reynolds out with [ad][kc] versus Reynolds’ [kh][qc] shove.

William Reynolds, out short of the money

Badecker’s previous biggest cash on European soil was a €18,800 pick-up for second in a side event in Campione. That’s less than the buy in in this tournament, so he’s clearly set to surpass it.

He may describe Gruissem as his nemesis – and is now playing into him – but Badecker is “running good and playing good”. This could be where he evens up whatever grudge he has.

*****

While Badecker has been playing huge pots, whether he likes it or not, Daniel Negreanu has been consciously “playing small-ball poker”. At least that was how he accounted for a stack of about 500,000.

As stated above, Negreanu has moved on over with Philip Gruissem and Max Lykov to table Badecker. Something is going to have to give over there soon. It’ll be worth keeping an eye on the hand-by-hand stuff.

*****

Last two tables

Here are the stacks of the last 16 players in this High Roller event. We are playing one more hour before going to dinner, and then we will probably eat bubble for dessert. Fourteen players get paid.

Andrew Badecker 883,000
Philipp Gruissem 881,000
Artem Litvinov 689,500
Phil Ivey 637,000
Igor Kurganov 594,500
Daniel Negreanu PokerStars Team Pro 500,500
Noah Schwartz 437,500
Martin Finger 426,500
Justin Bonomo 362,500
Joseph Elpayaa 268,500
Nathan Schoo 249,500
Alexander Venovski 244,500
Haralabos Voulgaris 162,000 -64,000
Max Lykov PokerStars Team Pro 131,500 -92,500
Alex Bilokur 126,000 -86,000
Andrey Pateychuk 84,500

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EPT8 Monaco $25,000 High Roller: A Round With Ivey and Boeree…

Even in this world of shimmering stars, there is imbalance in the universe. Some tables seem even more stacked than others, a feat that might initially appear impossible.

But here’s proof. Table 45 began today looking like this:

1 – Liv Boeree, 2 – Mike McDonald, 3 – Faraz Jaka, 4 – Phil Ivey, 5 – David Sands, 6 – Joseph Elpayaa, 7 – Martin Finger, 8 – Andrew Badecker

and after McDonald and Jaka departed, they were replaced by Jason Somerville and Patrik Antonius.

Those latter two have also now busted, as did Sands recently, when he got it all in with a rag ace and lost to Ivey’s slightly bigger ace. It meant that when we went looking for today’s installment of “A Round With…”, the table line up was as follows:

Seat 1 – Liv Boeree – 330,000
Seat 2 – Nathan Schoo – 170,000
Seat 3 – empty
Seat 4 – Phil Ivey – 395,000
Seat 5 – William Reynolds – 105,000
Seat 6 – Joe Elpayaa – 210,000
Seat 7 – Andrew Badecker – 680,000

Liv Boeree

And here is how they were playing.

(The blinds were 2,000-4,000 (500 ante), with 25 players left.)

Hand one – Phil Ivey on the button
Liv Boeree raised to 10,000 and Reynolds shoved from the small blind for almost exactly 100,000. Boeree folded.

Hand two – William Reynolds on the button
Schoo opened from the hijack to 8,000 and everyone folded.

Hand three – Joe Elpayaa on the button
William Reynolds opened from the cut off to 8,500. It was good as everyone else passed.

Hand four – Andrew Badecker on the button
Folded to Badecker’s button, the table chip-leader (and also the leader of the whole tournament) raised to 9,000. He won.

Hand five – Liv Boeree on the button
Joe Elpayaa got his chips in first, sitting in the hijack seat. That was also UTG+1 so he was only the second person with the opportunity to open the pot. He made it 9,000 and Badecker, one seat to his left, three bet to 22,000. Everyone else folded quickly, as did Elpayaa.

Hand six – Nathan Schoo on the button
Andrew Badecker opened to 9,000. It won.

That was the end of the first round, which flew past in double quick time. None of these folk are stalling over their decisions, and there was no significant change in the stacks. So let’s try a few more hands…

Hand seven – Phil Ivey on the button
It was folded all the way round to William Reynolds in the small blind. He opened to 8,500 and everyone folded.

Hand eight – William Reynolds on the button
It was folded all the way to William Reynolds, who had shown a good deal of willingness to get involved. And he did again, raising to 8,500. But Andrew Badecker called from the big blind and that took the two of them to a flop of [kc][10c][3s].

Check, check.

The [kd] turned and Badecker bet 13,500, which Reynolds called. That took them to a [2s] river. Badecker didn’t slow down. He slid out a bet of what looked something like 30,000. Reynolds didn’t even want to know how much it was and folded.

Hand nine – Joe Elpayaa on the button
Phil Ivey opened from the hijack to 10,000 and Liv Boeree defended her big blind with a call. The flop came [jd][8d][qs] and Boeree check-folded to Ivey’s 13,000 bet.

Hand ten – Andrew Badecker on the button
William Reynolds opened from the hijack, making it 8,500. And that was good.

At this point, a player on one of the other tables busted, which meant only 24 were left in the tournament. The two spare seats on this table were quickly filled Haralabos Voulgaris and Zachary Clark.

I took that as my prompt to leave one of the least scintillating “A Round With…” posts of all time. But shortly after, word reached that Ivey had accounted for Boeree, vaulting him north of 700,000 and into the chip lead.

Phil Ivey

Perhaps we will be back…

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EPT8 Monaco $25,000 High Roller: The return

The High Rollers are back in Monaco today. Less than 11 hours after bagging up their stacks at the end of Day 1, the 45 survivors from a heated opening ten levels in this $25,000 buy in event have returned to push on through, into the money and then on to an eight-handed final table.

Trimming a field of 45 down to the mandatory eight can often take some time. But bubble play at a High Roller event tends to be markedly less tortuous than it can be in any regular tournament. Having wagered a quarter to play, most aren’t really concerned with picking up a slight return on their money. It’s all about a big score, and today’s the day they will be trying to get a stack to go into the deepest stages.

As action progresses – and it is due to begin at noon – you can follow blow-by-blow coverage and chip-count updates on our live coverage pages. We will apply a smattering of colour on the rest of the Blog.

So settle down and we’ll begin. Here are the starting tables and stacks, etc.

Day two table and seat draw
(Table, seat, player, chips)

45 1 Liv Boeree 112,600
45 2 Mike McDonald 213,500
45 3 Faraz Jaka 109,300
45 4 Phil Ivey 271,500
45 5 David Sands 139,300
45 6 Joseph Elpayaa 121,200
45 7 Martin Finger 203,700
45 8 Andrew Badecker 350,000

46 1 Max Lykov 96,200
46 2 Peter Akery 73,600
46 3 Alexander Uskov 261,900
46 4 Artem Litvinov 227,400
46 5 Oleksii Kovalchuk 88,400
46 6 Haralabos Voulgaris 125,500
46 7 David Peters 80,100
46 8 Philip Gurian 77,600

47 1 Vincent van der Fluit 341,200
47 2 David Williams 90,000
47 3 Alexander Venovski 51,800
47 4 William Reynolds 203,700
47 5 Philipp Gruissem 170,800
47 6 Grayson Ramage 29,100
47 7 Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom 67,500
47 8 Sorel Mizzi 120,200

48 1 Igor Kurganov 279,900
48 2 Alex Bilokur 141,400
48 3 Nathan Schoo 63,300
48 4 Zachary Clark 96,700
48 5 Chris Moorman 261,700
48 6 Noah Schwartz 230,200
48 7 Michael Telker 112,400

49 1 Dominykas Karmazinas 29,000
49 2 Dan Shak 32,500
49 3 Govert Metaal 38,900
49 4 Patrik Antonius 307,500
49 5 Richard Lyndaker 124,700
49 6 Imad Derwiche 40,100
49 7 Andrey Pateychuk 108,000

50 1 Daniel Cates 34,000
50 2 Jason Somerville 52,400
50 3 Roman Romanovsky 201,100
50 4 Daniel Negreanu 102,700
50 5 Sami Kelopuro 310,000
50 6 Bryn Kenney 261,300
50 7 Justin Bonomo 204,200

Andrew Badecker: chip leader

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EPT8 Monaco $25,000 High Roller: Badecker heads glittering field

When Lex Veldhuis became one of the first players knocked out of today’s €25,000 High Roller event in Monaco, Alexandre Gomes was moved to his seat at table 48. When Jonathan Duhamel busted from the same table a couple of hours later, Patrik Antonius was rotated in.

Liv Boeree spent a good portion of the day sat next to Phil Ivey. When the table broke, she found herself beside Faraz Jaka. Daniel Negreanu bounced around the room, past Viktor Blom, Isaac Haxton, Max Lykov, ElkY et al.

This was one of those poker tournaments, where the only soft spot was on the shoulders of the participants, who have the kind of bankroll sufficient to have their bodies massaged into steak tartare.

There were stars of the game at every single table, making it one of the most fiercely contested tournaments of the week. And it wasn’t exactly a small field. This has become the biggest High Roller event we have ever seen on the EPT. There were 133 entries at €25,000 a pop. It means that the winner, crowned on Tuesday, will get €1,080,000. And they will have earned every penny.

The opening flight today lasted 10 one-hour levels, at the end of which 46 players remained. The man with the most was the American Andrew Badecker, who signed for 350,000.

Andrew Badecker, High Roller leader

His closest challenger is Vincent van den Fluit, with 341,800 and then a whole raft of talent not so far behind. Sami Kelopuro is there, with 310,000. Antonius is there, with 307,500 and Ivey has 271,500.

Vincent van den Fluit

Sami Kelopuro

This field also still contains Justin Bonomo (204,200) hot from a Super High Roller success, and a smattering of Team PokerStars Pro: Daniel Negreanu (102,700), David Williams (90,000), Viktor Blom (67,500) and Boeree (112,600).

Liv Boeree and Daniel Negreanu

We return to the Salle des Etoiles at noon tomorrow to play down to our final table. No matter how big the reputations there are only eight spots there.

Take a look back at all of today’s coverage:

Balancing act begins
Before you win two, win one
A round with the high rollers
Rolling ever higher
It’s not cricket

Thanks to the photos of Lina Olofsson today. More of the same Swedish stylings tomorrow. Goodnight.

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EPT8 Monaco $25,000 High Roller: It’s not cricket

As our American friends tend to enjoy repeating, the great game of cricket can be impenetrable to people who don’t really understand its subtleties. It is indeed the sport in which a game can take five days to complete and even then no one wins.

Another of cricket’s unusual quirks is that for long periods, even the most avid follower will not really be able to tell who is in the lead. “Who’s winning?” someone might ask late on day two, and the cricket fan will likely reply: “Difficult to say really” before rambling on about the state of the pitch, the importance of the next partnership, overcast weather conditions due for day five and such like. You will often be well advised to wander away and leave them to it.

Major poker tournaments can be a lot like cricket in this regard. Once the felt starts cracking early on the fifth day, it can be much more difficult to get a read on the tricky players. And flushes are far more common under overcast skies.

Of course not. That is a joke. That is a cricket joke. But the wider point is this: much like cricket it can sometimes be really difficult to know who is winning a major poker tournament for much of the time. A player can double up on the first hand and surge to the top of the leader board, but the chances of them still being there at the end are very slim indeed.

Similarly we almost never see a pillar-to-post champion. You can be chip-leader at the end of the day before the final, but if you have a stinker when the tournament gets to the business end, your dreams will be in tatters.

The high roller event

As reporters, all we can really do is write what is happening at any one time, without any specific inside knowledge as to its longer-term relevance. A player getting knocked out is terminal for him or her, but the winner of the hand is only marginally more likely to go on to climb the winner’s rostrum.

At the moment, my colleague Donnie Peters is writing the hand-for-hand updates on this EPT High Roller. And he is also updating the chip count page. You can easily follow all that by clicking in the usual place, and that offers the most traditional answer to the question “Who’s winning?”

However we can also offer a brief snapshot, to tell you what’s going on right now in the tournament room. Its relevance is unclear. But it is only marginally less relevant than the chip-counts.

Boeree mixing it with Ivey
Few players over the past few years have been more focused and committed on a career in poker than Liv Boeree. She is the player who went from rank amateur on a reality show to the dizzy heights of EPT champion and Team PokerStars Pro. And almost all of it was due to hard work, persistence, and knowing how to grasp opportunity when it is presented.

Liv Boeree, high rolling

For all amateur poker players in the modern game, the pinnacle of achievement is playing against Phil Ivey, still clearly in the top three poker players alive, and maybe in the top one. Young players have gone to sleep for about the past 10 years dreaming one day of locking horns with Ivey.

For Boeree, that dream is now reality. In this High Roller event, she is now to Ivey’s immediate left – and she is making her positional advantage pay. Boeree has about 30,000 more chips than Ivey and is really putting him to the test.

Just recently, Boeree, on the button, had bet 21,000 on the river, looking at a board of [4d][4c][6d][as][9s]. Ivey was deep in contemplation, his unflappable demeanour visibly undermined. He counting out calling chips, then counted out raising chips, then put them down again. He peeled off his headphones and tossed them on the table. He looked to the sky, then to the ground. Then he called and was shown [6c][6h]. Ivey scooped up the sixes, put them with his own hand, and tossed the four cards into the muck.

Boeree is not only tangling with Ivey, she’s putting him to the test.

Hello, the internet
You might have heard by now that Viktor Blom is the man behind the Isildur1 account. His online performances have probably been watched by more people than any other player’s. Today he is back in the live environment, playing his second $25,000 bullet in the High Roller. And yet it must be like home from home.

Viktor Blom

Also on Blom’s table this evening are Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney and Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro, two other huge online players. Alex Kravchenko and Dan Shak, live pros both, are also involved on that table. It could yet get very ugly indeed.

How about this for tough
Lex Veldhuis busted some time ago from one of the most difficult tables ever assembled in live poker. And Mike Watson has also now bust from there. But no worries, because this slab of felt is still a beast: Alex Gomes sits with Sorel Mizzi and Max Lykov and Patrik Antonius and Ivan Demidov.

Rather them than me.

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EPT Monaco: Before you win two, win one

If you’ve ever read anything about the European Poker Tour (EPT), chances are you’ve read about this whole two-time winner hoodoo. We’ve written about it so many times, the keys practically type themselves. In short: no one has ever won two EPTszzzzzzzzzz.

Wake up!

Thing is, a quick glance around the High Roller field in Monaco today goes some way to explaining why no one has ever done the main event double. Quite apart from picking up a second trophy, some of poker’s dyed-in-the-wall legends have never even won a first.

It’s really quite stunning. Here are a few of the players in the Salle des Etoiles this afternoon, with the number of EPT titles in brackets beside their names:

Erik Seidel (0), Will Reynolds (0), Tom Marchese (0), Isaac Haxton (0), Vanessa Selbst (0), Bryn Kenney (0), Sami Kelopuro (0), Scott Seiver (0), Chris Moorman (0), David Williams (0), Dan Shak (0), Lex Veldhuis (0), Sorel Mizzi (0), Ivan Demidov (0), Jonathan Duhamel (0), Mike Watson (0), William Thorson (0), Martin Kabrhel (0), Daniel Negreanu (0), Toni Judet (0), Jason Sommerville (0), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (0), Daniel Cates (0), Phil Ivey (0), Alex Gomes (0), Dan Smith (0), Eugene Katchalov (0), JP Kelly (0), Philipp Gruissem (0), Steve O’Dwyer (0), Tobias Reinkemeier (0), Viktor Blom (0), Justin Bonomo (0) and Faraz Jaka (0).

Vanessa Selbst: In good company

You get the picture – and if this little lot haven’t managed a single title between them, you can see why it’s so hard for anyone to get another.

Of course, there also are some former main event champions in the field: Mike McDonald, Christophe Benzimra, Max Lykov, Martin Finger, Mark Teltscher, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier, Martin Schleich, Patrick Antonius and ElkY. And a significant number of them have already picked up High Roller titles too.

Kevin MacPhee

We’re not saying this lot aren’t celebrated. Far from it. But they seem to have about as much chance as you or I at becoming the first two-time champ.

*****

Tournament update:

At the end of the first level of play, there were 51 players on the entry list, of which 50 remained. At the end of the second level of play, there were 100 players on the entry list, of which 99 remained.

Now, even as we get close to the end of level three, the board shows 113 registrations and 112 still in.

But unfortunately this isn’t all as clear as it sounds. During this extended registration period, players have also been able to re-enter, once and once only. Govert Metaal, our first faller, did so. Ditto Daniel Negreanu. Tony Gregg busted and bought back; Kevin MacPhee busted but didn’t.

Viktor Blom busted and said he would be buying back but hasn’t yet. And doubtless in the coming hour a load more will be busting and maybe buying back, but maybe not. That number represents buy-ins, rather than actual people, and it’s impossible to keep up with it all at the moment.

So it’s as clear as mud, but hang in there and we will soon find out what is really going on.

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APPT Cebu: Talk the talk

It takes a certain kind of personality to be a talker at the poker table. Most people, when placed in stressful situations where a single decision could be the different in hundreds of thousands of dollars, clam up tight as a snare drum. You put the withering gaze of Phil Ivey on me and I’d probably close my eyes, never mind my mouth.

But there are others, like Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu, who retain their natural talkativeness at the poker table and use it as a weapon to extract information. Three disciples of the Negreanu School of Poker Chatter are seated together on Table 2.

Vietnamese player Hoang Anh Do’s English is rudimentary, though he doesn’t let that stand in the way of a constant stream of speech. American Carter Gill’s English is often unintelligible, as if his brain is thinking at light speed and it’s all his tongue can do to keep up. Australian Jacky Wang’s English is often hidden behind a smile and a laugh. Combined, the three are more than making up for the silence of the other 11 players left in the tournament.

Jacky, Do and Carter played a recent pot that Jacky opened from under the gun for 15,000. Do called from the small blind, then let out a noise of exasperation as Carter announced a re-raise. After thirty seconds he settled on 41,000 as the appropriate amount. Jacky thought a long time before folding. Do did likewise.

“No no. It’s ok, you can play,” pleaded Carter. “You know I only play one hand.” He showed the black aces.

“Whew!” said Jacky, wiping his hand over his face for dramatic effect. “I was so close to jamming on you so hard…”

“You go all in, I call!” Do told Carter.

“I wish I’d known,” replied Carter. “You have to tell me that next time!”

“What if I’d gone all in?” Jacky asked Do.

“No. You always kill me.”

“I always kill you? No way. You always kill me!”

A short while later they were at it again, with Do opening for the minimum 16,000, Carter three-bet shoving for 100,000 and Jacky re-shoving for 200,000.

“Bye bye bye!” Do said to Carter, laughin maniacally as he pitched his cards into the muck. But it wasn’t as bad as all that – Carter was flipping with [ac][tc] against [8d][8d]. Jacky flopped a set, [8h][4h][9d].

“Well I’ve still got a 7 draw, right?” said Carter, always optimistic. He did pick up an open-ended straight draw with the [jh] turn but bricked out the river. He turned to Jacky, shook Jacky’s hand, and said, “See ya later buddy.”

That’s one talker down, but the other are two are still in, competing hard against each other, jockeying for chips and for position in a tournament where the top prize isn’t chump change ($141,000). They’re having fun, with the game and with each other, while doing it. And who can argue with their success? They’re both still sitting at the table with 12 players left in the tournament. 232 less talkative players have already hit the rail.

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EPT8 Monaco: Massimiliano Martinez strikes at the bell to take lead

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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EPT8 Monaco: Day 2 seat draw

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.

ept monaco_day 1b_daniel negreanu.jpg

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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