The 2013 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

€100,000 Super High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

The 2013 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
j9
Prize
€1,746,400
Event Info
Buy-in
€98,000
Prize Pool
€4,851,000
Entries
50
Level Info
Level
21
Blinds
50,000 / 100,000
Ante
10,000

€100,000 Super High Roller

Day 1 Completed

Jason Mercier Leads 30 Super High Rollers After Day 1

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier

The biggest and final event of the ninth EPT season started today and had a massive €100,000 buy in. After eight levels of play just 30 players remain but there is still an option to re-enter for any of the eliminated players. Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier is the overnight chip leader with 1,183,000 chips and he's miles ahead of Sorel Mizzi who's second in chips with 885,000.

The day started with 16 players but that quickly changed as there was a line at registration bumping the total up to 25. Throughout the day players kept registering and Patrik Antonius was among the last to buy in for first time during the final two hours of play. Many other players had already done some re-entries at that point and it was Phil Ivey who did the first one. Sam Trickett had a dream start as he doubled up with a flopped full house against PokerStars Team Online's Isaac Haxton.

Full Tilt's Professional Viktor Blom jumped ahead to an early lead as he managed to pick up many big pots. Defending champion Just Bonomo stepped into the spotlights early on when he busted Phil Ivey's first bullet. Bonomo check-raised all in on the turn with a double gutshot and flush draw against Ivey's set and he managed to hit on the river. Two Russians were next to go as Mikhail Smirnov and Ilya Bulychev were eliminated. The former bought back in while Bulychev remained on the rail. Moments later another player was knocked out as Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel ran his pocket tens into Bonomo's queens.

Duhamel was among the players that chose not to re-enter right away. Joseph Cheong, Sergii Baranov, Tom Marchese, John Juanda, Steven Silverman, Bertrand Grospellier, Marc-Andra Ladouceur also decided to call it an early night after losing their initial buy in. Ivey was the only player that was knocked out twice. Mike McDonald was responsible for Ivey's second elimination as he won a coin flip with ace-king versus tens. Ivey is likely to return tomorrow morning to put another €100,000 at risk.

Fabian Quoss bought back in after getting knocked out by Mike Watson but his second chance went a lot better. Quoss won aces versus kings against Andrew Lichtenberger and ended the day with 797,000 chips. GPI Player of the Year, Dan Smith was knocked out by Faraz Jaka when he ran his jacks into kings. Smith also re-entered and ended the day with 177,000.

Mercier climbed to the top after winning two huge hands in a row. First he doubled up through Bonomo and then he won a pot off Blom. Mercier made sure he went to sleep with the chip lead when he busted former chip leader Bonomo. Mercier turned a straight and ended up busting Bonomo who held a flopped set. Bonomo bought in again and start tomorrow with 260,000.

Right when the day was about to end Vladimir Troyanovsky pulled off an amazing call. This was without a doubt the hand of the day as Philipp Gruissem yelled, "WHAT!!!" when the Russian pulled the trigger. Troyanovsky called all in for a pot-sized bet with two sixes on a jack-nine-deuce-ten-four board. Troyanovski's opponent, Dani Stern, showed ace-queen and the Russian had just made a very impressive call. Troyanovski survived the day with 737,000 and that puts him fifth on the leader board.

The action resumes tomorrow at 12:00 Noon and players can decided up until that point whether or not they want to re . So far 41 have bought in, seven of which have done a re entry. We would like to see you again tomorrow as PokerNews brings you all the live updates of the €100,000 Super High Roller.

Tags: Jason Mercier

Official End-of-Day Chip Counts (full)

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Player Chips Progress
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
1,183,000 -177,000
Sorel Mizzi ca
Sorel Mizzi
885,000 185,000
Fabian Quoss de
Fabian Quoss
797,000 32,000
Scott Seiver us
Scott Seiver
759,000 89,000
Vladimir Troyanovski ru
Vladimir Troyanovski
737,000 -133,000
Paul Newey gb
Paul Newey
597,000 149,000
Mike Watson ca
Mike Watson
EPT 2X Winner
573,000
Sam Trickett gb
Sam Trickett
510,000 93,800
Erik Seidel us
Erik Seidel
Poker Hall of Famer
494,000 -11,000
Philipp Gruissem de
Philipp Gruissem
481,000 248,000
Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
452,000 232,000
Daniel Negreanu ca
Daniel Negreanu
420,000 -117,000
Niklas Heinecker de
Niklas Heinecker
372,000 -4,500
Marvin Rettenmaier de
Marvin Rettenmaier
354,000 274,000
Talal Shakerchi gb
Talal Shakerchi
346,000 124,000
Viktor Blom se
Viktor Blom
Full Tilt
319,000 -279,000
Max Altergott de
Max Altergott
310,000 -65,000
Timothy Adams ca
Timothy Adams
306,000 10,500
Tobias Reinkemeier de
Tobias Reinkemeier
300,000 26,500
Antonio Esfandiari us
Antonio Esfandiari
281,000 22,500
Andrew Lichtenberger us
Andrew Lichtenberger
272,000 -50,000
Justin Bonomo us
Justin Bonomo
260,000 10,000
Isaac Haxton us
Isaac Haxton
203,000 -50,600
Dan Smith us
Dan Smith
177,000 51,000
Alex Mos kn
Alex Mos
166,000 -332,000

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Timex Busts in Last Six Hands

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

The clock was paused with 15 minutes left of the level and each table will play six more hands before play ends for the night.

One player who didn't quite make it to that point was Mike McDonald after his ace-king was beaten by Seidel's ace-queen.

Esfandiari Busts Ladouceur's Bullet

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

Marc-Andre Ladouceur ended up all in preflop for 82,500 against Antonio Esfandiari on the feature table.

Ladouceur: {K-Diamonds}{Q-Spades}
Esfandiari: {A-Clubs}{K-Clubs}

The board ran out {A-Hearts}{9-Diamonds}{K-Spades}{9-Clubs}{6-Diamonds} and Ladouceur busted his bullet. With very little time remaining he is likely not to return today but he could jump back in tomorrow.

Player Chips Progress
Niklas Heinecker de
Niklas Heinecker
376,500 93,600
Timothy Adams ca
Timothy Adams
295,500 103,800
Tobias Reinkemeier de
Tobias Reinkemeier
273,500 5,500
Antonio Esfandiari us
Antonio Esfandiari
258,500 -25,800
Igor Kurganov ru
Igor Kurganov
100,000 -150,000
Marc-Andre Ladouceur ca
Marc-Andre Ladouceur
Busted

Tags: Antonio EsfandiariMarc-Andre Ladouceur

Aces Versus Kings

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

Fabian Quoss raised to 10,000 from the cutoff and Andrew Lichtenberger fought back from the big blind as he three-bet to 30,000. Quoss put in a four-bet to 70,000 and Lichtenberger tanked for a bit before five-betting to 120,000. Quoss decided to move all in for 379,000 and Lichtenberger made the call.

Lichtenberger: {K-Diamonds}{K-Clubs}
Quoss: {A-Hearts}{A-Clubs}

The flop brought {8-Clubs}{6-Spades}{3-Spades} and Quoss remained far ahead of his opponent. The turn, the {K-Hearts}, changed everything as Lichtenberger took the lead. Quoss was looking for one of the two remaining aces and the river brought the {A-Diamonds}.

Quoss' aces held up and he sighed out of relief as he managed to win the hand. Throughout this crazy hand both players remained very calm and nobody showed any emotion on both the turn and river.

Player Chips Progress
Fabian Quoss de
Fabian Quoss
765,000 515,000
Andrew Lichtenberger us
Andrew Lichtenberger
322,000 -378,000

Tags: Andrew LichtenbergerFabian Quoss

Negreanu Settles for a Double Up

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu

A minute after Daniel Negreanu admitted he was just hoping to make it to the end of the day without having to spend another €100,000, his chips were in the middle.

He called a Talal Shakerchi raise and a c-bet before the the rest of the chips went in on the turn when the board read {4-Clubs}{8-Spades}{j-Clubs}{6-Spades}.

Shakerchi opened {k-Clubs}{k-Spades} but had been out-flopped by Negreanu and his {4-Spades}{4-Diamonds} for a set. The river came as the {j-Diamonds}.

Player Chips Progress
Daniel Negreanu ca
Daniel Negreanu
537,000
Talal Shakerchi gb
Talal Shakerchi
222,000 -458,000

Tags: Daniel NegreanuTalal Shakerchi

Call of the Week from Vladimir Troyanovski

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

"WHAT!!!" shouted Philipp Gruissem after he saw what hand Vladimir Troyanovski called all in with against Dani Stern.

Troyanovski and Stern had made it to the turn with 360,000 already in the middle and the board read {j-Diamonds}{9-Spades}{2-Hearts}{10-Diamonds}. Stern was first to act from under the gun and his move was an all in one. Troyanovsky had 255,500 left in his locker and went deep into the tank. He thought for seven or eight minutes before he called.

Stern: {a-Spades}{q-Spades} for ace-queen high.
Troyanovski: {6-Clubs}{6-Hearts} for a lowly pair of sixes!

The river came {4-Diamonds} and Stern dropped all the way down to 120,000.

"You know you called with sixes, right?" asked Gruissem. "These are not pocket nines," he continued, now holding the cards in his hand. The whole table was stunned.

Player Chips Progress
Vladimir Troyanovski ru
Vladimir Troyanovski
870,000 870,000
Dani Stern us
Dani Stern
120,000 -460,000

Tags: Dani SternPhilipp GruissemVladimir Troyanovski