High Roller Day 1 | 2010 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final - Monte Carlo

04-29-2010 11:42 UTC+2

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

[user66118]

There are only 24 players left in the Main Event over on the far side of the room, and that means there are a lot of bored, restless poker players kicking around Monte Carlo.

Enter the €25,000 High Roller event, and suddenly things are a bit more interesting. Last year's event drew a respectable field of 78 runners, and the tournament staff is optimistic for an even stronger turnout this year. Satellites have been running for weeks now, both in San Remo and here in Monaco, and the shift back to a traditional freeze-out should push the field up around the century mark by our rough guess.

The staff is busy making the final preparations to the room right now. Chip racks are out, the decks are being double checked to make sure we don't have any more unfortunate joker incidents, and the dealers are lined up and ready to throw some cards.

We're scheduled for a noon start, coinciding with the Main Event restart as well. It's about to get crazy in here, so go grab yourself a frosty cold beverage, prop your legs up, and get ready for an exciting day of poker.

Level: 1

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0

04-29-2010 12:19 UTC+2

Aaaaand They're Off

[user66118]

Tournament Director Kevin has issued the command, and the dealers have sprung into action. With the blinds at 100/200 and starting stacks of 50,000, the cards are a'flyin' and the High Roller event is officially a go.

It looks like we have eleven tables in play to begin, and registration will be open for another four hours. So if you've got €25,000 burning a hole in your pocket, get yourself down here and get signed up.

04-29-2010 12:31 UTC+2

Who's Here You Say?

[user140344]

From our walk around the room, we spotted 65 players entered in the field already, but as always, more are on the way. Here are just a few faces we've noticed.

Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, Barry Greenstein, Boris Becker, Jennifer Tilly, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke Schwartz, John Juanda, Neil Channing, Jon Aguiar, Humberto Brenes, Viktor Blom, Antoine Saout, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Alex Kravchenko, and Vanessa Rousso.

04-29-2010 12:38 UTC+2

Here They Come

[user66118]

More players are definitely on the way. The staff tells us they've sold 14 eight-handed tables so far, and the phone is ringing off the wall with players inquiring about open space.

We'll amend our initial estimate and set the new line at about 125 players. With that number, the total prize pool will exceed €3 million.

Just joining the field in the last few moments are EPT Warsaw champion Christophe Benzimra and EPT San Remo champion Liv Boeree. With all of the former EPT champions in the field (including several from this season), it's quite likely someone will earn themselves a second piece of EPT hardware come Saturday's final table.

04-29-2010 12:48 UTC+2

Strassmann Stressed

[user140344]

Johannes Strassmann made a raise from the cut-off. The player in the big blind bumped it up to 5,000 and Strassmann called.

The flop came down {7-Spades}

.

The big blind made it 7,000 before Strassmann threw in a bigger bet of 24,000. The big blind moved all his chips in the middle and Strassmann called.

Strassman: {10-Spades}

Big Blind: {j-Hearts}

The turn brought the {10-Clubs}

and the river the {k-Clubs}

leaving Strassmann just barely hanging on.

Tags: Johannes Strassmann

Level: 2

Blinds: 100/200

Ante: 0

04-29-2010 13:26 UTC+2

A Few More Notables

[user140344]

We took another walk around the room and caught Tony G sitting with Phil Laak, Viktor Blom, and PokerStars Serial Qualifier Pierre Neuville. Carlos Mortensen, David "Viffer" Peat, and Lex Velhuis have joined Liv Boeree at table 14.

Jeff Sarwer, Chad Brown, Sorel Mizzi, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, and Dario Minieri have also made their way to the tables.

04-29-2010 13:32 UTC+2

Reinkemeir Makes a Hero Call

[user140525]

We missed the hand but Phil Laak called us over to tell us about Tobias Reinkemeir's sick, sick call. Reinkemeir filled in a few details as he counted out his stack so that Alexey Rybin could double him up. Sounds like Rybin played the hand representing a flush, and on a {K-Clubs}

board, Rybin put Reinkemeir all in. Tobias called for all of his chips with {K-?}

and was right. Rybin, a Russian amateur who finished 5th at San Remo, showed {A-Hearts}

for a total bluff. Rybin still has over 20,000 to make a come back with, however.

04-29-2010 13:34 UTC+2

Short Handed So Early in the Morning

[user140525]

Most of the tables have their eight seats open for late registrants. Players can buy in until the end of the fourth level. But some of the tables are much shorter than that. Michael Binger is currently playing at a table with three other opponents, and he says they were already playing three-handed when he arrived. Binger asked the floor if the other seats had been sold, but there was no answer readily available. The tables will likely fill in as the afternoon goes on. You can't expect too many high rollers to get up quite this early.