A small warm-up event to get into the groove, perhaps splash around a bit? Well, not in Monaco, where the high rollers jumped into the action right off the bat. At 6 p.m. local time, cards went in the air for the €10,300 NL Hold'em 8-Handed opening event.

The tournament allows for a single reentry and features a big blind ante, reducing the need for the entire table to post to one player. The shot clock is also in play, giving players just 30 seconds to come to a decision before having to use of their scarce time bank chips. All players receive 6 of them at the start, with each one of them buying a precious 30 second extension to come to a decision.

The best of the best have shown up right from the start and three tables are running in the early stages. A lot of usual suspects have taken their seats, including Steve O'Dwyer, Adrian Mateos, Benjamin Pollak, Rainer Kempe, Daniel Dvoress, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Nick Petrangelo, Paul Newey, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Jean-Noël Thorel and Ole Schemion.

The first €10,300 High Roller is a three-day event, with levels of 45 minutes on the first day and 60 minutes on each of the subsequent days. Late registration will be open up until the end of level 10, which will be two hours into Day 2. Last year, while under the PokerStars Championship banner, it was Schemion who captured gold in the opening event and won €274,750, the eight time the German juggernaut collected silverware at a PokerStars event.