Loaded Final Six to Battle for €1.5 Million in Monte Carlo €100K
High-stakes assassin Christoph Vogelsang has worked himself into pole position to add €1.5 million and another super high roller title to his list of poker accomplishments.
The silent, scarf-clad German has the chip lead with the streamed final table of six set in the €100K Super High Roller at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT He holds a hair over 3 million in chips with blinds and antes at 10,000/25,000/25,000.
Vogelsang entered as one of the top stacks and stayed there for most of the day before taking a commanding advantage late when ace-king held against a massive three-bet shove from Mikita Badziakouski, who had a dominated ace-ten.
Vogelsang may have been due for success here as the former Super High Roller Bowl champ has come up mostly empty in the past in the PokerStars Monte Carlo high rollers with just one min-cash in a €25K.
The road forward is almost sure to be difficult, as he's facing four fellow superstars in Sam Greenwood (2,065,000), Isaac Haxton (1,680,000), Ole Schemion (1,490,000) and Justin Bonomo (1,045,000). The final player advancing into the money — the bubble also burst — is Iranian high roller Ali Reza Fatehi.
While observers will doubtless tag him the underdog, Fatehi has the chips — a solid stack of 1,840,000 — and has shown he can compete before when he had less experience than he does now.
"Of course [I'm excited]," he said. "Two years ago, in the very first tournament I played, I got third here."
Indeed, that cash was worth €828,500, still the best he's booked. He can do better than that on Saturday with a top-two placing. Fatehi also recently tasted victory at a high roller event in Cyprus, although this task will naturally be far taller, with the rewards far greater.
Fatehi was nearly cooked in one of the first big hands of the day when he got in there with sevens and had two outs against the kings of Timothy Adams. He found a seven in the window and the spin was on.
Later, Fatehi busted Julian Thomas with aces against ace-ten. He then found the call button with top pair, top kicker holding ace-jack when Badziakouski tried check-shoving the river with a total ace-king airball and Fatehi called off to double.
What looked like it could be an extended bubble — the average stack was 62 big blinds — burst when Fatehi stuck around with four-two of hearts and backdoors a flush when Jan Schwippert three-barreled. The German bet most of his stack on the river and sent his hand to the muck after calling off his last crumbs.
The final table gets rolling at noon local time here in Monaco, with the live stream starting a bit after that. Someone will be taking home €1,520,000, so come back to PokerNews for more feature coverage of the festival and head over to the PokerStars Blog for hand history updates of the final table if you can't tune in to the stream.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ali Reza Fatehi | Iran | 1,840,000 |
| 2 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 1,490,000 |
| 3 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 3,020,000 |
| 4 | Isaac Haxton | United States | 1,680,000 |
| 5 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 2,065,000 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | United States | 1,405,000 |