55 Players Survive as €2,200 EPT National High Roller Concludes First Day
After 15 levels of 40 minutes each, Day 1 of the €2,200 EPT National High Roller at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT has concluded its first of two days. 358 players showed up for the bigger buy-in National event, with 104 of them opting for a reentry to create a total field of 462 players a €924,000 prize pool and a first place prize of €173,000.
Chipleader after the first day is Matous Houžvicek of the Czech Republic, putting the Czechs in the lead in both National events. Houžvicek bagged 494,000, plenty more than Mamouni Smain (442,000) and Dario Sammartino (407.500). Spain's Leo Margets had a strong showing as well, ending the day in 5th place with 367,000 in chips.
Jack Salter, who was the chipleader throughout the early stages of the day, sits in 9th with 258,000. Other notables that made it through included EPT12 Grand Final winner Jan Bendik (224,000), online wizard Conor Beresford (223,500), Rainer Kempe (121,500) and Jose "Nacho" Barbero (94,000).
Saturday at 12:30 p.m. local time, the remaining players will return to play down until a winner is crowned, promising a long day ahead. Their seating and chip counts for Day 2 are as follows;
€2,200 EPT National Day 2 Seating and Chip Counts
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Alexandre Reard | France | 205,500 | 41 |
| 1 | 2 | Mikhail Soltanov | Russian Federation | 160,000 | 32 |
| 1 | 3 | Ville Tapio Sissonen | Finland | 76,000 | 15 |
| 1 | 4 | Dmitry Shchepkin | Russian Federation | 259,500 | 52 |
| 1 | 5 | Benjamin Saada | France | 389,000 | 78 |
| 1 | 6 | Chen An Lin | Taiwan, Province of China | 89,500 | 18 |
| 1 | 7 | Malek Grabsi | France | 155,000 | 31 |
| 1 | 8 | Lily Kiletto | United States | 231,000 | 46 |
| 2 | 1 | Massou Cohen | France | 54,500 | 11 |
| 2 | 3 | Franck Makaci | France | 212,000 | 42 |
| 2 | 4 | Leonardo Parmiggiani | Italy | 216,000 | 43 |
| 2 | 5 | Joseph Sabe | France | 124,000 | 25 |
| 2 | 6 | Arseniy Meshcheryakov | Russian Federation | 112,000 | 22 |
| 2 | 7 | Jan Bendik | Slovakia | 224,000 | 45 |
| 2 | 8 | Dmitriy Shilnikov | Russian Federation | 61,000 | 12 |
| 3 | 1 | Antonio Angel Ponce Guirao | Spain | 84,000 | 17 |
| 3 | 2 | Franz Ditz | Germany | 141,000 | 28 |
| 3 | 3 | Hani El Assaad | Lebanon | 138,000 | 28 |
| 3 | 4 | Jack Salter | United Kingdom | 258,000 | 52 |
| 3 | 5 | Christopher Chaudey | France | 122,000 | 24 |
| 3 | 6 | Honglin Jiang | United Kingdom | 207,500 | 42 |
| 3 | 7 | Leo Margets | Spain | 367,000 | 73 |
| 3 | 8 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 407,500 | 82 |
| 4 | 1 | Arthur Conan | France | 37,000 | 7 |
| 4 | 2 | Ran Azor | Israel | 212,000 | 42 |
| 4 | 3 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | 121,500 | 24 |
| 4 | 4 | Fady Kamar | Lebanon | 76,000 | 15 |
| 4 | 5 | Loic Menneteau | France | 39,500 | 8 |
| 4 | 6 | Jeffrey Hakim | Lebanon | 165,000 | 33 |
| 4 | 7 | Thomas Pettersson | Sweden | 93,000 | 19 |
| 4 | 8 | Yorane Kerignard | France | 164,000 | 33 |
| 5 | 1 | Dan Djorno | France | 206,500 | 41 |
| 5 | 2 | Mamouni Smain | Canada | 442,000 | 88 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Robert Montagnolli | Austria | 61,000 | 12 |
| 5 | 4 | Chaofei Wang | China | 157,500 | 32 |
| 5 | 5 | Sirzat Hissou | Germany | 61,500 | 12 |
| 5 | 6 | Xiaojie Cheng | China | 326,000 | 65 |
| 5 | 7 | George Ana | Romania | 116,000 | 23 |
| 5 | 8 | Yin Liu | China | 229,500 | 46 |
| 6 | 1 | Aviv Meir | Israel | 70,500 | 14 |
| 6 | 2 | Danny Covyn | Belgium | 72,000 | 14 |
| 6 | 3 | Benny Glaser | United Kingdom | 95,000 | 19 |
| 6 | 4 | Raffaele Carnevale | Italy | 139,500 | 28 |
| 6 | 5 | Conor Beresford | United Kingdom | 223,500 | 45 |
| 6 | 6 | Karim Abdelmoumene | France | 70,000 | 14 |
| 6 | 7 | Dinesh Alt | Switzerland | 353,000 | 71 |
| 6 | 8 | Tiziano Di Romualdo | Italy | 55,000 | 11 |
| 7 | 1 | Julian Thomas | Germany | 117,000 | 23 |
| 7 | 2 | Paul Theobald | Germany | 101,000 | 20 |
| 7 | 3 | Matous Houžvicek | Czech Republic | 491,000 | 98 |
| 7 | 4 | Colin Robinson | United States | 165,500 | 33 |
| 7 | 5 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 94,000 | 19 |
| 7 | 6 | Francesco Delfoco | Italy | 90,000 | 18 |
| 7 | 7 | Thierry Gogniat | France | 85,000 | 17 |
| 7 | 8 | Isabel Baltazar | France | 228,000 | 46 |