2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT

Feature Coverage
Day: 9

44 Players Advance in the €25,000 High Roller; [Removed:414] Leads the Way

In a week of High Roller action, the latest event got underway today with ten levels of action in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT €25,000 High Roller. In total, it gathered 112 entries including 22 re-entries. At the end of the ten levels it is Dutch player [Removed:414] who is the overwhelming chip leader, having amassed 416,500 from the starting stack of 50,000.

The nearest player to Beumers is Belarussian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (315,500) who finished second in the PCA $25,000 High Roller, with Rainer Kempe not too far behind him. The German High Roller regular, who has $15 million in lifetime earnings, won the last hand of the night to clip the wings of Beumers (albeit not by much) and bag a respectable 268,000.

Earlier in the day there were big names galore, as the four High Roller regular winners so far at EPT Monte Carlo joined the field. Juan Pardo, Sam Greenwood, Justin Bonomo and Steve O'Dwyer all jumped in, along with PSC Monte Carlo €25,000 High Roller winner and de facto defending champion Julian Stuer.

Alongside the familiar faces there were a couple of new ones; Maria Konnikova (pictured above) and Bruno Lopes aka French rap legend Kool Shen were making their €25,000 High Roller debuts, but Konnikova would bust in Level 4, after losing an earlier hand with ace-queen against the ace-king of [Removed:17].

Another early elimination was David Grieco, who min-cashed yesterdays €25,000 Single Day High Roller. After running pocket jacks into the aces of Beumers, he re-entered only to be eliminated almost immediately at the hands of Eric Sfez.

Among the early chip leaders was Albert Daher, and he would hold onto that chip lead until the dinner break, with Beumers breathing down his neck along with Jean-Noel Thorel, who had earlier eliminated €10,000 High Roller champion Pardo.

With two levels to go, Daher had slipped back after a confrontation with Mustapha Kanit, and Beumers had grasped the initiative as the heads of state settled into their positions at the top of the chip counts. Beumers made trip nines against Lijo Lander to strengthen his position, and although Vaskaboinikau (pictured above) finished strongly, it was Beumers who holds the chip lead ahead of Day 2.

The prize pool is already over €2.6 million and is expected to grow by the time play resumes Friday at 12:30 p.m. local time, with late registration and single re-entry open until the start of play. Stay up to date with all the action from the €25,000 High Roller right here on PokerNews.

End of Day 1 Chip Counts (full)

NameCountryChips
[Removed:414]Netherlands416,500
Mikalai VaskaboinikauBelarus315,500
Bryn KenneyUSA273,500
Rainer KempeGermany268,000
Thomas MuehloeckerAustria262,000
Lucas ReevesUK213,000
Nick PetrangeloUSA200,000
Saar WilfIsrael189,000
Pascal HartmannGermany185,000
Albert DaherLebanon174,500
Fady KamarLebanon168,000
Ramin HajiyevAzerbaijan148,500
Sam GreenwoodCanada145,000
Alexander UskovRussia141,500
Bruno LopesFrance129,500
Joao VieiraPortugal129,000
Juan PardoSpain128,000
Christopher FrankGermany128,000
Ryan RiessUSA128,000
Markus DurneggerAustria126,500
Conor BeresfordUK108,500
Mikita BadziakouskiBelarus102,500
Julian StuerGermany101,000
Yan Shing TsangHong Kong99,000
Dario SammartinoItaly97,500
Roman EmelyanovRussia92,000
Jonathan ConcepcionSpain89,000
Alexandros KoloniasGreece82,500
Martin FingerGermany81,500
Steve O'DwyerIreland80,500
Dov MalnikIsrael79,500
Shyngis SatubayevKazakhstan79,000
Oleksii KhorosheninUkraine79,000
Justin BonomoUSA75,500
Julian ThomasGermany74,000
Lijo LanderSpain73,500
Liwei SunChina71,500
Stephen ChidwickUK68,000
Benjamin PollakFrance65,100
Dominik NitscheGermany43,500
Chen An LinTaiwan38,000
[Removed:17]New Zealand32,000
Benoit LamFrance21,500

Tags: Bruno LopesBryn KenneyErik SeidelIgor KurganovJustin BonomoMaria KonnikovaNicola GriecoRainer KempeSteve O'DwyerTimothy Adams