Feature Coverage
Day 3 Completed
2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT
Feature Coverage
Day: 3
€1,100 EPT National: Thomas Muehloecker Leads, 1,501 Entries Create Massive Field
After all three of the €1,100 EPT National at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT starting days are in the bag, it's none other than Austrian high roller Thomas Muehloecker who sits on top of the mountain. Muehlocker's rampage on Day 1b ended with 863,000 in chips, giving him a towering lead over his nearest challengers, Day 1c chipleader Ionut Trifu (676,000), Guillaume Diaz (622,000) and David Urban (600,500).
Muehloecker already boasts over $5,2 million in lifetime winnings and has put himself in strong contention to add possibly six more figures to that total. The total prizepool and payouts will be announced at the start of Day 2.
A 515-strong field showed up for Day 1a and today, 633 registered during the turbo Day 1b. Another 333 took their seats at 7 p.m. for the even speedier Day 1c, which resulted in 1,499 entries total. Two players no-showed the event and were blinded off, creating a total field of 1,501 players (837 unique, 664 reentries). It's a massive increase compared to last year's total of 1,252, when Andreas Klatt walked away with the eventual title and victory. We'll get a new winner this year, as Klatt failed to advance to the second day. With all three starting days now in the books, 224 are still in contention to become the 2018 €1,100 EPT National champion in Monte Carlo.
€1,100 EPT National Day 1 Total Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | 863,000 |
| 2 | Ionut Trifu | Romania | 676,000 |
| 3 | Guillaume Diaz | France | 622,000 |
| 4 | David Urban | Slovakia | 600,500 |
| 5 | Jeremy Routier | France | 599,000 |
| 6 | Nicolas Tytgat | France | 585,000 |
| 7 | Adnan Chamaa | United Kingdom | 584,000 |
| 8 | Alexandre Le Vaillant | France | 551,000 |
| 9 | [Removed:44] | Iran | 542,000 |
| 10 | Randy "nanonoko" Lew | United States | 533,000 |
Team PokerStars Pro online Randy "nanonoko" Lew had a terrific showing on Day 1b and finds himself in tenth place after all survivors were combined. "I'm surprised. Usually, people go 'when are you going to bust?'" Lew laughed after the day. "I've been working on my tournament game a lot. I really want to be a very good tournament player," the online cash game phenom added.
Lew wasn't the only notable to make it through from Day 1b, as Gaelle Baumann (473,500), Mattias De Meulder (310,500), two-time National champion Georgios Vrakas (298,500), Markus Durnegger (264,000), Igor Yaroshevskyy (229,000), Christophe De Meulder (177,000), Stefan Jedlicka (158,000) and Nicolas Chouity (111,000) all had a strong showing as well.
On Day 1c, it was Ionut Trifu from Romania who topped the counts during the 20-minute level turbo starting day. American pro Jason Wheeler spun it up to 518,000, the second best stack of the day and 13th place overall, followed by Ivan Deyra (502,500). Paul Tedeschi (279,500), Martin Finger (115,000) and Antoine Saout (74,500) also made it through. Day 1a chipleader Nicolas Tytgat holds the 6th place overall with 585,000 in chips.
At the start of Day 2, the first of two $30,000 Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship up for grabs in this event will be awarded in a random flipout drawing, creating tension right off the bat. One of the 224 remaining players can already punch his free ticket to the Bahama's for next year. PokerNews will keep an close eye out for the lucky winner and provide stories from this massive tournament as Day 2 rolls on. Cards will be back in the air on Friday, April 27 at noon local time, when a scheduled ten levels of 60 minutes will be played out.
Half of the Field Through in Super High Roller With Badziakouski on Top
One of the marquee events of the year on the high roller circuit, the €100K Super High Roller at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT, kicked off Thursday with an eight-level appetizer that saw exactly half of the 44 entries make it through to Day 2.
Chief among those at this point is Mikita Badziakouski, as the Belarusian turned a 250,000 starting stack into 1,381,000. He's had success in the principality before, taking second in a different €100K event here in 2016 for €501,800.
Level 6 (1,500/3,000/3,000) proved to be the turning point for Badziakouski as he won a huge pot against Koray Aldemir that saw the latter use up four of his six time extensions. They had battled with four bets preflop and saw a pretty dead board paired with two eights. Badziakouski, the four-bettor, barreled all three streets and Aldemir called his river shove with queens, mucking to the kings shown down by his foe.
The only other player to reach six figures was Isaac Haxton, who finished with 1,033,000. However, he's likely feeling considerably less cheery about his bag than Badziakouski as it took him three bullets to get there.
That last shell very nearly stayed in the holster, too, as the structure originally called for a single reentry format. Some early bustouts by deep-pocketed players had players grousing about the change, and that only got louder when many of those same players busted again.
Haxton was among that number, and a unanimous vote by the roughly 20 players left cleared the way for a change to unlimited reentries.
"It always was an unlimited reentry and [single reentry] came as a surprise to many," PokerStars Team Pro Igor Kurganov said. "The tournament is for the players and the players decided they all wanted unlimited."
Third time was the charm for Haxton, and joining him on Day 2 with above average stacks are the likes of Ole Schemion (949,000), Justin Bonomo (930,000), Christoph Vogelsang (890,000) and Sam Greenwood (616,000).
Greenwood has been one of the hottest players of late on the high roller circuit, booking scores of about $450,000 in Macau and about $1.2 million in Spain, as well as shipping a small high roller at WPT Amsterdam for €125,785.
There's still a long way to go in this thing as registration won't even end until the start of Day 2, which gets going at 12:30 p.m. Friday. Players can buy fresh 250,000 stacks going to 3,000/6,000/6,000, and a long day is on tap with the plan to play down to six players. Stay tuned to PokerNews for more feature coverage while the PokerStars Blog takes care of hand history updates.
Top 10 Chip Stacks
| Player | Home Country | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 1,381,000 |
| Isaac Haxton | USA | 1,033,000 |
| Ole Schemion | Germany | 949,000 |
| Justin Bonomo | USA | 930,000 |
| Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 890,000 |
| Jan Schwippert | Germany | 880,000 |
| Matthias Eibinger | Austria | 760,000 |
| Sam Greenwood | Canada | 616,000 |
| Timothy Adams | Canada | 536,000 |
| Behzad Ahadpour | Iran | 479,000 |
Juan Pardo Wins €10K Opening Event (€201,500)
At a table featuring several superstars, it was perhaps the least recognizable name, Juan Pardo, who emerged victorious in the €10K opening event at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT. Pardo topped a field of 71 entries for a €201,500 first-place prize in the three-day event.
While that's a relatively modest amount by the standards of these EPT €10Ks, what Pardo has accomplished in such a short time deserves plenty of notice.
He's already pushing towards his first live million with over $750K in cashes despite having less than $3,000 before two sizable scores in Spain earlier this month. There, he burst onto the live radar with scores of €150,000 and €450,000 for fifth- and second-place finishes, respectively in €25K events.
Add another €201,500 to that, and the 24-year-old Spaniard has certainly had quite the lucrative April. Furthermore, he said, the taste of victory sets this one apart.
"It is a dream come true," he said. "I feel tremendously happy and proud to have achieved this victory. I had to face good players like Timothy Adams, Stephen Chidwick or Rainer Kempe, but fortunately today things went perfectly."
Pardo started the day with a relatively short stack and didn't make a ton of headway in the first few levels while Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Chidwick and Orpen Kisacikoglu hit the rail. Former WSOP Main Event champ Ryan Riess rose up and took over the lead from Adams while Pardo remained short.
Adams busted Rainer Kempe in fifth with ace-king over ace-jack and seemed to be on a collision course with Riess. All that remained was to eliminate short stacks Pardo and Paul Newey.
Pardo appeared likely to be next out when he jammed over an Adams button open with threes and ran smack into pocket kings. However, a three hit the flop, and as an added bonus, Riess had cold-called in the big blind and then folded to a reshove from Adams, giving Pardo a triple up.
Pardo was suddenly in business. He got there with king-queen against a short-stacked Newey's ace-nine and then took the rest of Riess' chips in a big flip when jacks held against ace-queen suited. Suddenly, Pardo had a sizable lead heads up with Adams.
The match didn't take long, as Adams had only a little over 20 big blinds. He dropped some pots early and then shove about 12 big blinds with king-nine, and Pardo woke up with ace-king to end things.
"He had a big chip lead and I just couldn't come back," Adams said. "He plays really well. Tricky, aggressive, doesn't give off much. I'm sure he'll keep being around."
That's exactly the plan for Pardo, who came up online as "Malaka$tyle" and now makes his home in the U.K. to play in the global online poker pools. Once a heads-up cash player, he switched his focus to tournaments and is newly establishing himself in the live scene.
He said he has put a lot of effort into his game and worked hard to make the jump into high rollers. He plans to play all of the big tourneys here in Monte Carlo and then play a full Spring Championship of Online Poker schedule before the WSOP.
"My arrival could not be better," he said. "I came to stay."
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juan Pardo | Spain | €201,500 |
| 2 | Timothy Adams | Canada | €145,000 |
| 3 | Ryan Riess | United States | €94,000 |
| 4 | Paul Newey | United Kingdom | €71,000 |
| 5 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | €55,000 |
| 6 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | €42,700 |
| 7 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | €33,500 |
| 8 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russia | €26,000 |
€1,100 EPT National Smashes Last Year's Total; Tytgat Leads after Day 1a
Mid-stakes poker tournaments are booming all over and the €1,100 EPT National at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT proves no exception to that trend. With 515 players on Day 1a, 651 on Day 1b and currently 192 on the turbo Day 1c edition, which started at 7 p.m., the total number of players has already surpassed last year's total of 1,252. Late registration on Day 1c is still open for those looking for a last-minute shot at this massive prize pool.
Two $30,000 Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship are up for grabs in this tournament. While one Pass will be awarded to the eventual winner on Saturday night, the other one will be given away to the lucky winner of a random drawing on Day 2, creating hugely added value on top of the already substantial prize pool.
€1,100 EPT National Day 1a Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicolas Tytgat | France | 585,000 |
| 2 | Salvatore Donato | Italy | 520,000 |
| 3 | Nikolay Arzumanyan | France | 515,500 |
| 4 | Julian Fernandez | France | 441,500 |
| 5 | Jacques Guenni | France | 388,000 |
| 6 | [Removed:102] | France | 370,000 |
| 7 | Antona Pierre | France | 369,000 |
| 8 | Sonny Franco | France | 365,500 |
| 9 | Marco Regonaschi | Italy | 341,500 |
| 10 | Jonathan Proudfoot | United Kingdom | 340,500 |
Day 1a started on Wednesday and played down to the money today, with 77 out of 515 receiving a cash prize for their accomplishment. The dubious honor of bubble boy went to Mohamed Kwaham of Syria, who busted against the eventual chipleader Nicolas Tytgat in the final hand of the day. Kwaham moved in on the button holding queen-eight suited and Tytgat called with ace-five from the blinds. With neither player improving, Tytgat collected all of Kwaham's chips and play for the day was ended right on the spot.
With 585,000, the Frenchman holds a reasonable lead over his nearest challengers Salvatore Donato (520,000) and Nikolay Arzumayan (515,500). French pro Sonny Franco sits in eight with 365,000, while 2017 WSOP Final Tablist Jack Sinclair finished just shy of the top 10 with 336,000. Other notables that made it to Day 2 are Pierre Calamusa (215,000), Bruno Fitoussi (214,500), Michal Mrakes (203,500), Fabio Sperling (195,500), Denis Timofeev (162,000), Joao Vieira (119,000), Sylvain Loosli (111,500) and Maria Ho (59,000).
Andreas Ioakimedis, who was chipleader when chips were bagged last night, advanced as well with 266,500. The 53-year old recreational player from Missouri, USA, is visiting Monaco for the first time in his life and has made his first cash outside of the United States. "Hopefully I'll take this down and then play the Main Event. Let's see what happens," Ioakimedes said.
Although Day 1a has been wrapped up, Day 1b and 1c are still going and play down to the money today as well, before all surviving players will return for Day 2 on Friday, April 27.
Lobbying for Change
The best thing about playing €100Ks is probably having €100K. Or, if someone doesn't have €100K but is playing a €100K, he or she at least has a backer who has €100K, making them eligible to win several million in prize money.
With that out of the way, there's another, more peripheral benefit to playing €100Ks that probably doesn't spring to mind for most people thinking about these events: the ability to affect change in the fundamental structure of a tournament.
If a player were to call over a tournament supervisor in the €1K EPT National here at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT, for example, and argue that some rule governing the tournament should be changed, what would likely happen?
The exact response to the request would probably vary based on the exact person who made his or her way over, but the chances of actually getting something altered would probably be close to zero.
In the €100K Super High Roller, on the other hand, things might actually get done.
First the players requested a change with the time banks chips. Time bank chips have been a staple of poker tournaments using an action timer for several years, as there will always be decisions that take longer than the allotted per-decision bank, usually 30 seconds.
The exact use of the time chips has changed from operator to operator and event to event, but the players here seemed to have requested more 30-second extensions. They argued that the longer the tournament went on, the more extensions a player should have.
Staff seemed to think this was a fairly easy request to accommodate, and after clearing it with all of the players, everyone will start with six extensions and two more will be even to each player when registration closes and then two more when the money is reached.
A thornier issue came up after a few players started to hit the rail, beginning with Isaac Haxton and followed by Ahadpur Khangah. Both players reentered, but that meant they were on their last shells with this year's structure. In the past, the event has featured unlimited reentry.
Bryn Kenney, Daniel Dvoress and PokerStars Team Pro Igor Kurganov all agreed that unlimited reentry is the better format for this event. They requested to speak with a supervisor.
"There is no reason for this not to be unlimited reentry," Kenney said. "What if everyone agrees?"
"I think it's a surprise to most people," Kurganov added.
"I'm afraid it's too late, but I will let someone know," was the supervisor's response.
With the issue escalated, another tournament director explained the situation to the best of his understanding. He explained that it wasn't his decision or his structure. To the best of his understanding, a "small number" of players complained about the format and the operations team had done some research.
"The number of players who reentered more than once was very small," he said.
Thus, they didn't see much harm in limiting the reentries. However, with deep-pocketed players like Haxton and Khangah possibly ready to bolster the prize pool in the event they busted again — and both players have since lost their stacks again — the players left in the event see an opportunity to juice things up further being blocked off.
Furthermore, they suspected the ones taking issue are players not even participating in this field.
"It's the two Daniels," someone said. "Daniel Negreanu and Dan Shak. They aren't even playing this event."
The players requesting the change pushed for a silent vote, adding they'd drop it if support wasn't unanimous.
A couple of hours later, the tournament staff paused the clock and announced the vote was on. Everyone was to submit a card, red or black. The staff would collect the cards and reveal the tally. Only a unanimous vote, all black cards, would mean unlimited reentry.
As it happened, that's exactly how the vote went down. The remaining 21 players voted to allow the unlimited reentry. The tournament director stressed the change was for this tournament only.
Moments later, Haxton strolled to the registration table.
"Hello again," he said with a smile.
Facts and Figures of the €100,000 Super High Roller
Halfway through the day, the €100,000 Super High Roller at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT has attracted 28 unique players, with six of them already buying themselves right back in after busting out. Sam Greenwood is currently the man in charge, with Christoph Vogelsang hot on his heels.
This storied event has a rich history at the EPT and has been held six times in the past, including last year as the PokerStars Championship Super High Roller. Six different winners have lifted the coveted trophy over the years: Justin Bonomo, Max Altergott, Dan Colman, Erik Seidel, Ole Schemion and Bryn Kenney.
The facts and figures of the €100K are as follows:
EPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller champions
| Season | Year | Entries | Winner | Country | Prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPT 8 | 2012 | 45 | (38 + 7) | Justin Bonomo | United States | €1,640,000 |
| EPT 9 | 2013 | 50 | (42 + 8) | Max Altergott | Germany | €1,746,400 |
| EPT 10 | 2014 | 62 | (50 + 12) | Dan Colman | United States | €1,539,300 |
| EPT 11 | 2015 | 71 | (58 + 13) | Erik Seidel | United States | €2,015,000 |
| EPT 12 | 2016 | 61 | (46 + 15) | Ole Schemion | Germany | €1,597,800 |
| PSC | 2017 | 61 | (47 + 14) | Bryn Kenney | United States | €1,784,500 |
2012 - Winner: Justin Bonomo (€1,640,000)
The first of six winners was Justin Bonomo back in 2012, who scored the first of his four seven-figure cashes in an incredibly successful poker career that already spans over 13 years. Bonomo was one of seven players that fired two €100K bullets in this event and ran his second attempt all the way up to the title.
Holding the chip lead from start to finish, Bonomo outlasted a star-studded final table containing Daniel Negreanu, Masa Kagawa, Patrik Antonius, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Tobias Reinkemeier.
2013 - Winner: Max Altergott (€1,746,000)
In 2013, the title went to Germany's Max Altergott, who conquered the final table within six hours and defeated Jason Mercier heads-up. It was one of two cashes Altergott made in the €100,000 Super High Roller (the other being a 3rd place at EPT 11), which makes him the current leader on the all-time money list of this event.
Altergott defeated Mercier after winning a massive hand with a pair of queens on a jack-high board, when the American pro didn't improve with a lower pair and flush draw. The final table also contained Sorel Mizzi, Timothy Adams and Scott Seiver.
2014 - Winner: Dan Colman (€1,539,300)
2014 was an amazing year for Dan Colman, who won the €100,000 Super High Roller mere months before conquering the Big One for One Drop in Las Vegas. Colman was the only player to fire three bullets in this event and it paid off, parlaying his 300k investment into a sweet 1.7 million.
After striking a three-way deal with Daniel "Jungleman" Cates and Igor Kurganov that left each of them seven figures richer, it took 69 more hands for Colman before winning the trophy and adding the winner bonus of €241,000 on top of the deal.
2015 - Winner: Erik Seidel (€2,015,000)
Poker legend Erik Seidel conquered the largest ever field amassed in Monte Carlo — 71 players — on his way to a payday of more than 2 million euro. Seidel called it "one of the best tournaments of my career", a strong statement from the current #2 on the all-time money list with over $34M lifetime winnings.
Seidel defeated the then ultra-hot Dzmitry Urbanovich heads-up at a final table that also contained Kurganov, Altergott and Fedor Holz.
2016 - Winner: Ole Schemion (€1,597,000)
German mastermind Ole Schemion was top dog back in 2016. Schemion collected €1,597,000 for his accomplishment after beating the likes of Mustapha Kanit, Sam Greenwood and Stephen Chidwick at the final table.
At the 2016 EPT in Monte Carlo, Schemion made his triumphant comeback to the live circuit after a short hiatus, becoming second in the 50K High Roller mere days later for more than €2.5M euro in winnings during the trip.
2017 - Winner: Bryn Kenney (€1,784,500)
Last year, it was Bryn Kenney who emerged victorious in a field of 61, winning the biggest price of his storied career with €1,784,500. Kenney ran as pure as could be, dispatching ever single opponent at the final table himself except for Daniel Dvoress, who was eliminated by eventual runner-up Viacheslav Buldygin.
Kenney spoke with PokerNews after his victory and talked about his amazing run. Check out the video below.
EPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller total winnings
| Place | Player | Country | Cashes | Titles | Total Winnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Altergott | Germany | 2 | 1 | €2,686,700 |
| 2 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 3 | 1 | €2,392,515 |
| 3 | Igor Kurganov | Russia | 3 | 0 | €2,306,600 |
| 4 | Erik Seidel | United States | 1 | 1 | €2,015,000 |
| 5 | Bryn Kenney | United States | 1 | 1 | €1,784,500 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | United States | 1 | 1 | €1,640,000 |
| 7 | Dan Colman | United States | 1 | 1 | €1,539,000 |
| 8 | Mustapha Kanit | Italy | 1 | 0 | €1,462,000 |
| 9 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Poland | 1 | 0 | €1,446,600 |
| 10 | Viacheslav Buldygin | Russia | 1 | 0 | €1,290,800 |
Adams Versus Pardo
Timothy Adams and Juan Pardo are the last two standing after Pardo busted Ryan Riess and Paul Newey. Adams is at a fairly significant chip deficit holding about 870,000 to Pardo's 2.7 million or so at 20,000/40,000/40,000. They're taking a short break and then resuming the action.
More €100,000 Super High Roller Photos
Photos by Neil Stoddart / PokerStars.
Tight Race With Four Left in the €10K
The race has tightened in the €10K opening event as just one player went bust during the last two levels and everyone left will come back from the second break with less than 40 big blinds.
The only person heading to the payout line was Rainer Kempe over the past couple of hours. He paid off Ryan Riess in a big pot wherein Riess defended his big blind with 
and made fives full on the 
board. He bet 110,000 on the turn and 245,000 on the river and Kempe was left under 15 big blinds.
Shortly thereafter, Kempe stuck his last 310,000 in with 
and could not overcome the 
held by Timothy Adams on his left.
Adams, meanwhile, doubled up Paul Newey again when ace-high couldn't hold versus 
. He got all that back and more when his ace-king binked a king on the river against Juan Pardo, though.
Pardo got his own lucky triple up when he shoved with threes over an Adams button open and Riess called then folded to a reship by Adams. Pardo hit a set against Adams' kings.
Here's how things stand going into 15,000/30,000/30,000.
| Seat | Player | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timothy Adams | 1,020,000 |
| 2 | Juan Pardo | 900,000 |
| 3 | Ryan Riess | 1,050,000 |
| 4 | Paul Newey | 590,000 |