Day 2 of the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT €5,300 Main Event Kicks off at Noon
After two days with 10 levels of 60 minutes each, the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT €5,300 Main Event has attracted a field of 762 entries in total and at least 286 hopefuls will return to their seats in the Salle des Etoiles at Le Sporting when the cards get back underway at 12 p.m. noon local time. Until then, all poker enthusiasts that haven't played yet or busted just once can still (re)enter with a fresh stack of 30,000, which is good enough for some 19 big blinds at 800/1,600 and a big blind ante of 1,600.
Leading the hopefuls into Day 2 is Canada's Mark Demirdjian with 350,500, followed by Iranian businessman Ali Reza Fatehi (289,300) after both surged to the top of their respective flights by quite some margin. Alexandros Kolonias sits in third place overall with 238,000 and Maxim Panyak, who final-tabled this event under the umbrella of the PokerStars Championship one year ago here in Monaco, also bagged up a top five stack with 219,400.
Other notables and big stacks in a field filled with big names of the international poker circuit are Nick Petrangelo (213,000), Tsugunari Toma (204,500), Andrei Boghean (200,000), Jason Wheeler (195,000), David Peters (191,300), National Championship €1,100 Main Event runner-up Federico Petruzzelli (174,500), Argentina's second-ever WSOP bracelet winner Andres Korn (162,900), and Hossein Ensan (135,000).
Six PokerStars representatives made it through as well and Andre Akkari leads the pack with 119,000, followed by Team Online's Randy Lew (74,400), Leo Fernandez (66,700), Fatima Moreira De Melo (48,700), Celina Lin (28,200) and Jake Cody (18,300).
A total of five levels each will be played as the level duration increases to 90 minutes each from here on out and until the conclusion of the tournament, or until one table off the money, whichever of the two comes first. There will be a break after every level and no dinner break to conclude today's action at approximately 9 p.m. local time at the latest.
Once the cards will be in the air, a 30 second shot clock will be in play as well, giving each player as much time to act preflop and on every street. On top of that, all participants receive four time bank extensions worth 30 seconds each. The format has been very popular in the High Roller tournaments but hasn't been enforced that early into a tournament in a PokerStars sponsored Main Event yet.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action as it unfolds on the way to crown a new EPT champion at the Cote D'Azure.
flop, Wheeler check-called 7,000 and check-raised all in after the 
turn. Drozd had some 60,000 behind and called with pocket kings only to find himself with just two outs left as Wheeler showed deuces for the set. The 
river was a blank and Drozd busted earlier on, while Wheeler joined the big stacks.
versus 
on a board of 
.
turn and checked the 
board, Juanda had his remaining stack of over 100,000 in the middle with 
for trip eights.
turn and Bou Habib called. On the 
river, Boghean shoved and Bou Habib snap-called for 49,500 total with 
for flopped two pair and two bricks later Panyak had the busy task to integrate even more chips into the growing tower right in front of him.
and Jozonis held up with his kings to more than halve Miller's stack.
and Toma was left with just 17,000. However, the Japanese chipped up shortly after before the remaining 50,000 went in preflop against a limp by Schemion. The German snap-called and the cards were turned over.
turn went check/check. The 
