2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT

€5,300 EPT Main Event
Day: 2
Event Info

2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
q8
Prize
€827,700
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,300
Prize Pool
€4,471,700
Entries
922
Level Info
Level
36
Blinds
250,000 / 500,000
Ante
500,000

The Bubble Bursts on Day 2; Malinowski and Martini in the Lead in Monte-Carlo

Level 15 : 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante
Wiktor Malinowski soars Into the Lead Late on Day 2
Wiktor Malinowski soars Into the Lead Late on Day 2

Day 2 of the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour (EPT) €5,300 Main Event is in the books and the money bubble has burst throughout the scheduled five 90-minute levels. Before the start of play, another 18 hopefuls entered with a fresh stack fo 30,000 and two no-shows boosted the field to 922 entries in order to create a prize pool of €4,471,700.

Only 107 players bagged up chips at the end of level 15 with €9,660 locked up for all those that will return to the tables of the Monte-Carlo Sporting on Thursday, May 2nd, 2019, as of 12 p.m. local time and a duo sits atop of the leaderboard in Wiktor Malinowski and Julien Martini.

Martini dominated throughout the day and was the first to reach more than half a million in chips. On the stone-cold money bubble, the Frenchman was atop the counts and had more chips than all other seven players at his table combined.

“You know, it's just one of those days. Whenever I was bluffing, they folded. When I had it, they called,” Martini said in one of the tournament breaks of the day.

The last time he was running as hot early in the event, Martini ended up second to Ramon Colillas in the 2019 $25,000 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship for a payday of nearly $3 million.

Julien Martini
A good day at the office for Julien Martini

Ultimately, Martini narrowly missed out on the overall lead after Day 2 with his impressive stack of 735,000, as a late surge of Malinowski saw the Super High Roller finalist pull ahead of Martini and claim 769,000 to his name for Day 3. Malinowski won a big pot off 2018 EPT Prague champion Paul Michaelis and proceeded to knock out Diego Zeiter and Mike Watson in the last two hands of the night.

Seth Davies ended up with an equally impressive stack of 684,000 with most of those chips coming from a double elimination at the end of the night when his jacks beat the pocket tens of Shahar Levi and the pocket kings of Joseph Mouawad in a preflop three-way all in. Other notables with more than half a million in chips include James Romero (630,000), Jean-René Fontaine (628,000), Pablo Melogno (607,000), Day 1a chip leader Ludovic Geilich (606,000), Ami Barer (604,000), Paul Michaelis (573,000) and Fionn Macnamara (542,000).

Among those to advance to Day 3 were also such big names as Ramon Miquel Munoz (491,000), Timothy Adams (482,000), 2013 EPT Deauville champion Remi Castaignon (440,000), Manig Loeser (410,000), Patrik Antonius (333,000), Conor Beresford (284,000), Sam Greenwood (245,000), Michael Wang (225,000), 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess (202,000), and Christoph Vogelsang (193,000).

Fatima Moreira de Melo will represent the red spade on Day 3 with a stack of 154,000, PSPC champion Ramon Colillas will return with 134,000. The fellow PokerStars ambassadors Celina Lin, Kalidou Sow, and Maria Konnikowa were on the long list of casualties that all had to leave the Salle des Etoiles empty-handed. Two-time EPT champion Victoria Coren Mitchell was eliminated just before the money bubble.

Philippe Narboni Bubbles
Philippe Narboni Bubbles the €5,300 Main Event

The bubble burst in the final level of the night and it was Philippe Narboni that had to leave empty-handed. Narboni flopped top set with pocket kings and jammed then turn when a four-card straight appeared. James Romero called with king-jack for the straight and the river was a blank ace. Narboni still had a chop at half the min cash, as Oshri Lahmani was all in with aces against the jacks of Pablo Melogno, but the best starting hand in Hold'em held up to let Lahmani double.

After that, the fireworks started and more than two dozen players were sent to the payout desk in order to collect their share of the prize pool. That included such big names as Benny Glaser, Paul-Francois Tedeschi, Sam Grafton, Daniel Dvoress, Josep Maria Galindo Lopez, Gaelle Baumann, and Jeff Hakim.

Even less fortunate were former professional football player Jimmy Kebe, Jason Wheeler, Pete Chen, Dimitar Danchev, Dominik Nitsche, Nick Pupillo, the former EPT Grand Final champions Mohsin Charania and Jan Bendik, Pierre Calamusa, Kristen Bicknell, Erik Seidel, Isaac Haxton, Alex Foxen, and Super High Roller champion Sergio Aido to name just a few.

Steve O'Dwyer lost a flip with pocket eights against the ace-ten of Jinhua Li and the big of Kalidou Sow to win a second EPT Main Event title came to an end in a three-way all in. Sow was at risk with queens against the ace-king of Michael Wang and the pocket sixes of short stack Stefan Heizmann. Both the king and a six appeared on the flop to secure a triple up of Heizmann and the exit of Sow.

Not far away from the money bubble, Shyngis Satubayev five-bet jammed with ace-queen into the ace-king suited of Pablo Melogno, who immediately flopped trips kings to win a pot in excess of half a million in chips. The 2018 EPT Sochi champion Arsenii Karmatckii was left short after a bluff gone wrong against Paul-Francois Tedeschi and he lost the remainder of his chips in a three-way all in with ace-five versus ace-queen and pocket nines.

Victoria Coren Mitchell
Victoria Coren Mitchell Eliminated just before the money

Victoria Coren Mitchell, the only two-time champion of the popular live event series to date, ran out of chips a few spots off the money bubble. Down to just over two big blinds, she moved all in with king-queen and Seth Davies called with ace-king suited to remain in the lead after a jack-high board.

All remaining 107 players will be back in action after a good night's sleep as of noon local time and at least five 90-minute levels are scheduled with a break every level. The action resumes in level 16 with blinds of 2,500-5,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000, and a 30-second shot clock will be introduced before the cards go back in the air.

The PokerNews live reporting team will be your one-stop shop for all the action from the floor and the feature table with hole cards displayed will run on a security delay of 30 minutes.

Main Event Day 3 Seat Draw

TableSeatNameCountryChipsBig Blinds
11Vlado BanicevicMontenegro198,00040
12Dominykas KarmazinasLithuania105,00021
13Maksim KolosovRussia142,00028
14[Removed:174]Lithuania90,00018
15Viktor KatzenbergerHungary352,00070
16Ambrose TraversUnited Kingdom122,00024
17Jack MaskillUnited Kingdom431,00086
18Masato YokosawaJapan262,00052
      
21Karoly OdorHungary230,00046
22Oshri LahmaniIsrael55,00011
24Ermo KoskEstonia111,00022
25Michel BouskilaAustralia117,00023
26Konstantinos AsgoudakisGreece477,00095
27Manig LoeserGermany410,00082
28Govert MetaalNetherlands397,00079
      
31Jean MikhaelLebanon80,00016
32Alisa SibgatovaRussia303,00061
33Charles La BoissonniereCanada320,00064
34Guy CatanFrance64,00013
35Massimo MoseleItaly372,00074
36Emrah CakmakFrance143,00029
37Karim JamilBelgium185,00037
38Ibrahim GhassanLebanon312,00062
      
41Martin SchacherSwitzerland222,00044
42Vlad DarieRomania90,00018
43Patrik AntoniusFinland333,00067
44Mikalai VaskaboinikauBelarus181,00036
45Georgios KitsiosGreece263,00053
46Jonas LauckGermany64,00013
47Ionut VoineaRomania434,00087
48Ramon ColillasSpain134,00027
      
51Eusebiu JalbaRomania165,00033
52Cedric BoussettaFrance304,00061
53Enio BozzanoBrazil120,00024
54Morgan AcetoFrance131,00026
55Corentin RopertFrance107,00021
57Johann ZeitounFrance222,00044
58Christophe PanettiSwitzerland495,00099
      
62Fionn MacnamaraUnited Kingdom542,000108
63Jorden VerbraekenBelgium367,00073
64Ludovic GeilichUnited Kingdom606,000121
65Luis MedinaPortugal128,00026
66Huan JiamingChina67,00013
67Oleg LarichevRussia170,00034
68Andreas KlattGermany83,00017
      
71Fady KamarLebanon223,00045
72James RomeroUnited States630,000126
73Aram SargsyanArmenia82,00016
74Nicola GriecoItaly409,00082
75Romain LewisFrance108,00022
76Ryan RiessUnited States202,00040
77Orpen KisacikogluTurkey361,00072
78Nicola D'AnselmoItaly292,00058
      
81Wiktor MalinowskiPoland769,000154
82Melika RazaviIran192,00038
83Pierre MerlinFrance172,00034
84Seth DaviesUnited States684,000137
85Vahe Ter-KhachatryanArmenia88,00018
86Ami BarerCanada604,000121
87Ramon Miquel MunozSpain491,00098
88Nicolas ChouityLebanon156,00031
      
91Ariel CelestinoBrazil411,00082
92Julien MartiniFrance735,000147
93Ivan DeyraFrance142,00028
94Danilo VelasevicSerbia118,00024
95Bruno VolkmannBrazil348,00070
96Tamer KamelUnited Kingdom106,00021
97Vamshi VandanapuUnited Kingdom174,00035
98Paul MichaelisGermany573,000115
      
101Artur MartirosianRussia30,0006
102Conor BeresfordUnited Kingdom248,00050
103Sylvain MazzaFrance207,00041
105Markus DurneggerAustria194,00039
106Artur KorenGermany199,00040
107Fatima Moreira De MeloNetherlands154,00031
108Erwann PecheuxFrance235,00047
      
111Aladin ReskallahFrance380,00076
112Gen NoseJapan215,00043
113Dirk WieleGermany143,00029
114Armin RezaeiAustria169,00034
115Michail KarapanosGreece210,00042
116Dario SammartinoItaly365,00073
117Robert NeshRussia76,00015
118Serafim KovalevskiyRussia149,00030
      
121Wei HuangChina147,00029
122Boris KolevBulgaria196,00039
123Ignacio Barcenas RomeraSpain341,00068
124Sergei BagirovRussia51,00010
125Christoph VogelsangGermany193,00039
126Rocco PalumboItaly163,00033
127Thomas HueberAustria305,00061
128Evy KvilhaugNorway162,00032
      
131Rustam HajiyevAzerbaijan377,00075
132Michael WangUnited States225,00045
133Mikita BadziakouskiBelarus65,00013
134Milos LalovicSerbia217,00043
135Sam GreenwoodCanada245,00049
137Andreas VlachosGreece97,00019
138Pablo MelognoUruguay607,000121
      
141Roberto FernandezSpain81,00016
142Maxi LehmanskiGermany327,00065
143David LascarFrance204,00041
144Jean-René FontaineFrance628,000126
145Francois EvardSwitzerland435,00087
146Timothy AdamsCanada482,00096
147Antonio ScalziItaly87,00017
148Remi CastaignonFrance440,00088

Tags: Alex FoxenAmi BarerArsenii KarmatckiiBenny GlaserCelina LinDiego ZeiterErik SeidelFatima Moreira De MeloFionn MacNamaraGaelle BaumannJames RomeroJan BendikJulien MartiniKalidou SowLudovic GeilichManig LoeserMichael WangMike WatsonMohsin CharaniaOshri LahmaniPablo MelognoPaul MichaelisPhilippe NarboniRamon ColillasRemi CastaignonRyan RiessSam GraftonSam GreenwoodShahar LeviShyngis SatubayevStefan HeizmannSteve O'DwyerVictoria Coren MitchellWiktor Malinowski