Gierse Finishes Day 1 of €100,000 Super High Roller On Top with a Seven-Figure Stack
After a quick eight levels of poker on Day 1, the largest buy-in of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino wrapped up with 34 entries. It was a solid turnout for the €100,000 Super High Roller event that attracted many of the world's best high-stakes players in the world. By the day's end, only 21 players put chips in a bag and will return for Day 2 tomorrow.
It turned out to be a successful day for German poker pro Marius Gierse who started off strong in the opening levels and appeared to cruise seamlessly to a seven-figure stack. Gierse finished the day on top of the counts with a stack of 1,000,000 chips, which equates to over 160 big blinds. Gierse, who mainly makes his living at the online felt or on the cash game streets, is starting to dabble in the high-stakes live tournament fields and is finding great success. Winning an EPT High Roller event would just continue to add to his resume.
Following close in his footsteps is a rather unknown player in the poker world in the name of Kent Staahle. The Norwegian businessman is a CEO of an iGaming company and plays poker as a hobby. Staahle was on a bit more of a rollercoaster today, starting off strong in the early going, but dwindled his stack down to under 100,000 at one point. However, Staahle managed to eliminate a couple of players including Ben Heath and Jean-Noel Thorel en route to sending his stack back in the right direction. Finishing just shy of the one-million mark, Staahle bagged up 997,000 chips for a healthy stack heading to Day 2.
Top Ten Chip Counts After Day 1 of €100,000 Super High Roller
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marius Gierse | Austria | 1,000,000 | 167 |
| 2 | Kent Staahle | Norway | 997,000 | 166 |
| 3 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 643,000 | 107 |
| 4 | Sam Grafton | United Kingdom | 619,000 | 103 |
| 5 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 580,000 | 97 |
| 6 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 549,000 | 92 |
| 7 | Mikalai Vaskaboinakau | Belarus | 468,000 | 78 |
| 8 | Timothy Adams | Canada | 430,000 | 72 |
| 9 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 430,000 | 72 |
| 10 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | 420,000 | 70 |
To kick things off on Day 1, a total of 18 players were in their seats for the start of play in order to receive a 50% discount on the tournament fees. A starting stack of 250,000 allowed for many deep stacks and a lot of play throughout the day. The first elimination came in level 2 when #1 GPI ranked Ali Imsirovic was ousted with pocket queens against Jake Schindler's pocket aces. Imsirovic came back for a second bullet but found no luck in that as well as he was eliminated for a second time.
Ben Heath and Thorel were the other two players who burned through two bullets on the opening day. Seth Davies, Nick Petrangelo, Leon Tsoukernik, and Schindler were the only others to be eliminated thus far. Each of those players along with anyone else interested will have until the start of play on Day 2 to enter the field. With over €3.2 million already in the prizepool, the winner will be sure to walk away with a nice payday.
Day 2 will kick off at 12:30 p.m. local time in America's Room at Monte Carlo Sporting complex on the French Riviera. The blinds will resume on level 9 at 3,000/6,000 and a 6,000 big blind ante. The levels will continue to be 60 minutes in length and they are expected to play down to the final table before returning for Day 3.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor to bring you all of the live updates en route to crowining a new champion.
when all the chips went in with Jean-Noel Thorel at risk from the big blind for the 150,000 or so he had in front of him against Kent Staahle in the under-the-gun position with the bigger stack.
on the turn and the 
on the river for Staahle to know the €10,200 Mystery Bounty winner out for today. Thorel might be back tomorrow, Monday, May 2 as registration will be open until the start of Day 2.
landed on the turn. Dvoress led out with a bet of 20,000 and Tsoukernik called. The 
completed the board and Dvoress moved all in. Tsoukernik had just over 40,000 chips left and threw them in the middle.
for a pair of aces which out-flopped Tsoukernik's 
, sending him to the rail.
for a set of sevens and Petrangelo's cards went into the muck, claiming he had 
.
and Watson picked up a flush draw to go with his one overcard. The 
on the turn was a brick but the 
on the river gave Watson a flush to eliminate Heath for the second time today.
. Mateos led out with a bet of 13,500 and Eibinger called to see the 
on the turn.
completed the board. Mateos pushed all in for 146,500 and Eibinger went into the tank for over a minute before making the call. Mateos flipped over 
, Watson checked, Imsirovic put out a 25,000-value chip and announced a bet for less than that. Watson raised it up to 31,000 for Imsirovic to make the call.
and Watson continued with a bet of 25,000 for Imsirovic to make the call again.
completed the board and Watson took some time. With 5 seconds left on the shot clock, he collected all his chips and put them over the line for the all-in for 48,500. Imsirovic sat up straight, stared at the board and Watson, used two time bank cards, and then flicked in two chips for the call. 
for the flopped two pair to double up as Imsirovic held the 
