Shiina Okamoto Speeds to the Chip Lead on the €2,200 FPS High Roller Day 1b
The 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® stop at the beautiful Sporting Monte-Carlo continues to break records, and the latest record broken was when the France Poker Series (FPS) €2,200 High Roller attracted a field of 1,234 players, generating an enormous prize pool of €2,369,280.
326 of those entries happened on the turbo Day 1b, where the top 48 finishers bagged and tagged for Day 2 after bursting the bubble and reaching the money. The field was supposed to play down to 49 people, but Marchetti Luca and Vladislavs Petrovs were both unfortunate enough to bust during hand-for-hand play. Luca’s ace-queen could not win the flip against pocket nines and Petrovs’ pocket queens did not hold against king-jack.
Thus, one extra elimination was had, leaving the size of the field at 48. They were the last players leaving the tournament area while the others rejoiced and hurried off to get some much-needed rest, as Day 2 was set to start 11 hours from the end of play.
Bagging the chip lead was Japan’s Shiina Okamoto. She crushed the opposition all night and was the only one that bagged over one million chips. She eliminated Will Kassouf in a big pot to seize the chip lead and she never let go since then. The only other two players to take more than 500,000 to Day 2 are Samiyel Duzgun and Dinesh Alt, while the rest of the field had to settle for more moderate stacks.
The most notable name in the top ten is that of Maria Konnikova, who will start Day 2 with a respectable 264,000, which will be just a bit above average.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shiina Okamoto | Japan | 1,106,000 | 138 |
| 2 | Samiyel Duzgun | Switzerland | 666,000 | 83 |
| 3 | Dinesh Alt | Switzerland | 590,000 | 74 |
| 4 | Junichi Kato | Japan | 461,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Marius Kudzmanas | Lithuania | 457,000 | 57 |
| 6 | Valon Olluri | Kosovo | 442,000 | 55 |
| 7 | Antonio Calabro | Italy | 350,000 | 44 |
| 8 | Mauricio Salazar Sanchez | Colombia | 290,000 | 36 |
| 9 | Maria Konnikova | USA | 264,000 | 33 |
| 10 | Nuri Hadioglu | Turkey | 242,000 | 30 |
A lot of poker’s regular faces showed up during this turbo flight, but almost all had to take their leave throughout the day. Among them were Mike Watson, Nacho Barbero, Felipe Ketzer, Dimitar Danchev, Sylvain Loosli, and Conor Bergin.
Parker Talbot was the only PokerStars Ambassador to show up, but he unfortunately exited the High Roller just outside of the top 100.
As the field drew closer to the bubble, the likes of Julien Sitbon, Marc MacDonnell, and Antoine Labat lost all of their chips in some way or another, and they will not be seen at the start of Day 2.
Combined with Day 1a, there were 182 remaining survivors and they will all return at 1 p.m. local time with an as of yet unknown mincash added to their bankroll. The exact payout structure will be announced before the start of Day 2.
Play will resume in Level 18, with 34 minutes remaining on the clock, and the blinds will be at 4,000/8,000 for that duration before they increase. The tournament is scheduled to play down to the eventual champion, so players will need to brace themselves for a long day ahead.
The PokerNews live reporting team will of course be back on the floor from start to finish to provide key hands and chip counts on the way to crowning a winner.
