Marius Kudzmanas open-raised to 12,000 from early position and got three-bet by Jimmy Andres Torres Velasquez in middle position. 30,000 was the amount to call, and Kudzmanas put in the necessary chips to do so.
The flop fell A♦A♠J♠ and both players checked. On the 3♠ turn Velasquez bet another 30,000 after a check from Kudzmanas. The 6♦ river was dealt and now Kudzmanas took the betting lead by adding another 30,000 to the pot.
This sent Velasquez into a tank of several minutes, but eventually he came up with a call. He got shown A♣Q♦ and mucked his cards, surrendering the pot to Kudzmanas who's stack got elevated to over ten times starting.
Seyed Saeed Sajadian had open-shoved his last 43,000 from early position and Terence Etim pushed his own 80,000 stack in the middle as well. It folded to Samiyel Duzgun in the big blind who made the call to put both players at risk.
Two all-in and calls were announced with 50 players left and thus on the stone bubble.
On the first table, it was Marchetti Luca who had pushed all in from early position for 85,000 and was called by Sim Kok Wai in middle position.
Marchetti Luca: A♣Q♠
Sim Kok Wai: 9♦9♣
A flip on the bubble and Wai came out the victor when the board ran out 8♣K♦3♣2♣J♠, officially bursting the bubble.
However, there was another hand yet to be played out, as on another table Vladislavs Petrovs had three-bet all in for 76,000 from middle position over an under the gun open to 25,000 from Valon Olluri. Olluri had made the call and a showdown was ordered.
Vladislavs Petrovs: Q♥Q♠
Valon Olluri: K♣J♣
Olluri outflopped Petrovs on K♥5♥9♥. Petrovs requested a heart from the dealer, but none came on the black runout of 6♣7♣.
Two players were thus eliminated on the bubble of Day 1b and 48 players have made it to Day 2 and secured a mincash.
Stay tuned for the full chip counts as well as a recap of the entire day.
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.
Parker Talbot
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.
