€25,000 EPT High Roller Day 1 | 2023 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo

€25,000 EPT High Roller

Day 1 Completed

05-05-2023 01:28 UTC+2

Lococo Among Top Stacks In €25,000 EPT High Roller

Andrew Knowles

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

It was an action-packed start to the €25,000 EPT High Roller as the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®️ starts to wind down. There were a total of 183 entries over the course of the first 10 levels of play and just 95 players bagged up chips to move on to Day 2.

Argentina's Alejandro Lococo bagged one of the biggest stacks with an impressive 361,500, good for 241 big blinds. Close on his heels were Juan Pardo (302,000), and Romain Lewis (251,000) who finished in the top five.

Lococo is no stranger to these types of fields, having won the €1,100 No Limit Hold'em Eureka Main Event at EPT Barcelona for €417,820 just over a year ago, Lococo will look to continue his run good to add to his already $2.3 Million in live tournament earnings.

Lithuania's Marius Kudzmanas bagged the chip lead with a stack of 364,000. Not much is known of Kudzmanas, but his spectacular play on Day 1 showed he will be a force to be reckoned with.

Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Marius Kudzmanas	Lithuania	364,000	243
2	Alejandro Lococo	Argentina	361,500	241
3	Juan Pardo	Spain	302,000	201
4	Romain Lewis	France	251,000	167
5	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	239,000	159
6	Ben Heath	United Kingdom	228,500	152
7	Sam Grafton	United Kingdom	223,000	149
8	Felipe Fontoura	Brazil	213,500	142
9	Dominykas Mikolaitis	Lithuania	212,500	142
10	Marton Czuczor	Hungary	206,000	137

Day 1 Action

The action got underway at 12:30 p.m. local time with 41 players in their seats for the 50% registration fee rakeback offered by PokerStars. Despite the single reentry format, the number of entries grew consistently throughout the day.

Last year's event attracted a total of 179 entries, and that number has already been surpassed. With late registration and reentries still open until the start of Day 2, that figure will be sure to grow significantly.

Many of the biggest and best names in poker joined the field throughout Day 1. Some who were in the mix but not fortunate enough to find a bag included WSOP Main Event Champion Martin Jacobson, Women in Poker Hall of Fame inductee Maria Ho, and nine-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel to name a few.

Many other big names who ran deep and bagged up a stack for Day 2 include PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton (223,000), High Stakes regular Seth Davies (176,000), and Ben Heath (228,500), who eliminated Jean-Noel Thorel on his last bullet in the final level of the day.

Late registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 for those that still wish to play or for those that still have a reentry available to them. Day 2 will begin at 12:30 p.m. local time at Sporting Monte-Carlo, where another ten levels will be on the schedule. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to bring you all live updates throughout the day.

Tags: Alejandro Lococo Ben Heath Dominykas Mikolaitis Erik Seidel Felipe Fontoura Jean-Noel Thorel Juan Pardo Maria Ho Marius Kudzmanas Martin Jacobson Marton Czuczor Orpen Kisacikoglu Romain Lewis Seth Davies

05-05-2023 01:28 UTC+2

Day 2 Seat Draw

Frank Visser

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	1	Murad Akhundov	Azerbaijan	32,500	22
1	2	Manig Loeser	Germany	165,500	110
1	4	Paul Newey	United Kingdom	27,500	18
1	5	Lars Kamphues	Austria	38,500	26
1	6	Lander Lijo	Spain	100,000	67
1	8	Florian Guimond	France	47,000	31

2	1	Kayhan Mokri	Norway	99,000	66
2	2	Enrico Camosci	Italy	155,000	103
2	4	Saar Wilf	Israel	128,500	86
2	5	Stanislav Urodlivchenko	Ukraine	26,500	18
2	6	Alejandro Lococo	Argentina	361,500	241
2	7	Ben Heath	United Kingdom	228,500	152
2	8	Marius Kudzmanas	Lithuania	364,000	243

3	1	Julien Sitbon	France	44,000	29
3	2	Samuel Ju	Germany	17,000	11
3	3	Seth Davies	USA	176,000	117
3	5	Thomas Eychenne	France	48,000	32
3	6	Masashi Oya	Japan	58,000	39
3	7	Sam Greenwood	Canada	23,500	16
3	8	Lim Chin Wei	Malaysia	84,500	56

4	1	Jacob Amsellem	Israel	88,000	59
4	2	Rui Martins	Portugal	18,000	12
4	4	Mikhail Rudoy	Russia	16,000	11
4	5	Laszlo Molnar	Hungary	25,000	17
4	6	Lucas Silva Rocha	Brazil	12,500	8
4	7	Patrik Antonius	Finland	84,000	56
4	8	Ricardo Caridade	Portugal	33,000	22

5	1	Johan Guilbert	France	113,000	75
5	2	Aleksejs Ponakovs	Latvia	52,000	35
5	3	Mikita Badziakouski	Ukraine	199,000	133
5	4	Philip Sternheimer	United Kingdom	44,000	29
5	6	Pedro Neves	Portugal	136,000	91
5	7	Aliaksei Boika	Belarus	23,000	15
5	8	Dominik Nitsche	Germany	32,000	21

6	1	Artur Martirosian	Russia	48,000	32
6	3	Dominykas Mikolaitis	Lithuania	212,500	142
6	5	Alexandru Danes	France	60,500	40
6	6	Steve O'Dwyer	Ireland	131,500	88
6	7	Fabrice Maltez	France	53,500	36
6	8	Dimitar Danchev	Bulgaria	68,000	45

7	1	Weiran Pu	China	156,000	104
7	2	Igor Yaroshevskyy	Ukraine	73,500	49
7	3	Kuljinder Sidhu	United Kingdom	59,000	39
7	4	Felipe Fontoura	Brazil	213,500	142
7	7	Dario Sammartino	Italy	123,000	82
7	8	Sosia Jiang	New Zealand	39,000	26

8	1	Daehyung Lee	South Korea	146,000	97
8	2	Patrick Bruel	France	101,500	68
8	4	Nacho Barbero	Argentina	99,000	66
8	5	Sam Grafton	United Kingdom	223,000	149
8	8	[Removed:428]	Switzerland	20,500	14

9	1	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	108,500	72
9	2	Isaac Haxton	USA	94,500	63
9	3	Tomas Jozonis	Lithuania	187,000	125
9	6	Christoph Vogelsang	Germany	47,000	31
9	7	Shakhabiddin Muradov	Latvia	51,000	34
9	8	Nikita Kuznetsov	Russia	119,500	80

10	1	Carl Shaw	United Kingdom	44,000	29
10	2	Ramon Colillas	Spain	116,000	77
10	5	Boris Kolev	Bulgaria	53,500	36
10	6	Michel Dattani	Portugal	37,000	25
10	7	Timo Kamphues	Germany	190,500	127
10	8	Mario Navarro	Spain	187,000	125

11	1	Barak Wisbrod	Israel	102,000	68
11	2	Yuan Li	Hong Kong	145,000	97
11	3	Robert Greenberg	USA	1,000	1
11	4	Luke Schwartz	United Kingdom	54,000	36
11	8	Milos Petakovic	Serbia	105,500	70

12	1	Mehdi Chaoui	Morocco	30,000	20
12	2	Aliaksandr Hirs	Belarus	66,500	44
12	3	Motoyoshi Okamura	Japan	36,000	24
12	4	Harold Ichbia	France	25,500	17
12	5	Ramin Hajiyev	Azerbaijan	31,500	21
12	6	Ilya Nikiforov	Russia	97,000	65

13	1	Marton Czuczor	Hungary	206,000	137
13	3	Tom-Aksel Bedell	Norway	174,000	116
13	5	Adrian Mateos	Spain	159,500	106
13	6	Alexandros Kolonias	Greece	65,900	44
13	8	Leon Sturm	Germany	74,000	49

14	3	Timothy Adams	Canada	65,000	43
14	5	Daisuke Ogita	Japan	67,500	45
14	6	Jenya Gavrilovich	Belarus	105,000	70
14	7	Roman Samoylov	Israel	134,500	90
14	8	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	93,500	62

15	2	Romain Lewis	France	251,000	167
15	4	Nick Petrangelo	USA	33,000	22
15	5	Christopher Puetz	Austria	46,500	31
15	6	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	239,000	159
15	8	Quan Zhou	Hong Kong	109,000	73

16	1	Patrik Jaros	Czech Republic	39,500	26
16	2	Justin Bonomo	USA	32,000	21
16	4	Juan Pardo	Spain	302,000	201
16	5	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	83,000	55
16	7	Santhosh Suvarna	India	49,500	33

05-05-2023 01:18 UTC+2

End of Day 1 Chip Counts (full)

Frank Visser

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Marius Kudzmanas	364,000	92,000
Alejandro Lococo	361,500	49,500
Juan Pardo	302,000	161,000
Romain Lewis	251,000	201,000
Orpen Kisacikoglu	239,000	91,000
Ben Heath	228,500	-31,500
Sam Grafton	223,000	163,500
Felipe Ketzer	213,500	213,500
Dominykas Mikolaitis	212,500	134,500
Marton Czuczor	206,000	37,500
Mikita Badziakouski	199,000	33,500
Timo Kamphues	190,500	140,500
Mario Navarro	187,000	130,000
Tomas Jozonis	187,000	77,000
Seth Davies	176,000	126,000
Tom-Aksel Bedell	174,000	124,000
Manig Loeser	165,500	115,500
Adrian Mateos	159,500	29,500
Weiran Pu	156,000	106,000
Enrico Camosci	155,000	105,000
Dae-Hyung Lee	146,000	13,000
Yuan Li	145,000	31,000
Pedro Neves	136,000	86,000
Roman Samoylov	134,500	18,500
Steve O'Dwyer	131,500	1,500

Read full

05-05-2023 01:00 UTC+2

Day 1 Has Finished Play

Frank Visser

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

With that, Day 1 of the €25,000 EPT High Roller has concluded play. Stay tuned for all chip counts and a full recap of all the action today.

05-05-2023 00:59 UTC+2

These Players Have Busted in the Final Five Hands

Frank Visser

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Hirokazu Kobayashi	Busted
Kazuhiko Yotsushika	Busted
Michael Rodrigues	Busted
Aliaksandr Shylko	Busted

05-05-2023 00:46 UTC+2

Last Five Hands

Andrew Knowles

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

The tournament director announced that five more hands will be played in Day 1 of the €25,000 EPT High Roller before the remaining field bags up their chips for Day 2 tomorrow.

05-05-2023 00:44 UTC+2

Thorel Takes His Leave in the Dying Minutes

Frank Visser

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Ben Heath had open-raised from the cutoff and Jean-Noel Thorel three-bet all in from the button for his last 31,000 chips. Heath made the call and the players flipped their cards over.

Jean-Noel Thorel: A♠Q♠
Ben Heath: 8♦8♥

Thorel did not hit a pair on the 7♣5♣J♠ flop, and the 8♠ turn gave Heath a set. Thorel now had a flush draw, however. Sadly for him, the river was a red 6♥ and Thorel busted his second bullet in the final stretch of Day 1. With only a single reentry available, he will not be returning on Day 2 in any fashion.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ben Heath	260,000	162,000
Jean-Noel Thorel	Busted

Tags: Ben Heath Jean-Noel Thorel

05-05-2023 00:38 UTC+2

Badziakouski's Second Barrel Gets It Done

Frank Visser

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Jacob Amsellem raised to 2,600 from the button before Mikita Badziakouski put in a three-bet from the big blind. Amsellem was not going anywhere and made the call.

On the 6♥10♠3♠ flop, Badziakouski fired a huge bet of 17,000, which Amsellem readily called. The 7♦ turn the checked through before the 4♦ river fell.

Badziakouski now went for another big bet, of 28,000 this time. This forced Amsellem to hand in his last time bank extension as he pondered his decision. During his final countdown, he opted to fold, leaving himself just over a starting stack to play with.

Badziakouski, meanwhile, has tripled his stack since the start of play.

Player	Chips	Progress
Mikita Badziakouski	165,500	22,500
Jacob Amsellem	54,000	4,000

Tags: Jacob Amsellem Mikita Badziakouski

05-05-2023 00:24 UTC+2

Ding Wins Flip To Double Up

Andrew Knowles

Level 10 : Blinds 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Aliaksandr Hirs opened the action to 2,400 from under the gun and it folded around to Biao Ding in the cutoff who moved all in for 6,700 total. The rest of the table got out of the way and Hirs made the call to put Ding at risk.

Biao Ding: 4♣4♦
Aliaksandr Hirs: A♥6♥

It was a coin-flip preflop, but when the board ran out 9♥8♣2♣J♣Q♥, it was the fours for Ding that held up to secure the much needed double up.