Dan Smith raised to 10,000 in early position and Mike Watson moved all in for 59,000 in middle position. Theo Degrave reshoved for 145,000 in the cutoff and Smith got out of the way.
Mike Watson: 9♦9♣
Theo Degrave: J♦J♥
Watson was crushed by Degrave's jacks as the board ran out 8♠Q♠3♣2♥7♠, sending the defending champion to the rail early on Day 3.
Luc Lafontaine open-shoved for 49,000 from under the gun and Stephane Guelpa re-shoved for about 210,000 from the hijack, folding out all other players to leave Lafontaine at risk.
Luc Lafontaine: K♠Q♣
Stephane Guelpa: K♦K♥
Lafontaine was drawing thin against Guelpa's pocket kings but the J♠10♥10♣ flop gave him several outs in the form of an open-ended straight draw. He found no further help when the rest of the board ran out 2♦6♦ and was sent to the rail courtesy of Guelpa who took the pot.
Elias Gutierrez raised to 10,000 on the button before Marcelo Mayer three-bet to 35,000 in the big blind. Gutierrez moved all in and Mayer snap-called for 129,000.
Marcelo Mayer: Q♦Q♥
Elias Gutierrez: A♠Q♣
Mayer was ahead with his queens as the board ran out K♥3♥4♣K♠8♠, earning the Gold Power Pass winner an early double up through the Team PokerStars Pro.
The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event continues today at Sporting Monte-Carlo with just 154 players remaining from a field of 1,208 going into Day 3. All remaining players have locked up at least €8,700 and will be duking it out for the lion's share of the €5,858,800 prize pool and top prize of €1,000,000.
Italy's Eros Calderone bagged the chip lead last night, finishing Day 2 with 667,000 chips worth 133 big blinds going into Day 3. Calderone is most closely followed by Vladimir Troyanovskiy (642,000) and Ashkan Fattahi (640,000).
Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Eros Calderone
Italy
667,000
133
2
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
Russia
642,000
128
3
Ashkan Fattahi
Iran
640,000
128
4
Francisco Benitez
Uruguay
632,000
126
5
Konstantyn Holskyi
Ukraine
616,000
123
6
Christophe Morbee
Belgium
610,000
122
7
Dan Smith
United States
564,000
113
8
Oleksii Ievchenko
Ukraine
560,000
112
9
Selahaddin Bedir
Turkey
546,000
109
10
Kayhan Mokri
Norway
508,000
102
Among those still in contention is Alexander Seibt, better known as Wolfgang Poker to his 1,330,000 YouTube subscribers. Seibt was on the right side of an aces versus kings cooler against Roman Hrabec last night and will enter Day 3 with 122,000.
Dan Smith
Dan Smith will be a force to be reckoned with today having bagged a top ten stack going into Day 3. For Smith, a victory in this event would be extra special as he would become just the tenth player to complete Poker's Triple Crown.
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
€ 1,000,000
16-17
€ 40,600
2
€ 620,500
18-20
€ 35,100
3
€ 442,900
21-23
€ 30,500
4
€ 340,500
24-27
€ 26,500
5
€ 261,700
28-31
€ 23,100
6
€ 201,000
32-39
€ 20,100
7
€ 154,900
40-55
€ 17,500
8
€ 119,000
56-71
€ 15,200
9
€ 91,500
72-95
€ 13,200
10-11
€ 70,300
96-119
€ 11,500
12-13
€ 58,500
120-143
€ 10,000
14-15
€ 48,800
144-154
€ 8,700
Other notables still in contention include Alexandre Reard (474,000), Adrian Mateos (355,000), Ankit Ahuja (300,000), Mustapha Kanit (271,000), Marle Spragg (101,000), Arsenii Karmatckii (74,000), defending champion Mike Watson (49,000) and PokerStars AmbassadorsRafael Moraes (226,000) and Felix Schneiders (146,000).
Adrian Mateos
Also still in the mix are PokerStars Gold Power Pass winners Kevinas Korsakas (360,000) and Marcelo Mayer (134,000).
Day 3 will kick off at noon local time with the blinds at 2,000/5,000 and a 5,000 big blind ante. There will be a 20-minute break after each 90-minute level. The feature table will be streamed by PokerStars on their YouTube and Twitch channels.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all your live coverage needs from the 2024 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event.
