Action was on the turn on a board of 5♦5♣Q♦3♥ and Qing Lu led with a bet of 30,000 from the big blind, around a pot sized bet, which Saar Wilf called.
The river came the 10♣ and Lu pushed all in with her opponent covered. Wilf went deep into the tank and started enquiring about Lu's hand.
"You have aces or queens? If you have ace-queen I have it," said Wilf.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," retorted Lu with some sincerity, which provoked a giggle from tablemates.
After tanking for a while and shrugging his shoulders, Wilf said, "If you play aces this way then..." and put the rest of his stack in the middle, around 50,000.
Wilf had Q♣10♠ for two pair, queens and tens. Lu flipped over A♣A♠ for a better two pair, aces with the fives on board to win the pot.
"I reraised pre," said Lu, perplexed by Wilf's reaction to the hand. Wilf was eliminated and Lu scooped in a huge pot during the last few hands of the day.
Ilya Nikiforov was all in from early position for around 18,000 and was looked up by Ravi Sheth on the button, who had him covered as players flipped their cards.
Ilya Nikiforov: K♦J♣
Ravi Sheth: A♥A♠
The board ran out 8♥8♦9♥4♥3♣ and Sheth held with his pocket aces to win a late pot, sending Nikiforov to the exit with just moments to go in Day 1a.
Day 1a of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte-Carlo Main Event took place today at the stunning Sporting Monte-Carlo venue. The rain may have prevented the traditional opening of the roof as players took their seats, but it didn't stop what turned out to be an action-packed day of poker as 402 players took their seats, a slight increase from last year's first flight of 393 entries.
Of those who took a shot, 123 players bagged and tagged to return for Day 2 after ten levels of play. That brings the prize pool to €2,478,350 with one starting flight still to come.
David Docherty of Scotland bagged the chip lead with 279,500. Despite some ups and downs earlier on, Docherty returned after the dinner break in a solid position with a little under 150,000. Docherty then busted Nicolas Chouity and continued to go on a heater, gradually increasing his stack throughout the final two levels to come out on top.
Docherty is best known for his 2023 victory at the Irish Open, which gave him a career high score of €365,000. Docherty is yet to lock up an EPT title, but came close with a seventh place finish in the 2022 EPT London Main Event. On form and running hot, Docherty has positioned himself for a serious run here in Monte-Carlo.
In second place was Christian Alilovic of France with 260,500, followed by Qing Lu with 240,500. Lu won a huge pot with aces late on in the day to bring her up to third place. Jeremie Beneteau (236,500) and Stanislav Petriv (225,000) round out the top five.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
David Docherty
United Kingdom
279,500
186
2
Christian Alilovic
France
260,500
174
3
Qing Lu
United States
240,500
160
4
Jeremie Beneteau
France
236,500
158
5
Stanislav Petriv
Ukraine
225,000
150
6
Boris Kuzmanovic
Croatia
208,500
139
7
Adi Rajkovic
Austria
204,500
136
8
Mariusz Golinski
Poland
201,000
134
9
Sameer Chaturvedi
India
196,000
131
10
Masato Yokosawa
Japan
191,500
128
Plenty of other well known players found a bag for Day 2, among them Masato Yokosawa (191,500), Antoine Labat (164,000), Steve O'Dwyer (114,000), Byron Kaverman (114,000), Juan Pardo (100,000) and PokerStars ambassador Maria Konnikova (79,000).
Last year's Main Event champion Derk van Luijk also came back for more and bagged for 108,500, a little more than the average stack.
Derk van Luijk
The second and final starting flight, Day 1b, begins on Monday, May 5, at noon local time and follows the same structure as Day 1a, with 60-minute blind levels and 30,000 starting stacks. Late registration remains open until the start of Day 2 and players can fire a maximum of two bullets across both flights.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as reporters keep you updated on the action straight from the tournament floor.
