What started as nothing but a dream is closer to becoming reality for the 52 players who survived Day 3 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte-Carlo Main Event.
UK pro Matthew Davenport waited until the last level to put himself atop the leaderboard, winning a five-bet pot off Rafael Navas, then picking up aces on the final hand of the day to bust Dimitri Joubert and take the chip lead with 1,939,000. The reigning UK Player of the Year already has more than $2.2 million in live earnings and has nearly matched his previous best EPT result, which came here in Monte Carlo in 2016 when he finished 48th.
Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matthew Davenport | United Kingdom | 1,939,000 | 162 |
| 2 | Khossein Kokhestani | Ukraine | 1,800,000 | 150 |
| 3 | Sebastian Malec | Poland | 1,684,000 | 140 |
| 4 | Valeriano Toledano | Spain | 1,582,000 | 132 |
| 5 | Julien Mariani | France | 1,400,000 | 117 |
| 6 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 1,386,000 | 116 |
| 7 | Jerome Sgorrano | Belgium | 1,115,000 | 93 |
| 8 | Georgios Karakousis | Greece | 1,110,000 | 93 |
| 9 | Malcolm Franchi | France | 1,012,000 | 84 |
| 10 | Sebastian Gaehl | Germany | 1,004,000 | 84 |
In second place is Khossein Kokhestani, who was on the fortunate end of the biggest pot of the tournament so far. Kokhestani was faced with an all-in shove for his last 592,000 on the river against [Removed:533]. After several minutes in the tank, he eventually called with two pair, while La [Removed:534] could only show king-high. Kokhestani dragged the massive pot to push his stack up to 1,800,000 to end the day. The Ukrainian is no stranger to lifting the Golden Shard trophy, as he won the PokerStars Eureka Hamburg Main Event last July for €110,070.
Nearly a decade ago, Sebastian Malec was a 21-year-old poker fanatic who managed to turn a €27 satellite ticket into the €1,122,800 first prize at EPT Barcelona. Malec has become a regular on the EPT circuit in the years since and is making a run at joining the exclusive list of multiple-time EPT champions this week inside Sporting Monte-Carlo.
Malec scored two big eliminations over the course of the day, getting Andras Nemeth to call off his last chips with ace-high as Malec showed queens for a rivered full house. He then won a race with ace-king against Jozef Cibicek’s queens to send last year’s finalist to the rail. Malec ended up in third place with 1,684,000.
Valeriano Toledano (1,582,000) and Julien Mariani (1,400,000) round out the top five. Bulgarian high roller Fahredin Mustafov put a cooler on former chip leader Mariusz Golinski, turning a straight against Golinski’s two pair to double up on his way to bagging 1,386,000. Other top stacks include Malcolm Franchi (1,012,000), Jamil Wakil (912,000), last year’s runner-up Boris Angelov (686,000), and Ari Engel (655,000).
Further down the leaderboard are Mateusz Moolhuizen (586,000), Juan Pardo (580,000), Nacho Barbero (559,000), start-of-day chip leader Andreas Goeller (344,000), and Alexandros Kolonias (303,000). La [Removed:534], who held the chip lead for a significant portion of the day, was left with just 412,000 to bag after losing that pot to Kokhestani.
Day 3 began with 149 players remaining out of a starting field of 1,195. Patrik Antonius ran his pocket queens into Wakil’s full house to become an early casualty in 127th place, while Kenny Hallaert (145th), 2014 champion Antonio Buonanno (143th), Martin Zamani (121st), Conor Beresford (118th), 2019 champion Manig Loeser (102nd), and Niclas Thumm (90th) were also sent to the payout desk.
The remaining 52 players return tomorrow at noon local time to play the final 45 minutes of Level 20 with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and a 12,000 big blind ante. They are guaranteed €17,150, with a spot at the final table worth €118,150, and the eventual champion taking home €1,000,000.
PokerNews will be back tomorrow following all the action as the field plays on toward the final table.
