Mengshi Tian raised to 10,000 in the cutoff and Khossein Kokhestani three-bet to 37,000 on the button. Romain Locquet then four-bet to 102,000 and only Kokhestani called.
Locquet checked the A♣10♣8♣ flop and Kokhestani moved all in for 117,000. Locquet put all of his time bank cards in the middle and burned through three of them before announcing a fold.
At the same time at another table, Jose Plaza had shoved for 60,000 from the small blind and Julien Mariani put him at risk in the big blind.
Jose Plaza: A♥9♦
Julien Mariani: A♦J♣
Mariani hit top pair on the J♠3♣6♦ flop, and the 9♠ turn arrived too late to save Plaza as he missed the K♣ river and was sent to the rail.
Kenny Hallaert moved all in for 70,000 from the button and Nicolas Vayssieres put him at risk in the hijack.
Kenny Hallaert: A♠10♠
Nicolas Vayssieres: A♦K♥
Vayssieres had Hallaert dominated and improved to top pair on the K♠Q♥4♠ flop, while Hallaert picked up straight and flush draws. The 2♣ turn was no help to Hallaert, while the A♥ river improved Vayssieres to two pair and sent Hallaert to the rail.
Following an open-raise, Toru Ida three-bet from the hijack and Yuliyan Kolev moved all in from the big blind for around 200,000. The original raiser folded and Ida made the call with the covering stack. Players flipped their cards.
Yuliyan Kolev: Q♣Q♦
Toru Ida: K♦K♣
It was a cooler for Kolev, who found no help as the board ran out 2♦J♥J♠4♠10♠. Ida held with his pocket kings to win the pot, sending Kolev to an early exit on Day 3.
Matt WarburtonEPT Monte Carlo 2025 Location - Tournament Room
The PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte-Carlo Main Event, running at the Sporting Monte-Carlo venue, continues today with Day 3. The 149 remaining players are set to run deeper into the money as they battle it out to put themselves in a position to challenge for the €1,000,000 top prize.
A total of 1,195 entries made this the second biggest Main Event in the stop's 20-year history, just a few entries short of last year's numbers, culminating in a prize pool of €5,795,750.
Andreas Goeller is the chip leader heading into Day 3 after winning a huge pot late on to bag for 831,000 chips. Goeller is closely trailed by Jeremie Beneteau, who is less than one big blind behind with 829,000, and third place Mariusz Golinski, who bagged for 820,000 at the end of Day 2.
Start of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
Andreas Goeller
Italy
831,000
2
Jeremie Beneteau
France
829,000
3
Mariusz Golinski
Poland
820,000
4
Leon Zeaiter
Germany
796,000
5
Sebastian Gaehl
Germany
757,000
6
Mengshi Tian
Hong Kong
755,000
7
Juan Pardo
Spain
685,000
8
Nicolas Tytgat
France
559,000
9
Ramana Epparla
United States
510,000
10
Manuel Carvalho
Portugal
500,000
Andreas Goeller
Several former EPT champions are still in contention, including Sebastian Malec (395,000), Patrik Antonius (227,000), Dimitar Danchev (163,000), Manig Loeser (129,000), Noah Boeken (102,000), and Antonio Buonanno (100,000), while defending Monte-Carlo Main Event champion Derk van Luijk was eliminated just short of the money.
Other notables still in the field include Andras Nemeth (400,000), Nacho Barbero (282,000), Conor Beresford (282,000), Day 1b chip leader Cesar Garcia (212,000), Boris Angelov (194,000) and Niclas Thumm (127,000).
The money bubble burst during the final level of play last night, meaning everyone who returns is already in the money and has locked up at least a min-cash.
Remaining Payouts on Day 3
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
€ 1,000,000
16- 17
€ 40,350
2
€ 615,000
18- 20
€ 34,600
3
€ 439,200
21- 23
€ 30,100
4
€ 337,900
24- 27
€ 26,150
5
€ 259,900
28- 31
€ 22,750
6
€ 199,750
32- 39
€ 19,800
7
€ 153,600
40- 55
€ 14,900
8
€ 118,150
56- 71
€ 14,900
9
€ 90,850
72- 95
€ 12,950
10- 11
€ 69,850
96- 119
€ 11,250
12- 13
€ 58,200
120- 143
€ 9,750
14- 15
€ 48,450
144- 149
€ 8,500
Day 3 will kick off at noon local time with the blinds at 2,000/5,000 and a 5,000 big blind ante with four and a half 90-minute levels played for the day. There will be a 20-minute break after each level.
The feature table will be streamed by PokerStars on their YouTube and Twitch channels.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates straight from the tournament floor as reporters follow the event deeper into the money.
