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The second and final starting day of the 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte-Carlo €5,300 Main Event saw a turnout of 586 entries assemble at Sporting Monte-Carlo. Together with the 374 entries of Day 1a, the 960 combined entries have gathered €4,656,000 in the prize pool so far, although that number is sure to rise as the late registration will be open until the start of Day 2.
Spanish EPT regular Vicente Delgado was he was among the 177 players who made it to the end of Day 1b, securing a bag worth 228,000 chips to bring to Day 2. Delgado's stack will be worth 152 big blinds at the start of Day 2, and netted him a fifth position on the end-of-night leaderboard. Delgado has three EPT trophies at home, but a Main Event final table eludes him still, with his 15th-place finish at this venue in 2023 being his best-ever finish.
Meanwhile, the chip lead ended up in the hands of Paraskevas Tsokaridis. Tsokaridis was the only player to cross the 300,000-mark, topping the counts with a massive stack of 384,000 on the hunt for his second-ever EPT Main Event cash. Stanislav Anufriiev and Egor Sukhov and complete the top three with 265,000 and 255,000 in chips, respectively, while Samuel Ju, Natan Chauskin and Rodrigo Selouan also found their way into the top ten.
End of Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paraskevas Tsokaridis | Greece | 384,000 | 256 |
| 2 | Stanislav Anufriiev | Ukraine | 265,000 | 177 |
| 3 | Egor Sukhov | Russian Federation | 255,000 | 170 |
| 4 | Samuel Ju | Germany | 240,000 | 160 |
| 5 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | 228,000 | 152 |
| 6 | Nikolaos Mouroutis | Greece | 220,500 | 147 |
| 7 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 218,500 | 146 |
| 8 | Rodrigo Selouan | Brazil | 217,500 | 145 |
| 9 | Andro Scarpa | Croatia | 208,000 | 139 |
| 10 | Ramon Lampert | Switzerland | 208,000 | 139 |
Maria Konnikova grinded her way to a stack of 142,500 and leads the trio of PokerStars ambassadors who survived Day 1b, the other two parts being recent additions to Team Pro Raul Mestre (121,000) and David Lappin (87,500). Their colleagues Javier Rodriguez and Kenny Hallaert were less fortunate and were eliminated in the early stages of the day.
Other powerhouses who battled their way through Day 1b include EPT champions Hossein Ensan (136,500), Yi Ye (129,000), Mark Teltscher (111,500), and Oliver Weis (29,500), as well as high-stakes regulars Tom Fuchs (130,500), Bernhard Binder (125,000), Byron Kaverman (113,000), Tom-Aksel Bedell (82,500), Ben Heath (69,500), and Tom Vogelsang (48,000).
They will all return tomorrow, Wednesday, May 6, at noon local time, along with the rest of the 288 players who have progressed to Day 2 of the EPT Monte-Carlo Main Event. The late registration will remain open until the start of the day, and the expectation is that a few dozen players will make use of the opportunity and hop in at the last minute.
The levels will increase to 90 minutes on Day 2, and a shot clock will also come into play from the start of the day. Five levels are scheduled to be played, although that remains subject to change. The prize pool and payouts will be confirmed soon after the start of Day 2, and the bubble is expected to burst near the end of the night.
PokerNews will be back on the floor for Day 2 at the "shuffle up and deal", so tune back in then to not miss any of the exciting action from the EPT Monte-Carlo Main Event.
