Andrej Tekel opened to 2,500, gathering calls from Nikolakis Panagiotis in the hijack and Diana Kalietina in the big blind.
All three players checked on the 7♥8♠6♥ flop, prompting Kalietina to lead out for 5,500 on the 6♦ turn. Tekel folded, but Panagiotis called.
The river brought the A♦, and when Kalietina checked, Panagiotis put a bet of 13,000 into the middle. Kalietina called without hesitation and beat J♣10♣ with her A♥4♦.
Rodrigo Selouan opened to 2,500 from under the gun, which Sylwia Studniarz called from the button, enticing the big blind to join in too.
Both the big blind and Selouan folded on the 2♥K♦7♦ flop, and Studniarz bet 3,000. The big blind folded, but Selouan check-raised to 14,000, which Studniarz called.
Selouan continued with a bet of 35,000 on the 10♣ turn, and, undeterred, Studniarz stuck around.
The dealer added the 3♠ river to the board, and Selouan went for it all, moving all in for roughly 115,000. Crucially, the bet was for slightly more than Studniarz's remaining stack.
After taking some time to consider the situation, Studniarz announced she was folding, but took a picture of the board before the dealer pulled all the cards in.
High roller regulars Robert Cowen and Mikalai Vaskaboinikau were both all-in preflop. Cowen had committed his stack of 25,000 in the big blind, and Vaskaboinikau had tossed in 20,000 in early position.
Fabian Bartuschk covered them both and looked them up to put the duo at risk.
Mikalai Vaskaboinikau: Q♦9♣
Robert Cowen: A♥2♠
Fabian Bartuschk: A♠10♦
None of the players received help on the K♠4♥8♣6♣5♥ runout, seeing Bartuschk's ace-ten hold to score a double knockout.
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.
Natan Chauskin
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.
Maria Konnikova
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.
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