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The two starting flights have been completed, meaning it is time for Day 2 of the 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte-Carlo €5,300 Main Event. Across Day 1a and Day b, 960 entries were registered, of which 288 players booked their tickets to the second day. However, late registration at Sporting Monte-Carlo will remain open until the start of play today. Anyone who has not spent their two allowed bullets is able to hop into the Main Event with a stack of 20 big blinds, allowing the current €4,656,000 prize pool to increase even further.
Defending champion Aleksandr Shevliakov will not have to worry about registering late, as he turned the starting stack of 30,000 into 104,000 on Day 1a, good for nearly 70 big blinds at the start of play today. Shevliakov is joined by 2024 EPT Monte-Carlo winner Derk van Luijk and 2015 champion Adrian Mateos, both of whom also battled their way through the first starting flight. Van Luijk amassed a stack of 141,000, while Mateos will sit down with 112,500 at the start of play today.
The chip lead, meanwhile, is in the hands of Greek player Paraskevas Tsokaridis, who crushed the competition on Day 1b to end up with a massive stack of 384,000. Day 1a chipleader Mehdi Chaoui occupies the second spot on the leaderboard with 357,000 in chips, over 60 big blinds more than Stanislav Anufriiev, who sits in third with 265,000. Other familiar faces in the top ten include Samuel Ju, Vicente Delgado, and Natan Chauskin, who finished tenth in this event in 2024.
€5,300 Main Event Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paraskevas Tsokaridis | Greece | 384,000 | 256 |
| 2 | Mehdi Chaoui | Morocco | 357,000 | 238 |
| 3 | Stanislav Anufriiev | Ukraine | 265,000 | 177 |
| 4 | Jose Malpelli | France | 263,000 | 175 |
| 5 | Egor Sukhov | Russian Federation | 255,000 | 170 |
| 6 | Leonardo Pires | Brazil | 243,000 | 162 |
| 7 | Samuel Ju | Germany | 240,000 | 160 |
| 8 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | 228,000 | 152 |
| 9 | Nikolaos Mouroutis | Greece | 220,500 | 147 |
| 10 | Natan Chauskin | Belarus | 218,500 | 146 |
Maria Konnikova leads four representatives of Team Pokerstars Pro on Day 2 with a stack of 142,500. Raul Mestre also gathered a six-figure stack and will return with 121,000, while David Lappin and Elias Gutierrez will sit down with 87,500 and 68,000, respectively. Triple Crown winner Roberto Romanello returns to a bag worth 146,000, with other EPT champions on Day 2 including Hossein Ensan (136,500), Dimitar Danchev (101,500), Thomas Eychenne (60,000), and Oliver Weis (29,500).
Day 2 will kick off with blinds at 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 big blind ante. The duration of the levels has increased to 90 minutes each, with a short break after every level. Play will continue until the tournament reaches the money, at which point all survivors will bag their chips and advance to Day 3. A shot clock will be implemented at the start of today, and the prize pool and payouts will be confirmed shortly after the late registration closes at the "shuffle up and deal".
The bubble is expected to burst during the later levels of Day 2, so an exciting day is ahead in Monte-Carlo. Stay tuned to PokerNews as we provide all the latest numbers, hand histories, and chip count updates live from the tournament floor.
