Raul Mestre raised on the button before facing an all-in of 203,000 from Giuseppe Calio in the small blind. The big blind got out of the way, and Mestre called.
Giuseppe Calio: A♠K♦
Raul Mestre: A♥10♣
Calio received the full double-up, as the board ran out 7♠3♥8♣7♦2♦, missing both hands.
Less than a year after his iconic victory in the 2025 EPT Barcelona Main Event, Thomas Eychenne is gearing up for another deep run at a history-rich PokerStars European Poker Tour stop, as he leads the field on the hunt for the prestigious EPT trophy and the €825,000 top prize after Day 3 of the 2026 EPT Monte-Carlo €5,300 Main Event.
Eychenne was one of the 48 players still standing from the field of 1,011 entries at Sporting Monte-Carlo at the end of the night and shoveled the massive amount of 1,846,000 into his bag, good for over 150 big blinds when play resumes. Moroccan all-time money leader Mehdi Chaoui also had a stellar day and sits in second with 1,686,000, closely followed by 2015 EPT Deauville champion Ognyan Dimov (1,634,000) and Team PokerStars'Raul Mestre, the latter of which made a splendid hero-call on his way to a stack of 1,627,000.
Raul Mestre
The 2023 EPT Monte-Carlo runner-up Leonard Maue and 2024 winner Derk van Luijk both ended Day 3 with abover-average stacks as well, looking for repeat success at this legendary venue as they eye one of the bigger shares of the €4,903,350 prize pool.
End of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Thomas Eychenne
France
1,846,000
185
2
Mehdi Chaoui
Morocco
1,686,000
169
3
Ognyan Dimov
Bulgaria
1,634,000
163
4
Raul Mestre
Spain
1,627,000
163
5
Leonard Maue
Germany
1,236,000
124
6
Stanislav Anufriiev
Ukraine
1,103,000
110
7
Boris Kolev
Bulgaria
1,058,000
106
8
Miroslav Rizov
Bulgaria
1,044,000
104
9
Longmao Fan
China
935,000
94
10
Diego Zeiter
Switzerland
904,000
90
The rest of the field is no less stacked than the top ten. Dimitar Danchev and Jason Wheeler recorded their 21st and 20th cashes in an EPT Main Event, respectively. They both made Day 4, with Danchev sitting on 340,000 chips and Wheeler having bagged 508,000. High-stakes prodigy Bernhard Binder finished the night with 740,000, while start-of-day chipleader Rodrigo Selouan ended up with 547,000 after a rough day. Meanwhile, Benny Glaser and Joao Vieira are among the shorter stacks, bringing stacks of 278,000 and 105,000 into Day 4.
Dimitar Danchev
On the other side of the coin, 2009 EPT Warsaw winner Christophe Benzimra (151st - €9,200) was the first casualty of Day 3, with fellow champion Hossein Ensan and PokerStars ambassador Maria Konnikova receiving the same amount not much later. David Lappin played his first EPT Main Event under the Red Spade flag, but fell in 74th for €12,150, while Finnish poker legend Juha Helppi was among the final eliminations of the night after a fatal encounter with Eychenne, cashing €16,100 for his 55th-place finish.
The remaining 48 players have secured the same amount, with a pay jump to €18,500 happening when 39 remain. Six-figure prizes are waiting for the top seven finishers, while making the final table will guarantee a payout of €99,450.
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
€825,000
10-11
€61,700
2
€515,000
12-13
€51,400
3
€368,750
14-15
€42,800
4
€283,550
16-17
€37,200
5
€218,300
18-20
€32,350
6
€167,850
21-23
€28,150
7
€129,050
24-27
€24,450
8
€99,450
28-31
€21,300
9
€76,500
32-39
€18,500
40-48
€16,100
Day 4 will begin tomorrow, Friday, May 8, at noon local time. The blinds will be at Level 20: 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante, and another five levels of 90 minutes are scheduled. A short break will take place after every level, with the day ending around 9 p.m. local time.
PokerNews will be back on the floor at the start of Day 4, so check back in then as the EPT Monte-Carlo Main Event will get into the business end of things.
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