by Simon Young

I don't mean to start a debate about luck versus skill in poker tournaments, but in this instance there seems to be a distinct leaning towards the latter. You see, with the field here in Monte Carlo thinning all the time - we are now down to 128 of the 706 starters - the big-stackers are the ones with big reputations.

Okay, stacks can chop and change a fair bit, but some names have been near the summit all day. Among them in Monte Carlo are, and in no particular order, Spain's Carlos Mortensen (WSOP and WPT winner), Greg Raymer (WSOP winner) Andy Black of Ireland and Josh Arieh of the US (both WSOP final tablists), Chad Brown of the US (WPT final tablist), Ram Vaswani of England, and Johnny Lodden of Norway. Even David "Devilfish" Ulliot (WPT winner) is making a move after swimming in the shallows for most of the day.

It might be easy to say they have been lucky in a tournament this size to get so many chips, but let's face it, it's more than a little coincidental that they are the ones leading the charge into Day 3. Impressive stuff, so too is these boys' ability to use those huge stacks to their advantage, bullying others off pots to add yet more towers to their growing castles of chips. New counts will be up shortly.