There are a lot of striking things about the last 14 hours. There have been your usual bad beats, good beats, and beat downs. There has also been an astounding number of broken water glasses around the room. At times, due to fatigue or clumsiness, it's seemed as though walking the tournament floor was more dangerous due to broken glass than the on-tilt players. Even more striking, though, has been the stamina with which the players have survived the day.

In the waning moments of the final level, Greg "FossilMan" Raymer was still in great spirts, even taking time to blow raspberries at his opponents. Perhaps it's a little easier to smile when you end the day with twice the average stack. He's had a good run at the end of the day. He has survived to Day 2 with many other of his fellow Team PokerStars members. Chris Moneymaker, Noah Boeken, Barry Greenstein, Katja Thater, and Victor Ramdin have all made it through, as well. For a look at all the official chip counts, visit the EPT Monte Carlo Chip Counts page.

For a complete look back at the day, feel free to visit any of these links.

Raison d'etre: Arriving in Monte Carlo
EPT Grand Final set to begin
An Odyssey begins
Humberto Brenes making friends
Early action and big names
Black out that noise--the arrival of Andy Black
EPT Monte Carlo Chip Counts
Level 3 News and Notes
Raymer's on the move
Barry's all set
The little things
Level 5 Action and Photos Gallery
Team PokerStars Neighbours
The fall of Annette_15
Day 1A Drawing to a close

For a little bit of late night action, how about one last Ed Report?

The Ed Report

Chris Moneymaker decides to defend his button, calling a 1200 raise from the cut off. The blinds fold and the pot is heads up with the flop coming Kd-5h-2s. Check from the raiser prompts Chris to bet 1500. This is raised to 4K which Chris calls. Jh on the turn and both players check. 4s on the river and the action is checked to Chris who bets 6500. The unknown PS qualifier thinks for an age and folds QQ face up. Chris had promised to show either way and flips up 6d4d. That pot takes Chris up to around 35K.

ActionJeff was been eliminated by LukefromB13 in a coin flip scenario. Full details are unknown.

The aggressive Hungarian PokerStars qualifier Csaboka doubled a player up. An early position raise was bumped up to 3200 total by the next seat. The BB, Csaboka, pushed in 12K enough to effectively set either player all in. The original raiser folded, but the other chap called. AK for Csaboka vs JJ. The board was all low and Csaboka’s stack dropped to around 50K.

On a flop of 4s-Js-6c and the pot at 3K Pete "The Beat" Giordano bet 4K. This was raised by Agent Vixen to 8K, and Pete called. Turn brought 4h and The Beat moved all in. It was instantly called by AgentVixen who shows AJ. The Beat shows 45 and the 10d on the river is no help to AgentVixen who doubles him up after a nasty turn card. She is now down to 12K and The Beat has moved up to just over 40K.

Agent Vixen then just crashed out. She had lost a few more chips in the interim period and raised to 1200. A random dude with a big stack set her all in and she called for her remaining 5K or so. KJ for AgentVixen vs AJ. The king did not come and there was no miracle straight and we lost another. Players are dropping fairly quickly during this last level of the night and we are down to 176 with an average stack of just over 28K.

My dinner guest uwillfold is still going strong. A raise from him brought a re-raise by Ben Grundy that was called by uwillfold and meant there was 8K in the pot preflop. Flop was 3c-8h-6h and uwillfold checked. Ben bets 5K and uwillfold announced all in. Ben had about 10K left and folded. The discussion afterwards indicated Ben had AK and uwillfold pocket 10s. uwillfold is up to 50K now.

A monster pot happened on the table a little while before. A Brazialian qualifier Thiago C. was eliminated with a flush and gutshot straight draw against a flopped set. The chap who knocked him out, Christopher Ulsrud now has 134K and is almost certainly the chip leader.
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We'll leave you with this moment of poker zen. It's late. We're in a place of such opulence, one can hardly imagine a meal the consists of anything less than something that could be deemed gourmet. Even the desserts served at the bar have a look like they were created by a five-star chef. If one wants a personal pizza or a giant cheeseburger, it costs the equivalent of an American suburban family sit-down meal.

And so what would you imagine we find at tableside in the tournament area? Well, yes...four giant packages of McDonalds Chicken McNuggets.



Chew on that until Day 1B starts at 2pm Thursday.