March 2007 Archives

Anyone who has ever read Dr. Seuss to their kid has likely run across "Hop on Pop." I keep hearing it in my head as I watch the chip leader play.

These days, I sort of feel like I'm watching a new Seuss offering play out in the poker room. Andy Black, who some could argue is like a character from one of the books, continued his domination here today. He ended the day at 709,000.

Black leads pack
That's right, Black.
That's some stack, Black.
Don't look back.
Black's got a stack,
With which to attack.
Black leads pack.

Zen Black, on the attack

Elsewhere, Chad Brown's first two days are now a distant memory. He finished in 33rd place after chipping down to the point in which he got 77 in against pocket kings. Other big stacks including Gavin Griffin at 550,000 and Carlos Mortensen at 385,000. Check in on the chip counts page a little later for a full accounting of the final 32.

The remaining players come back at 2pm Sunday to play down to the final table of eight. We'll be back with them to report all the action.

This post will be updated continuously throughout Day 3 of the EPT Grand Final. Click refresh to see the most recent action.

Blind Level: 3000/6000/600

10:01pm--The fast drop down to 36 slowed down for half an hour. Suddenly, we're done. The final bust out of the night was none other than Chad Brown who got pocket sevens in against pocket kings, held by Dean Sanders. They got it all in on the flop of 296. No miracles for Brown and suddenly we're down to 32 players. We'll have full chip counts out after the staff gets them counted up. We'll also update the results list when we have it in full. Andy Black continues to lead the pack, holding nearly 1/3 of the chips in play.

9:27pm--Down to 36 as Oscar Blanco's all-in push with K9 suited in diamonds could't outrun Erik Van der Berg's AA. Oscar flopped a million outs on a K56 two diamond flop, but couldn't catch up. Also out, the UK's Nick Goodall, who pushed with A-Q but could catch up with Pete Gardiano's 5-5.

9:10pm--Back from the dinner break. We lost a couple of players quickly, including 2006 EPT Baden runner-up Gunnar Osterbrod. We're in the process of updating chip counts for this level. We've also added a link to the EPT Monte Carlo results page.

7:45pm--We've reached the dinner break with 43 players remaining. Play resumes at 9pm local time. We're also working to get a new chip count to go on the chip counts page.

7:43pm--Carlos Mortensen is getting involved a fair bit with Canada's Marc Karam. I caught up with one hand when the five cards were already on the board - J-K-Q-A-3, the 3 being the third spade. Spain's Mortensen bets 50,000, and Karam clearly has a decision to make. He takes a good two or three minutes before making a great call with A-3 for two pair. Mortensen had pocket fives.

7:19pm--Dinner break approacheth and it seems players don't mind playing hard until food time. With 22 minutes left before the dinner break, we're left with only 45 players. We're working to get a full list of people who cashed posted, but at the moment, the line to cash out is still too deep and busy to get the list. Regardless, we'll have a list up some time soon and post it in the headline box above.

7:04pm--PokerStars qualifier Josh Prager is not a happy man. Under the gun, he pushes all in for 150,000. A monster must be in the offering. All agreed, apart from Holland's Eric Van der Berg, who called from the small blind for his last 70,000 with A-10. Josh, a pro player from the US who qualified here in a PokerStars cash satellite, held A-K and was well chuffed. Until, that is, the flop came 4-3-10. Now he needed a K, but the turn was a 2, and the river a devastating third 10 for the Dutchman. He raked in a nice pot to survive elimination, but Josh was non-plussed. "What did you think I was all in under the gun with? Nothing? There were people here covering me - I can't believe that call." Van der Berg was having none of it, and happily stacked his new pile. He's up to more than 140,000 now, while Josh sinks to 80,000 or so.

6:57pm--And as just as soon as we mention David Sonelin, he is gone. His naked ace couldn't out run Alex Kim's KQ. On my way back from the hand, I happened up Andy Black, who just made a good call with A9 on a Q97 flop. His opponent moved all-in for 160,000 and Andy called with A9. His opponent held A7 and that was all she wrote. We're down to 50 players and Black must be near the 800,000 chip mark.

6:32pm--Man down! Well, two actually, but we only just caught sight of this one: France's Ouri Cohen, nursing a 50,000 stack, pushed with the rockets, but his A-A was no match for the monster 10-7 spades of Marc Karam. He had Cohen, who qualified for this luxurious event using his frequent player points, well covered and calling was his only move. The flop, 3-8-2, two spades. The turn was the K of spades and unlucky Cohen was spinning to the rail. To get this far, and go out with the bullets, is unfortunate, to say the least. He does, however, leave with a comforting €13,000. So, 51 runners remain. They are playing this level, then heading off for a well-deserved dinner break.

6:31pm--Fifty-three players remain, among them a couple of well-stacked PokerStars qualifiers.

FPP qualifier Kristof de Smedt aka deluxy


David Sonelin

6:23pm--Age Spets has been eliminated. Short-stacked all day long, he survived the bubble. He made a play for the blinds and antes with A2. Alex Kim called in the small blind. The 82x/A board would've been great if if Kim hadn't held A8. Spets, alas, is gone.

6:07pm


Yeah, baby: Holly Vaswani and chips
Clearly this poker-playing lark is child's play. Here's 14-month-old Holly, pride and joy of Ram Vaswani, showing dad just how he should be using his chips. Except there were not his chips, they belong to Ram's mate Joe Beevers, still going strong here. Joe wandered over to find his pile, which he left neatly stacked as they went off on a 15-minute break, somewhat messed up by ten little fingers. "I had 145,000 chips when I left, and I'd better still have that amount now," said Joe, in jest, of course. Luckily no-one felt the need to tip Holly upside down, just in case. Doting dad Ram, meanwhile, is up to 300,000.

Elsewhere PokerStars has another success story here in Monte Carlo, in the shape of frequent player point qualifier Kristof de Smedt, from Belgium. Until recently, Belgium has not been known as a hotbed of poker action. But in this season's EPT all that has changed. PokerStars qualifier Daniel Dodet ran well to final table in Baden, Austria, and now Kristof is looking to do the same here. He has a couple of hundred thousand chips to play with. "I met Daniel Dodet here for the first time," said Kristof, "and he has given me some encouragement."


6:06pm--Players are just back from break. We're headed into the 3000/6000/600 level. Selected EPT Monte Carlo chip counts have been updated. It also appears we've lost Jonathan Little. Fifty-eight players remain.

All information below this was at Blind level: 2000/4000/400

5:39pm--Norway's Johnny Lodden is out. Not so long ago he was running into the hundreds of thousands - but he just threw his last 40,000 into a pot with Gavin Griffin and lost. A short while before he lost 50,000 when his 5-5 failed to improve against an all-in player's J-J. We'll try and establish what happened to the rest of his pile. Meanwhile, I've just returned from doing a commentary stint on www.eptlive.com (Simon Young) where I got to look at the feature table close up for a while. Two big names dominate - Ram Vaswani from England and Spain's Carlos Mortensen. But PokerStars qualifier Jan Veit from Germany - who took up poker just 12 months ago - is showing little respect. And no fear. Even on the bubble, and with 80,000 chips or so, he was mixing it up with the pros. On the bubble itself, he re-raised Ram all in, forcing a fold.

5:34pm--Some quick bustouts after the bubble, including Anthony Chatelain (who is all smiles following his squeak into the money) and Badgirl Pham, who just busted off the feature table.

5:14pm--As I typed the last, a Chris Bjorin got his money in with a flush draw and overs. He missed twice and left in 65th place. Now down to 64, we're in the money. The 3,500 stack, Anthony Chatelain, made it to the cash. Now, things will likely go much, much faster.


Chris Bjorin (left), the bubble boy man


Anthony Chatelain

5:09pm--As you might expect, the hand-for-hand bubble action has slowed down the action. One Swede is currently sitting in the cutoff with 3,500. It's barely enough to last him back to his big blind. For those following Marc Karam, he's managed to chip back up and is in better spirits. He currently is sitting just under average at 146,000. Andy Black remains the chip leader with 580,000.

4:53pm--It seems somebody lost count of the remaining players (and, to be fair, it wasn't us this time). We're down to 65. That means we're hand-for-hand on the bubble.

4:49pm--Down to 66 players, the most recent elimination coming up at the hands of Josh Arieh. From the button, he got short-stacked Mike Martin all-in. Arieh held QdJd to Martin's AK. A queen on the flop put Martin behind and he never caught up.

4:39pm--Age Spets just surivived a squeaker. With only 16,000 in front of him, he face a raise from David Sykes. Spets said, "It's almost impossible for me to fold." He squeezed both cards and said, "I call." AJ suited in clubs for him and pokcet fours for Sykes. An ace on the river doubled Spets up. "Poker is easy," he said.

4:36pm--Don't fear the reaper is apparently the motto here today. As fast as we are in getting back to report the action, players are busting out. We're down to 68 in just a matter of seconds. We're four off the money and will likely get to hand-for-hand action soon.

4:30pm--Ricki Nielsen has been eliminated by Andy Black. Seventy-one players remain.

4:19pm--A few selected chip counts have been added to the EPT Monte Carlo chip counts page. Here are a few pictures from the floor.


Marc Karam


Anonthy Lellouche


Josh Arieh


As seen in a hotel bar. As one player said, "This drink grows on you." Seems like it has a greater chance of growing IN you.

4:11pm--Players have returned from break. Keep an ear out on EPT Live for some color commetary from Team Blog's Simon Young! Seventy-two players remain.

All updates below this line are Blind Level: 1500/3000/300

3:53pm--Players are on a 15 minute break. We'll come back to the 2000/4000/400 level. Badgirl Pham just wandered by to tell us she's up to 70,000 from her starting stack of 30,000. We're nine off the money. Note: Ali Masterson was eliminated just before the break.

3:47pm--Devilfish is out after running after the nut flush draw and failing to get there. Seventy-three players remain.

3:30pm--Jan Veit, from Germany, is having a dream week here in Monte Carlo. The 21-year-old qualified for this trip using his Frequent Player Points to enter a PokerStars satellite. And he's made it this far, despite only having played poker for a year. This is his first live event, and he hopes to build on his credible starting stack today of 160,000. Good luck to him.

3:26pm--Over on the feature television table, Holland's Peter Dalhuijsen is out. He moved all in with A-10 of diamonds for his remaining 77,000, but was called by Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen, who held 10-10. Board - 5-2-6-6-6. A house for the Spaniard, and the rail has one more person on board. 73 players remain and the bubble moves ever closer.

3:23pm--Josh Arieh raises the price to play to 11K and gets a raise all-in by one of the shorter stacks at the table. Josh owes 45K if he wants to get involved and after counting out the pot he calls. 66 for Josh vs TT. There is no help for Josh and a chuck of change slides aways across the table from him. He is around the 300K mark. Andy Black is still at 550K.

3:18pm--Marc Karam has just taken a major hit. After a cutoff raise to 8000, Soren Kongsgaard, the small blind, raised to 31K, Karam raised enough to put the Kongsgaard all-in. The cutoff, Simon Johansson, folded. After thinking, the Kongsgaard called with pocket sevens. Karam showed AJ. A seven on the flop almost sealed the deal. Karam picked up a straight draw on the turn, but it didn't materialized. Karam is now sitting with about 75,000.

3:12pm--Mickey Wernick's comeback dream is over. Starting the day with just 13,000, he doubled up early, but is now out. He pushed with A-8 and found a caller. "The other guy took ages to turn over his cards, so I thought maybe I might be ahead. But then he flipped A-A. Oops. What can you do?" Well, the flop was 5-2-8, giving the Englishman some hope, but the following 4 and 7 failed to improve his lot. We are down to 75 players already - so much for a tightening up before the bubble.

3:08pm--David Kim makes it 21K to go and Ross Boatman calls all-in for around 19K. William Hill then moves in and David thinks for a while before he announces folding Jacks. A good fold but one he may regret. AA for William and 10-10 for Ross.The board came 4-J-8-2-4 so had David stayed in he would have won a very sizeable pot.

3:07pm--Roland de Wolfe has just arrived at Blog Central to report his elimination from the EPT Grand Final...on Day 1A.

3:04pm--A couple of hands from the floor:

On a rainbow flop of K-6-A a 15K bet from Samir Rahal is called by Johnny Lodden. A 4s on the turn and Samir moves in and Johnny folds.

William Hill makes an UTG raise to 7400. Called by both David Sykes and Roi Elmaliah. The flop is 4h-6h-2c and Roi bets 6K and David folds. William then moves in and wins the pot when Roi folds.

3:00pm--Lars Bonding has been eliminated after running pocket kings into Nicholas Ragot's pocket aces.

2:40pm--Fun and games at Andy Black's table already. But, surprisingly, it's not Black or tablemate Johnny Lodden making the early moves. Instead Pete "the beat" Giordano is getting busy. Hand two of the day he makes it 9,000 and it's folded around. Next hand, he raises again - folded to the big blind Hans Erlandsson of Sweden, a PokerStars qualifier, who dwells. "You really should fold," says Giordano. "I'm the tightest player at flipped over K-K. "That's not tight," retorts Black. "It's only the second nuts. Do you realise how many people have gone out of this tournament with K-K?"

2:40pm--Joe Beevers gets off to a flyer, doubling up with A-A against Christian Neirinck's K-K. The Hendon Mobster. Joe raised to 8,500, Christian re-raised to 35,000 and a very happy Beevers moved in over the top. No help for Christian, and the London moves up to 170,000.Meanwhile, short-stacker Mickey Wernick from the UK has found an early double up with A-A against Josh Arieh's K-Q.

2:38pm--Maurice Kenter of the US is out, running 10-10 into Anthony Lellouche's A-A. The board came 7-2-2-6-A. That rather rubbed salt into the wounds.

2:33pm--Nicholas Ragot has just eliminated PS qualifier Zack Stewart. The money was all in pre-flop with KK vs 99 and all low cards came down. Too low for Zackand he exits.

2:31pm--Age Spets has just doubled up. Lars Bonding raised to 6500 from the button. The SB Staale Egens called and Age Spets moved all in for 33K from the BB. Lars called and showed K10 vs Age's A10. The board came J-3-5-6-10 and Age more than doubles to 75K.

2:30pm--Daryl Jace is the first eliminated player for the day.

2:23pm--And we're underway at the 1500/3000/300 level. Here's a look at the players on both sides of the chip spectrum.


Andy Black, chip leader


Mickey Wernick, not so much the chip leader

2:09pm--Tournament director Thomas Kremser has just announced we'll be playing down to just 32 players tonight. It will take a while to get from 85 to 64 (the money), but after that, getting to 32 shouldn't be a major chore. We're not quite yet underway yet.

2:00pm--We're just about to begin Day 3 of the EPT Grand Final. With 85 players remaining, we're just a few short of the money bubble. Sixty-four players will be paid. We'll be providing live updates and pictures of all the action here. For a live webcast of the featured table, don't miss EPT Live.



The above reports are provided by the writers of the PokerStars Poker Blog, Brad Willis, Simon Young, and Ed Ramshaw.

2007 EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final Winners List

1 Gavin Griffin (USA)1,825,010
2 Marc Karam (Canada) 1,061,820
3 Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark) 610,550
4 Kristian Kjondal (Norway) 471,180
5 Josh Prager (USA) 391,550
6 Steve Jelinek (UK) 305,270
7 Andy Black (Ireland) 238,910
8 Ram Vaswani (UK) 159,270
9 Erik Van Der Berg (Holland) 99,550
10 Alex Kim (USA) 99,550
11 Carlos Mortensen (Spain) 66,360
12 David Peters (USA)66,360
13 Pete Giordano (USA) 49,770
14 Jan Veit (Germany) 49,770
15 Philip Hilm (Demark) 39,820
16 Christian Neirinck (Belgium) 39,820
17 Kristof de Smedt (Belgium) 33,180
18 Dean Sanders (UK) 33,180
19 Roi Elmaliah (Israel)33,180
20 Lars Eidissen (Norway) 33,180
21 Anthony Lellouche (France) 33,180
22 Shane Reihill (Ireland) 33,180
23 Johannes Strassmann (Germany) 33,180
24 Simon Johansson (Sweden) 33,180
25 Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) 26,550
26 Ben Callinan (UK) 26,550
27 Jacob Larsson (Sweden)26,550
28 Herman Zango (Costa Rica) 26,550
29 Josh Arieh (USA) 26,550
30 Richard Waters (UK)26,550
31 Cristinel Dumitru (Romania) 26,550
32 David Mobbs (UK) 26,550
33 Chad Brown ( USA ) 23,230
34 Thomas Wahlroos ( Finland ) 23,230
35 Joe Beevers ( UK ) 23,230
36 Sergey Altbregin ( Russia ) 23,230
37 Ernst Hermans ( Holland ) 23,230
38 Richard Herbert ( Ireland ) 23,230
39 Nick Goodall ( UK ) 23,230
40 Oscar Blanco Carrasco ( Spain ) 23,230
41 Gunnar Ostebrod ( Norway ) 19,910
42 Atanas Gueorguiev ( Bulgaria ) 19,910
43 Jesse Steinberg ( USA ) 19,910
44 Fadi Kamar ( Lebanon ) 19,910
45 Vladimir Troyanovsky ( Russia ) 19,910
46 Halldor Mar Sverrisson ( Iceland ) 19,910
47 Biri Balazs ( Hungary ) 19,910
48 Hans Ari Eskilsson ( Sweden ) 19,910
49 David Sonelin ( Sweden ) 16,590
50 Nicolas Ragot ( France ) 16,590
51 Thomas Bihl ( Germany ) 16,590
52 Ouri Cohen ( France ) 16,590
53 Hans Ari Vars ( Norway ) 16,590
54 Patric Martensson ( Sweden ) 16,590
55 Age Spets ( Norway ) 16,590
56 Sasa Biorac ( Germany ) 16,590
57 William Hill ( UK ) 13,270
58 David Sykes ( Canada ) 13,270
59 Nathan Rayan ( Australia ) 13,270
60 Johnny Lodden ( Norway ) 13,270
61 Xuyen Pham ( UK ) 13,270
62 Jonathan Little ( USA ) 13,270
63 Anthony Chatelain ( Sweden ) 13,270
64 Elie Marciano ( France ) 13,270

"Nobody is luckier than me today."

Those were Andy Black's words as he gazed across his chip stack, a virtual mountain range of multi-colored chips.

"How much do you have," asked a railbird?

He shrugged as if it didn't really matter and he really didn't know. Likely he knew this, though: He was the chip leader and didn't look to give up the spot. A quick look put Black 500,000 chip mark. He'd been pushing hard all day to catch up to Day 1 chip-leader Chad Brown and before the end of the night, he'd already passed him.

As for Brown, a bit of a cooler made him far easier to pass. Simon Johansson of Sweden flopped a set of tens to Brown's set of eights. All the money went in on the turn and Brown didn't catch his miracle. While he still had around 200,000 chips, he was surely thinking he was about to be a lot closer to 500,000. Instead, Simon Johansson is a lot more flush than he used to be.


Simon Johansson

Noah Boeken never recovered from his failed battle with jacks versus Joe Beevers' A9. He treaded water with his remaining 20,000 before finally running jacks into Simon Johnsson's aces. He had only one word for it as the day came to a close: "Sick."

How about some final words from Ed on how things wrapped up today?

The Ed Report

Harry Demetriou was crippled when on a low flop he got it all in and was called by pocket 9s. Just at the start of this level he was in the BB and had 3400 left back. An early pos raise to 5K was called by the button and Harry tried to make them fold by sticking the extra 400 in the pot. Surprisingly this did not get rid of the other two and the flop came down 7d-9s-Qc. Rather than check it down the early raiser made it 6500 to play which was called by the button. Turn was Jc and the initial raiser checked and found a bet of 19K coming towards him. He asked whether he had hit quads and no response. After a short pause he decided to jam all in himself effectively setting the button all in who had 24K left. An instant call from the button who had 99. QJ for the raiser and Harry had 5c7c and actually had some outs for the flush. The river was a Jack and we lost two players in one hand.

Gavin Griffin makes it 6K to go from the button and the SB raises to 19K total. Gavin calls and the flop is Ks-4s-2c. Checked to Gavin who bets 26K. The SB raises all in for another 75K on top and Gavin folds. The SB shows AQ for a risky bluff. Gavin is down to 150K. Immediately afterwards Mickey Wernick raises to 16K UTG(not sure why it was this much) and Gavin re-raises to 36K total. FrankieA10 on the SB pushes all in for 19K and Mickey folds(appapently 99). Gaving shows JJ and FrankieA10 has funnily enough has A-10. The board comes 3-4-3-3-10 and we have lost FrankieA10.

Dlopt raises to 8K from early position. David Sykes pushes all in from the BB. Dlopt takes a time to call and is elated when he sees David’s A9. Dlopt shows AQ and David is drawing pretty thin. The flop comes A-8-6 and then a 9 spikes the turn and a simultaneous strike on the table from both players for very different reasons. No miracle on the river and David doubles to just under 100K. dlopt down to 35K. A quick wander back to the floor and I find that dlopt was eliminated whilst I typed the above. Details of his exit are unknown.

AmbientIII raises to 6500 from UTG and it is folded round to David Sykes who calls in the BB. The flop is 6-5-3 rainbow and David checks. AmbientIII bets 8.5K and David raises to 25K which is good enough to take it down. David has 110K and AmbientIII 170K.

A raise to 8K from rkruok is bumped to 20K total by David Sykes on the button which rkruok calls. Flop comes 4d-10c-2h and rkruok moves in. David instantly calls and 88 for rk and AA for David. The turn is a 5 and then the 2 outer on the river hits when the 8c falls. David is back down to 75K and rkruok up to 100kish.

***

Day 3 play picks up at 2pm Monte Carlo time on Saturday. We now have fewer than 90 players left in the main event. As we approach the bubble, it's unlikely we'll lose a lot of players quickly. However, once we hit that 64 mark, look for the speed to pick up again. Full official chip counts will be up when we receive them from the tournament staff. Until then, check out the selected counts on the EPT Monte Carlo Chip Counts page.

Night, all, from Monte Carlo.

Updated below with news on Greg Raymer.

As a whole, PokerStars has been well-represented here at the EPT Grand Final. More than 100 qualifiers and members of Team PokerStars began today. Many of them remain in the hunt as we near the 100 mark in remaining runners. Two of the more famous faces among them are Noah Boeken and Greg Raymer.

Boeken had been on a steady but slow climb most of the day, having worked himself up to around 75,000 in chips. I happened up on his table just as he got in a battle with Joe Beevers. Beevers was struggling on whether to call another 36,000--the rest of his chips.

"Pocket eights?" he asked Noah.

Noah chuckled a bit. "That's what you put me on? What? You have pocket nines?"

Beevers thought for a bit more and finally said, "Let's gamble." He called to see Noah's pocket jacks. Beever's was a decided dog, flipping over A9o. The flop came 235 rainbow, opening up four more outs for Beevers. The turn was another five. The river...an ace. Noah stood, threw his fist at nothing in particular, and then sat back down, incredulous.

"You called 36,000 more with A9?" he asked. If it was not a rhetorical question, it was treated as one. Noah is now on life support and looking for a quick double up.

Ace nine?

Beevers, the happy recipient of Boeken's chips, then ran into a spot of bad luck himself to drop back down to 50,000 or so. He found the bullets and raised to 6,000, called by his opponent. The flop was 4-4-5 and the Hendon Mobster lead out with 9,000, re-raised by the minimum from his foe. Beevers pushed, was called and they turned over: A-A for the Londoner, K-K for his neighbour. All well, except the other guy pulled a runner, runner flush out of the bag. "I got lucky against Noah, but then that last hand just before the break was horrible," he said.

***

Raymer asked, also perhaps rhetorically, "Why am I so tight? People think I'm some loose-aggressive maniac."

It wasn't but a few hands later, play folded to his small blind and he made it 5400 to play. The big blind, Aussie Jason Melross, thought for a moment before making it another 10,000 to play. Raymer called.

The flop came out TT7 rainbow. Raymer didn't take but a second before anouncing 50,000. The bet was large...certainly larger than the pot. What's more, Raymer had just 10,000 behind. He was, in a word, committed.

Melross couldn't seem to figure out what he should do. To call, he would be putting all his chips in the middle. As he struggled to put Raymer on a hand, Raymer grabbed a fresh bottle of Evian and mixed it with a bright red drink mix.

What could that mean? If Greg were making himself a drink, did that mean he was sure Melross would fold? Or did it mean he didn't care whether Melross called, because he thought he had a sure winner. In the end, it didn't matter, Melross folded and Raymer re-positioned himself around 100,000.

"Cranberry," he said, holding up the bright bottle of red water.

At least it wasn't yellow like the last one.



Sadly, the cranberry seems to have been Greg's undoing. Actually, two bad beats and a chilly deck undid him more. In less than 30 minutes AQ lost to AJ, two pair lost to runner-runner straight, and pocket jacks couldn't outrun a shortstack's KK. Now, Greg's stack sits at 36,000. Should he make a comeback, as Greg puts it, "It'll be a better story."

Update: An even better story would've been Greg starting his comeback with his winning WSOP hand, pocket eights. He got them all in versus AK. A king on the river has sent FossilMan home.

***

Finally, how about a few words from Ed.

The Ed Report

Ross Boatman raises to 6K from mid position and dlopt re-raises to 29K total. Ross takes a time to fold and dlopt picks it up but is down at 60K. Apparently he got caught bluffing a couple of hands on the trot with a fellow PokerStars qualifier Palacedeano being the recipient of some of these. This may have explained the reluctance Ross seemed to have about folding.

"Schooled" by the Devilfish? Former Eastender Beppe DiMarco, less well known as his real life name of Michael Greco, raises to 6K and Devilfish makes it 23K to play. Michael folds and the both have a below average stack of 60K. For once Devilfish does not show his hand, so he may have had the goods.

Rkruok raises to 6K and is called by David Sykes, AmbientIII, dlopt on the button and Ross Boatman on the BB. The flop is 6c-7c-9s and David Sykes bets 15K at it. AmbientIII raises all in for about 85K total. There are some pretty much instantaneous folds back round to David who eventually calls. Top set for the AmbientIII against David’s nut flush draw and overs with AcQc. The turn is the Qh which does not help and David needs a club that does not come. 6s on the river and David is down to 40K.

The Beat has just eliminated a shortstack all in preflop with AJ vs 10-10. An ace hit the flop and the rest of the board blanked. The Beat is now at 190K

Johnathan Little who made the PCA final table has just doubled up. With 30K raising preflop he chucked in his remaining 55K which was called by the BB with 10-10. Johnathan turned over J-9 and looked to be in trouble until the flop came J-5-9. A 7 on the turn gave the BB some hope but a 5 on the river secured the double through. He is up to 140K.

***

There is a bit of rumor (or rumour, if you're reading from somewhere other than the U.S.) that we may not play a full seven levels as planned tonight. The field has been cut down by 2/3 already today. We were schedule to play seven levels today and tomorrow. At the going rate, the tournament may be finished by that point, and our final table isn't scheduled until Monday. It still remains to be seen what TD Thomas Kremser will decide. Regardless, things are moving pretty quickly here.

Update: Only 90 minutes more to play tonight. Thanks, Thomas!

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.

It's the little differences, you know?

When the levels in the EPT Grand Final change, string orchestra music shoots from the speakers like a covey of quail. It's a light--but not whimsical--indication that it's time for the price of the game to edge up. Just after the dinner break, a side tournament kicked off. To help distinguish between the events, the tournament directors needed a different sound to indicate the changing of the levels. Their choice? Yello's "Oh Yeah." So, every 30 minutes, the clitter clatter of chips is broken up by a "bomp-bomp-chicka-chicka."

Andy Black, demure as ever, is on the move in more ways than one. Despite being on an upward chip trend, he's also been moved to a new table. That table now features Jonathan Little, Greg Raymer, and Black in a row (more on this in a moment). Still a long way to go, but should Black and Chad Brown make it to the final table, I call first dibs on the bad Black and Tan puns.

Team PokerStars' newest member Noah Boeken has been unnaturally quiet today, though is managing to hold on as he sits at Table 4, the toughest in the room. It features not only Boeken, but Carlos Moretensen, Joe Beevers, and Chad Brown, all of whom have sizable stacks.


Noah Boeken

Last night, we featured doctorin2010's t-shirt ("I would check-raise my own Grandma") at the end of the day. As it turns out, he's been pretty serious today and moved up to a sizable stack as we enter the second half of play.


doctorin2010

Finally, a special moment shared by Andy Black and Greg Raymer. A few minutes ago, I noticed Greg stalking the room for a fresh bottle of Evian. He found one and returned to his table. Later, I came back and discovered the water had turned a conspicuous shade of yellow. Any number of jokes could've been made about the drink, and Black saw fit to take the most obvious route when addressing the crowd about Greg's drink choice and its bodily source. Not one to be outdone, Greg picked up the bottle and offered Black a drink.

"I'm feeling a bit sick," Black said.


Black eyes up Raymer's yellow drink

Turns out it was white tea. Go figure.

Bomp-bomp. Chicka-chicka.

When PokerStars created Battleship tournament events back at the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, it was clear that a phenomenon was in the offing. The popularity grew so fast over the past couple of years, I'd often thought to remark, "We're going to need a bigger boat."

This year at the EPT Grand Final, the organizers decided not to run a tournament per se, but rather offer players the option of playing single heads up tournaments for as little or as much money as they like. As such, there have been people playing in the PokerStars Battleship Harbor for as little as 5 euros. At the dinner break tonight, though, something else developed. Word spread quickly that a couple players had found that elusive bigger boat.

As I type, William Thorson and fishrus are playing a series of three heads-up matches for 25,000 a piece. At the moment, William is up one match on fishrus. We need to return to the main tournament area for the big event, but if you'd like to keep tabs on the matches, you can get on the PokerStars software, click EPT, and All, then look for the Battleship matches.

fishrus


William Thorson


Relaxed and playing for 25K a piece...three times

Players are headed out to their dinner break. We now have in the neighborhood of 165 players remaining in the event. EPT Monte Carlo Chip Counts have been updated at the end of Level 10. Players will be out for an hour while they dine.

Chad Brown continues to dominate the field, but Carlos Mortensen and Andy Black are creeping up on him. Still a very long way to go in this event. That said, we're 100 players away from the money. So, it's not nearly as far as it was.

Now, to dinner. Back with more in an hour or so.

by Simon Young

Phil Hellmuth is out and, as is customary for the "Poker Brat", he is not a happy bunny. The damage, when it came, was unfortunate as his K-K ran into A-A. So he had a right to feel a little aggrieved, but he did not stop there.

As he paced the floor he told me: "Welcome to Monte Carlo. I run circles around these guys for two days. I had kings twice and queens once and ran into aces each time. But I dodged the bullets and still had chips in front of me, that's how well I was playing. Then I had to go and get K-K that last time when the aces were out and I am now out of the tournament. It's unbelievable."

In fairness, Phil had played well to still be alive, after indeed dodging several bullets that could have taken him down long ago. He had built up to 40,000 at one stage today before getting all-in pre-flop on that last, fateful hand.

The room will be a quieter place without him.

Update: This post, though written not too long ago is now dated. Phil Hellmuth, in fact, did not dodge the latest bullets. More to come, but suffice it to say, The Poker Brat is out.

Devilfish was stretching. Earlier, I'd heard him call for cameras to record a chopped pot, one in which he was favored to win, and one which he described using an unprintable expletive. Now, he was exercising his deltoids and exorcising the demons. He wandered to Phil Hellmuth's table and they chatted for a bit. As Devislfish walked away, he muttered dryly, "I figured it must be going okay for you. It's been quiet over here."

As if it were a cue from a TV director, Hellmuth's voice rose a few decibels as he followed the 'Fish back to his table. "It's not been that quiet he said." He went on to describe a few hands, bluffs, and laydowns. "Dodging bullets, baby," he said, reprising one of his more infamous comments from WSOP television. "That's what I..." he paused slightly, then finished, "try to do."

That's what everyone in this room is attempting. THe weather outside shifts from sun to sprinkles every few hours, and players' moods are changing with the sunshine. With approximately 206 players remaining after two levels of play today, there is some suspicion that the event is moving faster than planned. Badgirl Pham, who survived a three-way all-in with pocket queens versus AK and AK, predicts otherwise.

"Now it will slow down," she said.

If a change in inertia doesn't do the trick, player attitudes might. During a stop at Emad Tahtouh's table, I saw a bunch of limpers and the action was headed toward Emad. Gearing up to raise, he balked as the player to his right threw out a bunch of chips. "I love this guy," Emad said, throwing a thumb in his tablemate's direction. "I was going to have to raise and he saved me."



As I type, I see that John Gale is making his way toward the rail. The one-time PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion had been nursing a short stack all day long. As we spoke earlier, he confessed, "I'm getting impatient." He knew, as I suspected, that it wouldn't be long before he either doubled up or went home.

Seconds later, we've learned that Katja Thater has also made an exit. Though tenacious with her short stack, it appears Katja could not find her double-up hand.

For the moment, here at the beginning of the 600/1200/100 level, the room has grown ever-so-slightly more quiet. The table chat is a bit quieter. The rail is not as thick. That may be because, as reports from The Outside are telling us, there is mayhem in the lobby, where the eliminated players are lining up to get into today's side event.

Breaking news: Barry Greenstein, Bill Chen, Vicky Coren have all been eliminated

More than one hundred of the players who started the day have now found their way back to their hotel rooms or, more suitably, a bar to lament their finish. We now sit under the 230 mark, causing blogger Simon Young to remark quietly, "It's a cull."

The rough run today is causing no small amount of tension in the room. Neil Stoddard told me a quick tale earlier about a hand involving Emad Tahtouh, Joe Hachem's big mate. Apparently, Emad - currently sitting on more than 140,000 - came in for a raise and one of his tablemates said something about Emad's poor table image. As it happened, there was still a player left in the hand. Said player had just arrived and knew nothing of Emad's image--good or bad. Regardless, right after the comment, the new player pushed all his chips in. Emad was, in a word, nonplussed.

Chad Brown, who started the day with a big chip lead, now has, er, an even bigger chip lead. He's up to over 300,000, with two new fresh scalps attached to his belt. One was a biggie - Sweden's William Thorson. Thorson and another player moved all in on a flop of K-Q-9, bets matched by Chad. The first had A-Q, bettered by Thorson's 9-9 for the set. Chad, perhaps worried one had 10-J for the straight, happily turned over his Q-Q for a higher set.

Missing, and presumed out, is Finland's Patrik Antonius. He had been yo-yoing dramatically for two days, and appears to have made one move too many here. Details when we can get them. The UK's Xuyen "Bad Girl" Pham is enjoying herself. Short-ish late last night, she finished the day up a bit on 20,000. Now, she sits on a stack of more than 90,000 after trebling up with Q-Q against two A-K hands.

Team PokerStars' Katja Thater, fresh off her final table performance in Warsaw, is managing to hang in there, despite the mass blood-letting. Her stack is a bit short, but she seems to be able to afford some patience at the moment.

Other Team PokerStars' members aren't faring as well. Roving Report Ed Ramshaw has set himself up to watch the players as they are led away.

The Ed Report

Some quick fire news as players seem to be dropping like flies.

Bill Chen went out at the end of the last level. The chips went in the middle on a flop of J-10-9. Bill had J-10 and his opponent QQ. His opponent hit a straight to send Bill to the rail.

Emad Tahtouh is up to around 100K having eliminated a player with AK against KJ.
Roy "The Boy" Brindley has been eliminated. With the flop showing K-10-4 Roy bet 4K and was minimum raised by the player to his left. Roy moved in and hiss opponent instantly called. Roy was drawing pretty thin when he showed AK against his opponent's 10-10. Thin turned into dead when the case 10 hit the turn to give quads.

Victoria Coren has also left the building. She moved all in from the button with A6. The SB called and BB folded. Vicky turned A6 and the SB pocket rockets. The flop gave her some hope for a gutshot draw with K-J-10 and a 6 on the turn increased her outs but the river was a 5 and we say goodbye to the EPT London Champion.

Barry Greenstein is also OUT. He raised to 3K, Andy Black re-raised to 10K, and Barry pushed in. AK for Barry and AA for Andy. No miracle outdraw for Barry and Andy moves up to 150K.

Fortunately Greg Raymer is still going strong. I saw him take a slight setback when he raised to 2400 from the cut off and was called by the button. The flop was 6c-Ah-6h and a bet of 3500 was called by the button. 10c on the turn and 9d on the river were checked by both and the button shows 88 for the pot. He moved all in soon after when a player re-raised him on the flop. A long dwell later, and Greg took it down, taking him back up to 75,000.

Finally, lukefromb13 has been eliminated. Facing an early position raise and three callers, lukefromb13 pushed with AK from the big blind, got called by JT, and was outdrawn.

From TLB to EPT

by Ali Lightman

"I am speechless, it's unbelievable" said Tyler 'tnetter' Netter, as he prepared to sit down in the biggest poker tournament of his young life.

"I am chasing my dream."

Even though he's only 20 years old, Tyler, from Gainsville, Florida, is no ingenue at the table. He estimates his winnings to date at $400,000.



"It's a beautiful game, the best game in the world," he said. "Everyone gets two cards and anyone can win. There's no other sport like it. Maybe it's my turn now."

Winning the PokerStars' Tournament Leader Board guaranteed Tyler's entry to the Monte Carlo EPT Season Three Grand Final.

He's sharing his first adventure in Monte Carlo with his cousin, Rick.

Rick was on the rail cheering for Tyler during the EPT events in London and Barcelona. So is Rick your lucky charm, I wondered? "No, I got knocked out on bad beats both times. I always do when he's around, but I bring him with me anyway."

I was feeling slightly nervous about the Rick Effect when I went to check up
on Tyler.

Where's Rick? I asked. "By the pool," Tyler replied.

Perhaps he should stay there.

by Ali Lightman

Barely 5 days ago Aussie, Jason Melross, was pottering around at home in Geelong, rural Australia, about as far removed from Monte Carlo as one can be. Rather than getting on with something useful, Jason logged on to his computer, saw a last chance $240 double-shoot out on PokerStars.com to the EPT Grand Final, and thought, "why not?"

His life has been a bit hectic since then. Jason won. When he had picked himself up off the floor, he had to pull off a major feat of logistics even to get here from the other side of the planet.

"It was quite a rush to get here," he grinned.

Luckily Jason had drawn a seat for Day1B. When I caught up with him yesterday at Table 3 he was fed and watered, and had his game face on.

I recognized at least half of his table mates and felt a shiver of nerves for my young compatriot; smiling champagne-drinking Tommy Dender, from Copenhagen, who finished 17th in the Season 3 EPT German Open in March, Tomas Brolin, the Swedish ex-International footballer, Richard "King Richard" Ashby from the UK and Thomas Fougeron (eliminated).

I might have been nervous but Jason wasn't. He took down two large pots in succession.

Jason, 24, learned to play poker with his mates after seeing it on television two years ago and started a home game.

But while his mates were content to keep swapping the same few bucks back and forth around the kitchen table, Jason read a book or two, signed up on PokerStars and practiced. Now he's doing so well that he's chucked in his old job to turn Pro.

"It was a pretty boring job," he told me, "just office work in a customs brokerage house."

I bet the pay wasn't anywhere near what he's earning now. In addition to his online winnings, Jason's made more than $130,000 with good finishes playing tournaments in Las Vegas and the Aussie Millions.

"This is a good structure, deep-stacked, it gives us lots of play," he said. "I'm just playing one hand at a time."

Jason goes into Day 2 with a comfortable 27075 in chips.

"This is a lot more fun that my old job, going to places like this. I couldn't have imagined this kind of life, two years ago. My mates keep asking me to give them lessons now."

The Ed Report

Erica Schoenberg, John Shipley and Fabrice Soullier have been eliminated.

Julian Gardner raises to 2K from the button and Pete “The Beat” Giordano bumps it to 7K. The BB calls and Julian throws his hand away. The flop is Ac-3c-5s and Pete bets 11K which is called by the BB. Ad on the turn and a check from Pete prompts an all in. Pete gives it up and is left with around 13K.

Greg Raymer has got off to a decent start today. An UTG raise from him was called by the button with the rest of the table folding. The flop came down 9c-8d-6d and a 3K bet from Greg was called. The turn was 4h and Greg kept firing this time with a armour piercing 5K shell. This did the job and the button folded. Greg is up at 62K.



News from John Shipley at the bar it was Andy Black who was the hatchet man for Chris Moneymaker. Chris bet out on the end with a board showing two Kings and the rest rags. Andy asked if this small bet was a stopper bet and asked if could call a raise. Chris said he could not but then shoved in when Andy raised. Andy priced in called with QQ which was enough.

by Simon Young

I like Tables of Death. Big names share the same felt, eyeing each other up in that menacing "don't even think about it" way. Or normally, anyway. Here, the undoubted table to avoid is actually the friendliest of the lot.

Sitting together are overnight chip leader Chad Brown, from the US, Team PokerStars' Dutchman Noah "Exclusive" Boeken, the UK's Joe Beevers (one quarter of the Hendon Mob) and, for good measure, Sweden's William Thorson, who finished 13th in last year's WSOP Main Event, and who finished third in this season's EPT Dublin. And they are getting on famously, chattering away like a bunch of mates in the bar.

So far they've enjoyed a discussion about the merits of being allowed to buy into this tournament, for €10,000 at the start of Day 2. Would it be worth it? Well, the consensus seemed to be yes. You'd start again with 15,000 chips and, with one double up, would be up to at least average in no time with just 330 or so of the 706 players left. Chad Brown insisted: "I think a good player would have perhaps less than a 50% chance of getting into Day 2, so I would love to start on Day 2 with 15,000." Mind you, that's easy to say when you actually started with 150,000!

Even when the serious matter of playing poker was ongoing, the banter continued. Hand two of the day and Beevers raises from the cut off. Brown, in the small blind re-raises him. "Is this going to happen all day?" asks the Englishman. "I hope so," says Brown, and Beevers mucks.

Elsewhere Anthony Holden, the UK author of The Big Deal, went out unluckily on hand two. Sitting with Team PokerStars' Lee Nelson to his right, he watched as the New Zealander pushed his 9,000 in the middle. A quick look at his cards, and a quicker all in from Holden spelt trouble for Nelson. His fears were realised - he had A-10, Holden Q-Q. But wait, the flop brought the ace and Holden had reached the final chapter of this particular story. Nelson, meanwhile said: "Great, now I can play some poker!" Not good news for the rest of his table.

Another man looking for an early monster hand today was Norway's Baard Dahl, who final tabled in Season One's EPT London. Handily, he found K-K on hand three - raised, found a re-raise and pushed. This was his chance, he thought, until his opponent flipped over.... K-K. Chop, chop. "Just my luck," he told me.

More now on Isabelle Mercier's departure. "I had A-K and came up against 5-5. Okay, I thought, let's go. The flop came down A, K ..... 5. Ouch, but never mind." And off she went. What a girl.

No details yet of Chris Moneymaker's demise, although the UK's John Shipley whispered to me that he "bluffed his chips away". I'll try and verify that as soon as I can. Still at the table with Shipley are no less that Team PokerStars' Barry Greenstein, Ireland's Andy "Quiet Man" Black (okay, we wish) and the UK's Dave "El Blondie" Colclough who, on his day, can rip through a field. Black has chips and looks dangerous - but he has just doubled up an opponent when his A-K was outgunned by the A-A. It cost him 20,000 or so, but Andy is still in good shape.

Team PokerStars also has Greg Raymer, Katja Thater, from Germany, Victor Ramdin and Bill Chen in the field. Katja and Bill are both short on chips, but as Katja showed in Poland a few weeks ago, you can make a few chips go a long way. In Warsaw she made 11,000 chips at the start of Day 2 stretch all the way to fifth place.

There is a slightly overcast sky on the Cote d'Azur. It's a rather perfect day for playing poker, methinks. I would think our chip leader, Chad Brown, likely believes so as well. As you will find on EPT Monte Carlo chip counts page, Brown finished Day 1 proper with an impressive chip lead, 150,425. His lead over second place is bigger than many players' remaining stacks.

Chad Brown

The curtains have been drawn here and, as one person remarked, this room is as full as many tournaments' Day 1. Crowd control is in full effect day as the march toward the money becomes even more serious. We started with 339 players today, 113 of whom are fighting under the PokerStars banner (including 30 players who qualified for this event via FPP freerolls). There are 32 nationalities representing five continents among the remaining players. We're still seeing action from players who hail from the U.S. to Saudi America to New Zealand. Not to mention an impressive lot of Europeans.

Early action has seen three crowd favorites fall. Isabelle Mercier (AK vs 55), Anthony Holden (out on his second hand), and Chris Moneymaker have already found their way toward the door.

The Ed Report

One table that immediately caught the eye today was Table 32. On a 9 handed table we have Chris Moneymaker, Barry Greenstein, John Shipley, Andy Black and Dave Colclough. Andy Black is a dominant chip leader on the table and has had a promising start to the day using his chips to bully players out of pots.

Facing a 5K raise from the cut off Andy called in the SB. The flop was Kh-5s-5h and a 10K bet from Andy picked that one up. Shortly after on a board of 4d-7d-4s-6d Andy called a bet of 6500 from the other player involved. The 5h made this look even more dangerous and a 7K bet from Andy was enough to win that one as well. He is chipped up at over 100K now.

We have just had a 3 way all in on a table near to this with AK vs A10 vs A9. The AK held up and two players were elimnated in a 40K pot. There are quite a lot of shortstacks out there and with it costing 1500 a round they are being forced into playing more marginal hands than they might otherwise do.

The Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth has just more than doubled up. On a board of Jd-2d-9d-7c, Phil had pushed all in. He was standing up putting his fake leather jacket on, assuming the worst as there were two players behind him to act.The first folded and he was called by the other.Phil showed trip deuces against AJ with no diamond, so Phil was safe. A 7d on the river gave Phil a fullhouse and the pot.

He is up to around 43K.

How serious do you have to be to be in this game? Well, apparently, you have to be ruthless enough to check-raise your own Grandma. Roving Reporter Ed Ramshaw spotted this ruthlessness at ElkY's table. I later learned, the man behind the poker aggression was Doctorin2010, a PokerStars qualifier who had done well enough for himself today to go into Day 2 with a much better than average stack. Right now we're estimating, but it looks like Chad Brown will head into Day 2 with the chip lead--looking to be around 150,000.

Indeed, that shirt reads "I would check-raise my own Grandma"

We're at the tail-end of today's action with approximately 180 players left in the field. It was a day that saw heavyweights like Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, and Marcel Luske fall. And it was a day that saw players like Patrik Atonius and Chad Brown skyrocket to big leads. We'll have a full official chip count when it's provided to us by the tournament staff. In the meantime, here's some late action from Ed.

The Ed Report

Facing a 1500 raise PokerStars qualifier rkruok called and then saw the SB push in for 4750 total. The original raiser folded and rkruok made the call. AJ for the SB against 66. The board was all single digit cards and rkruok eliminates a player and moves up to just under 30K.

Mel Judah has been eliminated when the money was all in preflop AK vs QQ and his hand did not improve.

Andy Black is continuing to add to his already impressive stack despite a tough table including Vicky Coren, Erica Schoenberg and French PS qualifier dlopt who just missed out on the FT in Barcelona this year. An early limper to Vicky Coren’s BB was also called by Andy and Vicky checked her option. The flop was 9d-6h-7d and the initial limper bet 1500. Andy raised to about 11K enough to put either player all in. Both folded and The WSOP final tablist now sits on around 60K. Vicky is looking perilously short and the crossword is losing its chances of completion.

Bill Chen raises to 1500 and gets 2 caller. Flop is Ad-3d-7s and Bill fires 2500 into the pot and gets a called. Both check the 2c on the turn and the river is 8d. The other player bets 4K and Bill folds. As the pot is being scooped he is shown a 5h. Bill is back down to 14K.

---

And so, we end it tonight and plan for a 2pm start tomorrow. It looks like we'll have around 350 players going into Day 2, just about half the 706 that started. If you missed today's action, check out:

Big Guns Prepare for Battle
Champions in Monte Carlo
Champions Fall (Hachem and Ivey eliminated)
Faces in the crowd
Enormous first prize
Hellmuth's Hell and Stoddard's Eye
Gus Hansen's Tall Tale (and exit)
EPT Monte Carlo Payouts
Back in Action

On the outside, looking in

With the hour growing late, the players with the shorter stacks are starting to get'em in. We're down to 234 players in this flight with two hours left in play. You'll see, we posted the payout structure in the PokerStars Headlines box at the top. It's all now official. We started with more than 700 players and will be paying 64. That's going to be one heckuva grind for the remaining players.

After my heartbreaking defeat to Simon earlier today, I needed something to lift my spirits. Confined to the tournament reporting and blog duties, the best I could do to get in action was bet Team PokerStars' Isabelle Mercier in a last longer against Erika Schoenberg. When the bet was made, Schoenberg had around 9,000 to Isabelle's 6,000, and I got a great price at 2-1. Even better (and the real point of this little tale) is that Isabelle just doubled through Keith Hawkins in a battle of the blinds. She got her final 6,000 in with 88 vs. The Camel's 33. Not only did the eights hold up, they made a set and sealed the deal. Isabelle now sits on more than 12,000 and is smiling again.

As it turns out, though he's supposed to be on holiday, roving reporter Ed can't stop working. He's been out roving and returned with a sizable report.



The Ed Report

Phil Helmuth is handing out his normal words of advice at the table. I caught him berating a player in the middle of a hand about future misdemeanours that he might commit. With 2.8K in the pot and it showing 4c-Jc-6s Phil had bet 2K and found himself raised to 5K. With his cards ready to muck he then began the lecture which briefly summarised was "do not just gift wrap those and pass them on to someone else." Phil is sitting on around 13K.

You may find an abnormally large number of reports focusing on a couple of tables in during the final two levels. There is a reason for it. Members of the blogging team are hanging over Elky like a spectre of death. He is down to about 2K but seems in good spirits just picking his pots to desperately try and pick up the blinds and antes. One can only feel that unless he gets a real rush of cards it is only a matter of time.

Whilst loitering with intent I saw Jeff Lisandro boost his stack. He raised from the cut off to 1200 and the button called. The flop was 3c-9h-5d and was checked by both players. 8h on the turn and Jeff fired a 3500 chip shells - which the button called. The river brought a 2d and Jeff with only 2K or so left decided to check, as did the button. Jeff showed 43 against the button’s AQ. Jeff is now at 11K and the button player went out shortly thereafter.

Almost immediately after that hand we had some 5 way action at the table. Jeff limped UTG which prompted several other callers. A flop of Qs-Qh-5c only had two players interested. Jeff bet 600 and was called in the BB by PokerStars qualifier rkruok. Turn was a Kc and Jeff made it 1500 to play which was duly called. The river brought a 9s and both players checked. Rkruok showed QJ to take it down and move up to 23K. He was also scooping chips at the table the next time I looked round, and probably has close to 30K now.

For those UK readers out there former Eastenders "Star" turned poker player Michael Greco is doing well and giving a lesson on how to defend a blind. Facing a button raise to 800, Michael made it 3800 to go and Mel Judah folds on the BB. The button also mucks and Michael shows a rag ace.

In between accumulating chips Vicky Coren is explaining how to complete a Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword. In truth she should maybe do more of the doing and less explaining as I only saw about 5 clues done, but believe me these things are not your tea-break teasers. At the current rate if she final tables the event it may be complete. I did see her pick up a pot whilst I was trying to work out 10 across. With 3K in the pot and the flop showing 2d-4h-8c the BB had bet 1200 and Vicky had raised to 4K total effectively setting the BB all in. He mucked and Vicky is up to 26K.

In other news Chad Brown looks to have over 100K and appears to be leading the field.

Total players: 706
Prize pool: 6,626,400 euros
Places paid: 64

Payout structure

1 -- 1,825,010
2 -- 1,061,820
3 -- 610,550
4 -- 471,180
5 -- 391,550
6 -- 305,270
7 -- 238,910
8 -- 159,270
9 -- 99,550
10 -- 99,550
11 -- 66,360
12 -- 66,360
13 -- 49,770
14 -- 49,770
15 -- 39,820
16 -- 39,820
17 -- 33,180
18 -- 33,180
19 -- 33,180
20 -- 33,180
21 -- 33,180
22 -- 33,180
23 -- 33,180
24 -- 33,180
25 -- 26,550
26 -- 26,550
27 -- 26,550
28 -- 26,550
29 -- 26,550
30 -- 26,550
31 -- 26,550
32 -- 26,550
33 -- 23,230
34 -- 23,230
35 -- 23,230
36 -- 23,230
37 -- 23,230
38 -- 23,230
39 -- 23,230
40 -- 23,230
41 -- 19,910
42 -- 19,910
43 -- 19,910
44 -- 19,910
45 -- 19,910
46 -- 19,910
47 -- 19,910
48 -- 19,910
49 -- 16,590
50 -- 16,590
51 -- 16,590
52 -- 16,590
53 -- 16,590
54 -- 16,590
55 -- 16,590
56 -- 16,590
57 -- 13,270
58 -- 13,270
59 -- 13,270
60 -- 13,270
61 -- 13,270
62 -- 13,270
63 -- 13,270
64 -- 13,270

by Simon Young

Gus Hansen is taller than Tom Cruise. Okay, I admit this conundrum has probably never even entered your head, but let me explain. A picture of the Great Dane placed on a poker forum today made him look like a very small person. It was the perspective, you see. But a debate ensued about whether he was, in fact, much taller in real life. Some suggested he was no larger than actor Tom Cruise (not known for his loftiness).

To settle it once and for all, Gus was summonsed to the media room here in Monte Carlo where, stuck conveniently on the wall, was an arrow where Tom Cruise would have been. Good sport that he is, Gus stood next to it, and as erect as he could - and at least half his shaven head was above the "Cruise Arrow".

So there you have it. Gus Hansen IS taller than Tom Cruise - but not by much.

EDIT: Breaking news - Gus Hansen is OUT in a massive pot that saw one other player fetch his coat at the same time. The beneficiary of all this? Chad Brown, of the US, who just happens to be Team PokerStars' Vanessa Rousso's other half, and who now has a whopping 118,000 chips.

The hand was a monster. With blinds at 150-300, Chad limped. Folded round to the small blind who called, and Gus in the big blind, who checked. No danger at this point, but that all changed after the 7-10-K flop. Small blind and Gus both check, Chad bets 500, the small blind calls, but Gus raises to 2,500. Chad calls the raise - then the small blind goes all in for about 25,000.

As if that was not eye-popping enough, Gus pushed too for 30,000 or so and Chad, on a flush and a straight draw felt he had the right price to call. So, all on their backs. Small blind and first "all-inner" had A-K for top pair, Gus 10-7 for two pair and Chad the draw. The turn was gave him the magical flush and the river made no difference.

So Chad now looks like being chip leader. Gus is off to lick his wounds.

It's hard to pinpoint how this night is different than the last. Perhaps it is because there were a few more players in today's flight. Perhaps it's because a few crowd favorites were sliced and diced in the early rounds. Perhaps its just second flight fatigue. Regardless, though it's getting on toward 11pm here, it doesn't seem like the second half of action is as intense as it was in the late-going yesterday. Still, the enormity of the prize pool is lending some extra juice where the late-day fatigue is taking it away. Every chip matters. Speaking of which, the EPT Monte Carlo chip counts have been updated for Level 4.

Now seems as good as any time to give you another look at this event through the eyes of Neil Stoddard, our pro photographer who stops by once a day to unintentionally make me realize I should take a class or two in this photography thing (No worries, Neil. I know I'm an amateur and you had me at hello).

Phil Hellmuth (see a bit further down for a picture that gives a better idea of how the Poker Brat is faring now)


Devilfish (my vote for picture of the day)


Patrik Antonius, the one souvenir I may take home for my wife


Per "Nemo" Ummer, one of few you can call a fish without being insulting


Lee Nelson


Isabelle Mercier, in earlier, less stressful times


The Great Dane, Gus Hansen

Finally, as we begin Level 5, Simon Young happened to be standing near Hellmuth as the last blind level closed. He came back to report...

"Hellmuth feels he is getting the rough end of the luck today. The latest hand, the last before a 15-minute break, saw him lead out pre-flop, on the flop, and on the turn, called each time by his opponent. The river made his foe's flush and Hellmuth mucked in disgust. He slapped the table, then, as the other player trooped out for their quick break, he remained in hit seat, his leather jacket covering his head."


Hellmuth's day got a little worse after the break - he lost half his stack just now when he ran into a set of aces. Fears rise that a blow-up is imminent.

If there's anything a player likes to hear after a big meal (other than, "Okay, nap time, everybody!), it's that they are playing for a 1.8 million euro first prize. The exact payout structure is still being worked up, but first prize is a lock and players can't stop talking about it. If the EPT had not yet arrived, it certainly has now.

The dinner buffet ranged from squid to roast, not once leading anyone make a joke about fish or ponder "Where's the beef?" Now, those players who survived the dinner break are on their way back to attempt to go from a big meal to a big deal.

Isabelle returns from dinner with a new look


Shaniac realizes his Bose QC3s work pretty damned well


Mats Iremark passes the time with his toys


Gavin Griffin, blonde and spikey

The Ed Report

In a 3 way pot with 2K already in the middle and the flop showing 10c-3d-2h Devilfish fired out 1500 and was called by one player. An Ad on the turn and Devilfish led out with 4K this time. His opponent thought for an age before folding. Devilfish showed his 77 face up and mentioned something about not messing with the fish -- we are presuming he meant the Devilfish or he was just insulting his own poker play.

An early position raise to 400 is called by Willie Tann and ElkY. The flop comes Jh-3c-3s and Willie bets 600 which is called by ElkY. The other player folds. An 8s on the turn and a Ac on the river are both checked and ElkY shows J10 suited to take it down. Willie flashes 99 as he bins them. ElkY is around 22K and Willie is near enough at his starting stack of 15K.

2006 EPT Barcelona Champion Bjorn-Erik Glenne is absolutely motoring at the moment. I caught him involved with another dangerous player at his table, Patrik Antonious (another former EPT Champion). With 1100 in the pot and the board showing Ks-Kd-7h Bjorn had bet 1025. Patrik had raised to 3100 and a re-raise from Bjorn to 7300 was enough to make Patrick fold. Even without Phil Ivey at this table, the press are still swarming around it and no wonder as Bjorn is one of the days chip leaders with somewhere in the region of 70K. Patrik still has 23K.

High stakes French player Davd Benyamine has just doubled up someone at his table. The cut off raised to 550 and Vicky Coren on the button called. David raised to 2100 and the cut off moved in for 6100 total. David felt priced in and called. AQ for David vs JJ. The cards were all low and the cut off doubled leaving David at 24K.

The Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth is in town and after a shaky start seems to be settling into his rhythm. He bumped it to 500 from mid position to be called by the big blind. The flop was 8d-Kc-10d and after a check from the BB Phil bet 500. This was raised to 2025 and Phil pretty much instantly called. The As on the turn was checked by both players and the BB also checked the 9c river. Phil bet out 3K on the end which took down the pot and chipped him up to 19K.

Devilfish is continuing his persecution of the player sat opposite him. He showed a bluff earlier today with 77 into a big pot for that stage of the game. In this hand I caught site of a board showing 8d-2d-5h-2s-Ks and the chap was facing a 6K bet from Devilfish. The pot was 8.5K not including Devilfish's bet. Another fold and Devilfish shows A-10 for pretty much nothing.

Erica Schoenberg has just doubled a player up. She raised to 800 from mid position and the SB moved in for 6100 total. Erica counted out what she would be left with and decided to call showing JJ. The SB showed AK and it is race time. A king on the flop was enough to secure the win, although Erica did have a flush draw on the river, which missed. She is now down to 16K.

Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins limps UTG for 200 and the blinds, Shane 'Shaniac' Schleger and Isabelle 'No Mercy' Mercier also get involved. Flop comes Ah-6h-5c and Keith bets 300 after the others check. Isabelle decides to stay in and turn is 3s. Keith fires out 1K and Isabelle calls again. A 10d on the river prompts a check from both players and Isabelle shows a 6 which takes it down. This win puts her up to 8.5K.

I've been making my way around the room looking for faces we think we stand a chance of seeing in later days. They might not be worth 1,000 words, but I think they'll suffice for a few hundred or so.

Jonathan Little, 2007 PCA final table player, and the man who cracked Joe Hachem's aces


Chad Brown, among the the better tournament players you don't see much on TV


John Gale, 2005 PCA champion


Andy Black, 2005 WSOP final table player, and competing with Phil Hellmuth for most talkative player at the EPT Grand Final


Thang Duc Nguyen, EPT Baden Season 3 champion


Baard Dahl, one-time circuit rounder, now an entreprenuer who couldn't keep himself away from the Grand Final


ElkY, Supernova looking for Supernova Elite


Arshad Husain, 2006 EPT Grand Final final table player

by Simon Young

No sooner had Brad put up the last past about Joe Hachem and Jeff Williams biting the dust, than I chanced upon Team PokerStars' Vanessa Rousso's table to find her down to small change. A pile of green 25 chips, and a few black 100 ones added to no more than a thousand or so. It's a pretty vulture-like job we do here, and I had to stick around since, knowing Vanessa, it would not be long before she pushed.

First hand she's on the big blind and faces a raise. Here we go, I thought, but she passed. Next hand, though, it's folded around to her small blind and she sticks the greens and blacks over the line. The man to her left had her well covered. He looks at his first card. "It's an ace," he says, "so I have to call." He flips over A-4, Vanessa has the rather depleted J-3. The board started well with a flop of 2-6-3, but the turn and river were both fives. Vanessa was out to the straight.

She leaves the arena, but her partner Chad Brown, who had a good run in this season's London EPT, is still in.

Meanwhile Patrik Antonius, he who set off like a greyhound earlier to reach more than 35,000, has fallen back to 21,000. But he's not afraid to keep making moves. On a 5-J-4 flop he raises and is check-called. The 5 turn sees a bigger bet - 1,000 - check-called again. The river is a Q and his opponent leads out this time with 1,200. Antonius, the chisel-jawed former tennis coach from Finland, showed strength by re-raising to 3,000. His opponent thought for a moment and called. Showdown - opponent A-J - Antonius 7-9 for, er, nothing. That's the beauty of his game, though, no-one really knows exactly where he's at.

Great Dane Gus Hansen continues to boss his table around, and is drawing a big crowd. At the moment, all they see is Gus stretched out in his chair chatting on his mobile phone. Another big name, Ireland's Andy Black is up to 25,000. We need not follow his table too closely, since his booming voice keeps most of the room informed of his progress.

Team PokerStars' Lee Nelson is having a quiet time of it, and is hovering around the 12,000 mark, just ahead of The Big Deal author Tony Holden, who is flying the PokerStars flag, and who has 9,000 or so.

Phil Hellmuth is also drawing a crowd. Dressed head to foot in his usual black, the "Poker Brat" is busy telling anyone who will listen that he will "trap them and take all their chips. Just like that". Well, we are waiting, but it has not happened yet. No matter, he is up to 20,000 or so and looking solid.

We are now into level 3, with blinds at 75-150, with 333 of the day's starters still in their seats.

Within the span on 90 minutes--one level here at the European Poker Tour Grand Final--we lost both 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem and 2006 EPT Grand Final champion Jeff Williams. Perhaps not surprisingly, both players had their aces cracked on their way to the door. As we wrote in a flash just a bit ago...

Joe Hachem has been eliminated from the EPT Grand Final. He raised to 300 pre-flop and was re-raised by Jonathan Little to 1000. Hachem called. The flop came out QsQc2c. Hachem bet out, was raised by Little, Hachem three-bet, Little pushed, and Hachem called. He quickly flipped up his aces. Little flipped up AQo. No miracle case ace on the turn and river and Hachem is gone.

Toward the end of Level 2, Jeff Williams had been chipped down to around 6,000 when he picked up pocket aces. A KT4 flop did him in against an opponent who held KT.

In the same level, Phil Ivey also fell victim to Patrick Antonius. Apparently Ivey had made two pair by the turn on a 3-5-6-T board with two diamonds. Ivey pushed in the rest of his 6,500 in chips. Antonius called with 7-9 of diamonds, hit his flush on the river, and sent Ivey packing.

All I can say is that I'm happy Isabelle has been running okay. Or, perhaps it better to say, it's nice Isabelle's aces haven't been cracked.



Now, at the beginning of Level 3 (EPT Monte Carlo chip counts now updated), the room seems just as full as it did when we started.

There are a lot of fun tables here, but Shaniac and Keith "The Camel" Hawkins seem to be keeping most folks at their table pretty entertained. They've been quoting lines from The Simpsons for quite a while.


Isabelle Mercier laughs at Shaniac

Note: I've also lost a bet which requires the following words. There is an ongoing Battleship Poker game running in the media area of the Grand Final. Lee Jones and his staff are running it smoothly for all who want to play. Some clever folks in marketing thought it would be a fine idea for me to face of against uber-blogger Simon Young in a heads-up death match for all to see. It was quite a show. Lasting for a full 45 minutes, Young and I battled back and forth. There were times I had him more than 2-1. There were times when he had me more than 2-1. It was an epic match that forced Lee Jones to remark several times, "You guys are still playing?" Unlike many of the other matches going on here, this one involved no money. Only pride was on the line. Well, that and the loser had to blog about the game. I suspect, if you have followed it this far, it's pretty clear who emerged with the victory. I'd like to say something ugly about Simon right now, but I can't come up with anything clever that wouldn't also make me sound like a sore loser. So, yeah, I lost. And Simon played well. And...yeah, I'm the big loser. Damn it, I would've rather lost 100 euros.

...EDIT from Simon Young: Erm, I'm sure we were playing for €100? Unlucky, old chap. ENDS EDIT...

Back to the floor. Carefully.

Quick flash: Joe Hachem has been eliminated from the EPT Grand final. He raised to 300 pre-flop and was re-raised by Jonathan Little to 1000. Hachem called. The flop came out QsQc2c. Hachem bet out, was raised by Little, Hachem three-bet, Little pushed, and Hachem called. He quickly flipped up his aces. Little flipped up AQo. No miracle case ace on the turn and river and Hachem is gone.

With a full room once again, it's hard to find folks here. The good thing is, there are so many big-name players and former champions of one major event or another, it's well-nigh impossible not to find something interesting to watch. For instance, up in the back left corner of the room, it's hard not to spot the crowds forming around a couple of tables. Joe Hachem and Phil Ivey, both champions in their own right, are drawing the biggest attention.

Phil Ivey, texting before the event begins


Hachem, all smiles as the day begins

A veteran of the Monte Carlo wars, I was interested in finding one young man from the states. Jeff Williams, the University of Georgia student who won here last year, has returned to defend his title. His dad, Dave, is along for the ride. It took both father and blogger a bit to find the lad, nestled in the back corner, a quiet place for title defense.


Nobody puts Jeff in the corner...except Thomas Kremser and a random table draw

One of the most familiar faces of the EPT has already left the building. Marcel Luske was eliminated in the first level in the most horrible way. Holding A-K he was dleighted to see the flop come A-10-A. He bets big, gets a call. The turn was 3, he bets bigger and is called again. River was a 2 (no flush on board). Marcel leads out, his opponent re-raises, then all the chips fly in. Marcel showed his trip aces, top kicker. His opponent, surely must have a full house? Nope, he called all the way with 4-5 and hit the gutshot on the river. It's a cruel game, but Marcel took the beat in his usual polite manner.

Still on his table, though, sits Team PokerStars' Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier. She's in high spirits, and tells us she is confident of a good run here. She sits next to England's Keith "The Camel" Hawkins, and is tucking into a variety of croissants and rolls. "I really need some fruit," she says. "There must be somewhere in here where I can get a banana or an apple?"

Her day has not been fruitless so far in the poker sense. She's up to 17,000 already after picking off a couple of pots from players perhaps wary of her fearsome reputation. On one, a chap raised her big blind to 150. She calls and sees a flop of K-J-7 hearts. Turn is another 7 and river the 3 clubs. It had been checked to the river, and now Isabelle bet out 250, forcing an instant fold. "I saw he thought I had a monster," she said later. Did she? A knowing wink said it all.

The familiar faces are hard to miss. Here are a few more shots from around the room.


Genius Bill Chen


Vanessa Rousso


ElkY


Shaniac


Vicky Coren

Quick reports from the field tell us Gus Hansen has just doubled up.

Now...The Ed Report!

The Ed Report

There is a scrum around the table that holds two young phenoms, Phil Ivey and Patrick Antonius. Following their action is nigh on impossible unless you are prepared to stay for the duration.

Instead, we are doing our usual ambles around the room. Already, at this early stage you can see some of the more aggressive players, such as Devilfish and David Benyamine with piles of green 25 chips.

Another of those is ElkY. I watched a pot unfold between him and well-known UK pro, Willie Tann. With 300 in the pot, the flop was showing Kc-7h-2c. A six of diamonds came on the turn. ElkY bet 300, Tann made it 800, and ElkY callled. The two of spades fell on the river. Tann made it 1,000 and ElkY called. His KJ was good enough, putting him up to 21,000.

KidPokerJD, who finished 7th in Barcelona this year, has made the trip over from Fresno. This time, he is without his family, but his girlfriend is here for support.

...

We should also finally note that Phil Hellmuth, king of fashionable tardiness, has arrive and is already doing on-camera interviews.

Now, to take us into Level 2, the one ubiquitous sight in the poker room.

The music thunders, the fog rolls, the disembodied voice of John Duthie comes down from the rafters. Somehow, it seems all-too familiar. Probably because the same thing happened yesterday. That's the thing about another flight of Day 1. For those of us who were here yesterday, it's something we've seen before. Though, I have to imagine, it's a bit like the birth of one's second child. Regardless of the relative newness, it's new for the kid, it's still fantastic, and that's all that matters.

Today here, glasses are already breaking. I've seen shards on the carpet and early days stumbles around the room. There are a lot of big faces here and about. Pictures are on there way.

While I've been working out the technical issues and roaming the room, Simon has been on top of the tables.

by Simon Young

Welcome to Day 1B of the European Poker Tour Grand Final in sunny Monte Carlo. If you thought yesterday's field was impressive, wait until you feast your eyes on this one! Names spring out like a Who's Who of World Poker. Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Patrik Antonius, John Gale and... well, I could go on for ever.

As so often happens, the Poker Gods have come up with a fiendish seat draw, with several early candidates for the Table of Death Award.

One table, tucked away at the back of room, could be easily missed, if it were not for the fellows sitting around it. Sharing the felt here are Britain's John Gale, a bracelet winner at last summer's WSOP, Ireland's Andy Black, who came fifth in the main event just a couple of years ago, William Thorson, the fearsomely aggressive Swede who finished 13th in the main event last year, Thor Hansen from Norway, who plays so successfully in the US, Englishman Peter Gould and Baad Dahl, the Norwegian who finished 4th in the season one's EPT London - phew!

A little further down the line, two big guns face each other in the shape of Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, from Finland, who made such a big impact last season after winning the EPT in Baden, Austria.

Another hot table sees Flying Dutchman Marcel Luske and Team PokerStars Isabelle Mercier as neighbours. A few seats along sits Keith "The Camel" Hawkins, a successful PokerStars player from the UK, who has a mean live game - final tabling at November's Amsterdam Classic being his latest success.

With such a huge prize on offer, it's no wonder we are finding so many big-name match-ups, despite the huge field. A further tour of the room sees Team PokerStars' ElkY from France sitting next to Italy's Jeff Lissandro and Swedish singer-songwriter Dilba Demirbag, both PokerStars players. Also with them is English veteran Willie Tann and Germany's Erich Kohlmann.

And just to add to the mix, Norway's Henning Granstad, who sat at the same fearsome Table of Death in Warsaw as myself, is joined by some more tasty company today in the shape of Denmark's Gus Hansen and Finland's Juha Helppi.

Last year's Grand Final winner Jeff Williams is back again after qualifying on PokerStars, and sits at a quiet little table in corner of the room. Joe Hachem sits with England's Mel Judah (who has equal claim to be an Australian like Joe), and England's Micky Wernick.

With all this lot - and countless others - expect the action to be fast and furious despite the 90-minute levels and 15,000 starting stack. Stick with us, and don't miss a thing!

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.
---

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.

Make no mistake, poker is no easy job. The massive field and perfect structure has forced a very, very long day. With 15,000 in starting chips, a couple extra levels, and more than 300 runners starting the day, tournament director Thomas Kremser (among the best in the business) made the decision to run a full seven levels for Day 1. That means now, as it comes up on 2am, we still have 90 minutes left to play tonight.

A bit ago, I stood with Isabelle Mercier as she sweated her friend Fabrice Soullier. Even she, young and in shape, knows that 14-hour days at the table can take their toll. She's in for one tomorrow. Soullier has been sitting on a short stack most of the day and under the glare of television cameras that follow his every move. He looks like he can go another round. There are other faces in the room that don't look as sure.

The fatigue is showing. Just before the break, Barny Boatman, once a man with a formidable stack, lost a large chunk of his chips. Even players no longer in the event are still awake and watching the action. Roland de Wolfe, long gone from the event, is making sport of toppling the stacks of his friends who are still in the event. Gobboboy, who we learned had quads force his exit, is back and chatting it up with Barry Greenstein and Carl Olson.

Faces here stretch with painful yawns. Players' only solace rests in the fact that if they survive the next 90 minutes, they will have a full day of rest in the Monte Carlo sea breeze before they have to return for Day 2.

We're now just a couple minutes before the start of Level 7, a 200/400/50 affair, that will start to put some pressure on the short stacks. We've put some selected chip counts on the EPT Monte Carlo Chip Count page.

Let's wish the best to the 192 players headed in Level 7. They'll need all the help they can get just to stay awake.

We know that many of our readers here are fans of young phenom Annette_15. Her day her, sadly, has not been as spectacular as her everyday performance. After struggling through a day that seemed painfully card dead, she moved all-in from the small blind with pocket eights against two people who had limped into the pot. One of the limpers called with A9o and spiked his ace on the river. Annette offered a polite, "Nice hand," and made for the door. Lina, our Swedish blogger is searching for Annette as we speak. If the reporter tracks down the player she calls, "her idol," you might see it in a bit on the Swedish PokerStars Blog.

In other news, Team PokerStars Victor Ramdin has just sent an opponent packing. After some pre-flop raising, he and his foe saw a Ts-Th-6c flop. Victor checked and his man moved all in for 13.7K. Victor muttered something about how the guy would've made the same move with a big hand as a small one and called with pocket jacks. The jacks held and Victor is now up to about 45,000. The knockout was all the sweeter, as just a few hands before, Victor had been re-raised off a hand by the same player, who then showed his bluff K-4 holding to the table. Victor had folded an ace face up.

Victor has had an up and down day today, no doubt because of his aggressive game. Last night at the welcome party, we were chatting with Isabelle Mercier. Victor said, "If I had my game and Isabelle's patience..." He left it at that.



Meanwhile, Spain's Carlos Mortensen, a WSOP and WPT winner, has just escaped elimination by the skin of his teeth. Facing a raise and a call, he pushed his remaining 11,000 with A-Q diamonds. Insta-call from the initial raiser (J-J), while the caller folded.

The flop was 2-7-5 with just one diamond. Carlos was standing now, about to pick up his coat and head for the door. But wait, the turn was 10 diamonds. The river needed to be another diamond, an A or a Q. It was the 3 diamonds. A punch of the air, and Carlos sat down again, now happy behind a pile of more than 25,000, above the room average of nearly 24,000.

It just goes to show how quickly things can change in this game. Carlos, known as the Matador, is a dangerous man with chips - a bit like holdi