EPT11 Grand Final: Vieira leads as high rollers head to dinner

Vieira’s off to a very good startThe final feature event of the mammoth 78 event schedule kicked into gear today with the €25,000 High Roller getting under way a little after 12.30 pm CET. Not too long ago €25,000 would’ve been the biggest buy-in event at an EPT stop but here at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final this high roller carries the lowest buy-in of the three events on the schedule that had that suffix.

By the time the bell had tolled at the end of six levels – signifying a 75 minute dinner break – 158 players had entered (11 of them twice). Last year this event attracted 159 unique players, 55 of whom re-entered. With last registration open until Day 2 it looks likely yet again that the winner of this event will walk away with close to €1,000,000 and a luxury SLYDE watch.

Leading the charge for that prize right now is Joao Vieira, the Portuguese pro is currently fourth in the race to be EPT Player of the Year and a deep run here would do his chances of winning that honour the world of good. He’s playing a stack of 165,000 and leads from Charlie Carrel (149,000). The British youngster made the final table of the €10,000 High Roller in Malta back in March, eventually finishing fifth for €183,800.

He leads a chasing pack that includes: Dani Stern (120,000), Andrew Chen (115,000), George Danzer (113,000), Scott Seiver (110,000) and Eugene Katchalov (105,000). Seiver has cashed in both the €100,000 and €50,000 High Rollers here in Monaco and is looking good to complete the hat-trick.

George DanzerWhilst Danzer and Katchalov might be leading the Red Spade charge they’re not alone, Ike Haxton (68,000), Liv Boeree (50,000) and ElkY (49,000) are also in the field. As are:

Davidi Kitai – 100,000
Sorel Mizzi – 100,000
David Yan – 88,000
Fedor Holz – 87,000
Dan Smith – 86,000
Bryn Kenney – 86,000
Thomas Muehloecker – 84,000
David Peters – 82,000
Mustapha Kanit – 76,000
Pratyush Buddiga – 74,000
Christoph Vogelsang – 70,000
Mike McDonald – 60,000
Tobias Reinkemeier – 60,000
Max Silver – 47,000

Seiver’s looking for the high roller hat-trickMax Altergott – 46,000
Benny Spindler – 46,000
Mohsin Charania – 44,000
Mike Watson – 44,000
Fabian Quoss – 42,000
Martin Jacobson – 41,000
Dominik Nitsche – 37,200
Justin Bonomo – 31,475
Paul Newey – 28,400
Ivan Luca – 28,000
Erik Seidel – 21,300
Tony Gregg – 17,275
Vladimir Troyanovskiy – 13,000

This high roller isn’t going as swell for SeidelWith the option to re-enter there haven’t been too many bustouts so far but: Tamer Kamel, Dimitar Danchev and Brian Roberts are as it stands all out of the tournament…for now. When the players return from dinner break they’ll play another four levels before play is done for the day.

Follow all the action from the €10,000 Main Event on the Main Event page. Also watch on EPT Live. The €25,000 High Roller also starts today, over on the High Roller page. It’s also about time you downloaded the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS.