Marcel Luske raised to 1,600 in the cutoff and Isaac Baron called on the button. The flop was and both players checked. The turn brought the and Baron bet 3,500 and Luske checked. On the river we saw the , Luske bet 7,000 and this time Baron folded.
There was a raise to 1,000 in early position, Max Martinez three-bet to 3,200 and Joe Elpayaa moved all-in from the blinds. The early position raiser folded and Martinez made the call.
Martinez
Elpayaa
Board:
Martinez has eliminated a dangerous player and now has 78,000 chips.
The prizepool information has been released and the winner will take home a cool €1,500,000 for their efforts this week. Whoever finishes 97th won't be happy as the top 96 will cash, with a min-cash netting you €15,000. If you make the final table then the minimum you will take home will be €130,000. For the full details please click on the payouts tab, or if your cursor is near where you are focusing right now click here.
Andres Artinano Munoz raised from the hijack seat to 1,025 and Chris Oliver three-bet to 2,575 from the button. Jamie Rosen was in the small blind and four-bet to 5,950. Action moved back to Munoz and he reraised to 10,150. Oliver quickly folded, but Rosen took his time to think. If anyone knows Rosen or has watched him play, you'll know he rarely takes more than a few seconds with his decisions. That said, this seemed like an important one.
After a minute, Rosen fired back with a six-bet to 16,450. Munoz took about 30 seconds and then reraised all in. Rosen snapped with the and put all of his 53,650 in chips on the line. Munoz held the .
The board ran out a Rosen-favorable and Rosen doubled up.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier just received a one-round penalty. Disgusted with a recent hand, Grospellier tossed his cards in, but they spun a bit out of control and hit the dealer. Because of this, Grospellier was issued with a one-round penalty and not too happy about it because he was already short on chips.
On the flop, Jean-Noel Thorel checked to Tommy Vedes. Vedes bet 3,075 and Thorel check-raised to 7,000. Vedes called.
The turn was the and the river the . On both streets, Thorel and Vedes checked. At the showdown, Thorel showed the and Vedes the . Vedes' hand was best and he won the pot.
The final number for today’s field came to 394 players, meaning the total main event number has been confirmed at 665 players. This is down from the 686 attracted in Madrid last season and down even more from the 848 players that attended the Grand Final the last time we were in Monaco, two seasons ago. On the face of it this doesn’t look great, but the figures hide some key facts.
Monaco is an expensive place and this is the first time we've been back here since Black Friday.
Many more Nordic players turned up in Madrid last season as the tax penalties on playing in the EU are less severe than outside its boundaries. Monaco is technically outside the EU so those tax penalties put a lot of these players off coming.
More localised PokerStars sites in Europe (eg. PokerStars.it, PokerStars.ee, PokerStars.fr etc) due to regulation means more split qualification pools and less qualifiers in total.
Italians have made up a large number of the players on the EPT the past four seasons. Laws in Italy have changed so they have to pay more tax now on winnings outside Italy. This twinned with the fact that there is a €2k Italian Poker Tour scheduled next week has meany many have opted to stay away.
So basically the ground has shifted on the Grand Final and it's unfair to compare to past seasons' numbers. It's much fairer to compare it to the WSOPE held it Cannes a little more than six months ago. This is because it is the only other €10k Main Event to be held in Europe, Cannes has similar living costs for players to contend with, and it was held within a similar time period to be affected by by all financial implications the poker world and world in general are dealing with. They attracted 593 players so number here looks pretty good!
Fatima Moreira De Melo raised from under the gun to 1,200 and Ashley Mason reraised from middle position to 2,700. Action folded back to De Melo and she made the call.
The flop was and De Melo check-called 3,100 to see the land on the turn. De Melo checked again and Mason bet 7,000. De Melo made the call.
The river was the and De Melo checked with 21,950 behind. Mason put her all in and De Melo tanked for several long minutes. She finally made the call and Mason showed just ace high with the . De Melo showed the and won the pot to double up.