Who Will Take the $1.8 Million First Place Prize?
The best players in the world, no exception, came to Monaco for the 2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €100,000 Super High Roller. The cash game guys that battle each other online for the highest stakes, and the players that won the most money in tournaments all over the world, everybody came to the sovereign city-state on the French Riviera.
Phil Ivey was talking to Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu chatted it up with Jonathan Duhamel. Antonio Esfandiari squared off with Vanessa Selbst and Isaac Haxton went to battle with the German High Rollers Tobias Reinkemeier, Fabian Quoss and Philipp Gruissem.
All those guys didn't make it to the final table though. The 62 entries (50 unique, 12 reentries) made for a €6,015,240 prize pool and just eight players remain right now. They're in the money but not all are guaranteed to make a profit just yet. Though they take home a minimum of €241,000, that would still leave Daniel Colman €59,000 short as he bought back in twice after busting his first €100,000 bullet on Day 1.
The final table is dominated by the group of Asian business men who made their way to the Super High Roller on European soil for the first time. Paul Phua, Lo Shing Fung and Richard Yong proved they can play with the best here in the Principality of Monaco. Flanking the Asian business men are the Americans with Cates, Colman and Busquet all still in contention. To complete the final table there's short stack Igor Kurganov and of course Ole Schemion. We say 'of course' as he's in the form of his life and he might just be the best no-limit hold'em tournament player in the world at the moment. Schemion is on fire with huge cashes everywhere. He won the €10,000 High Roller in Sanremo just two weeks ago, and won the €10,000 satellite to this very €100,000 event to keep himself in form.
The seating is as followed:
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Cates | United States | 2,341,000 |
| 2 | Richard Yong | China | 1,301,000 |
| 3 | Olivier Busquet | United States | 1,038,000 |
| 4 | Rono Lo | China | 4,558,000 |
| 5 | Daniel Colman | United States | 1,398,000 |
| 6 | Igor Kurganov | Russia | 261,000 |
| 7 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 2,818,000 |
| 9 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | 1,785,000 |
The eight finalists will start at 1 p.m. local time. The tournament coverage will be on a one-hour delay as the live stream will be cards up, and they will battle it out for the following prizes:
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | €1,804,000 |
| 2 | €1,305,000 |
| 3 | €842,300 |
| 4 | €637,600 |
| 5 | €493,340 |
| 6 | €385,000 |
| 7 | €307,000 |
| 8 | €241,000 |
Check back in 80 minutes as we'll cover every single hand this final table. The reporting will of course be accompanied by interviews from PokerNews hostess Jennifer Robles, and photos from PokerNews photographer Danny Maxwell.
| Jogador | Fichas | Progresso |
|---|---|---|
|
4,558,000 | |
|
2,818,000 | |
|
2,341,000 | |
|
1,785,000 | |
|
1,398,000 | |
|
1,301,000 | |
|
1,038,000 | |
|
261,000 |
. Under the gun plus two it was Paul Phua who showed interest. Phua had 
and isolated to 364,000. All other players folded and the first all in show down was at hand.
on the flop didn't help him, but the 
on the turn did. The river was a blank with an eight and Kurganov doubled up.
and Colman in the big blind checked his 
. 
on the flop and Lo bet out 80,000. Colman, having flopped nothing really, folded after some thinking.
raised to 130,000. Kurganov in the big blind with 
made the call.
and Kurganov checked. Lo continued for 130,000 and Kurganov made the call. After the dealer burned, the turn came the 
giving Kurganov trips and Lo the flush draw. Kurganov checked again and Lo bet out a hefty 400,000. Kurganov made the call to grow the pot to 1,385,000.
![[user153638]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and Dan Cates just flatted from the cutoff with the 
. Olivier Busquet got his extreme short stack all in from the small blind with the 
, and after the big folded, the three players saw a flop of 
.
turn. When the 
completed the board on the river, Kurganov checked and then folded to a bet from Cates.
made it 125,000. Ole Schemion in the big blind with 
raised it up to 335,000. Colman shoved allin and Schemion made the call for his tournament life.
looked like something, but changed nothing. Schemion still needed an eight or king but wouldn't get it; 
on the river.
flop improved Colman but Phua did now have a gutshot. The 
on the river wasn't the one he needed.
turn saw Cates fire out 340,000, Colman called, and the 
and Richard Yong defended the big blind with the 
flop saw Yong check and Colman bet 200,000 with his set. Yong then moved all in for 1.2 million drawing dead and Coleman snap-called. There was a 2% chance of a chop, but that didn't happen as the 
on the river.
river was one of them.