Philipp Gruissem, known to some as "Philbort," won this event last year. The German busted yesterday, but was one of those to reenter before the start of play. He got off to a rough start.
Gruissem lost all but 16,500 of his chips after he raised to 4,500 on the button and then called when his opponent in the small blind three-bet all in for 29,000.
Gruissem:
Opponent:
The board ran out , and Gruissem took a big hit. Gruissem swiped the blinds in the next hand, and then got it in a short time later.
It happened after Max Altergott opened for 4,500 under the gun and Gruissem shoved for 20,700. Dominik Nitsche called from the button, Altergott put in the additional chips, and the flop came down . Altergott checked and then folded when Nitsche bet 15,000.
Nitsche:
Gruissem:
Nitsche had flopped top pair, but it was far from good as Philbort flopped top set.
"Triple up," Gruissem said with a smile after the board ran out the turn and river. He's right back in it!
Daniel Colman, one of the premier tournament players in the world, just got his walking papers courtesy of John Andress, who opened from the cutoff to 4,500. Colman defended his big blind, and the flop came . Colman checked, and Andress bet 5,200. Colman responded with an all-in shove, and Andress quickly called.
Andress:
Colman:
Colman's equity was slim, and the turn and didn't save him.
Patrick Leonard, who busted once and reentered yesterday, begins Day 2 with 45,300. It's a number he's not too happy with; in fact, the last hand of Day 1 seems to have thrown Leonard into a bit of an existential crisis.
Late last night, after play had concluded, Leonard bared his poker soul in the popular TwoPlusTwo forum:
"I'm going to say this and I know its not going to sound good to investors, but I really dont feel like I should be playing 25k tournaments.
"I just took a bad beat which 99.9% of the time I take perfectly fine but here it hit me really badly. It was the last hand of the day, I've been happy all day, even when times were going really bad I was very optimistic and played as close to A game as possible, but when this river card happened, I can't really explain it but it hurt me mentally way more than it should have done.
"Walking back to my hotel I felt genuinely very, very sad and thats a pretty bad thing. Bad beats are part of everything, I should just accept it and move on to the next hand, but this time it just made me genuinely sad/upset and thats a terrible mindset to have."
There's a lot more to the post — which you can view in full here — but it's clear yesterday took it's toll on Leonard. The silver lining is that today is a new day, and in poker, truly anything can happen.
We'll keep an eye on Leonard throughout Day 2 to see if his luck changes.
Late registration and reentries were open until the start of Day 2, and plenty of players took advantage. Three players have jumped into the tournament for the first time including Fady Kamar, Riccardo Stevens, and Leo Yan Ho Cheng.
Likewise, nine others from yesterday have opted to reenter: Walid Bou Habib, Piotr Franczak, Mustapha Kanit, Jack Salter, Tobias Reinkemeier, Bryn Kenney, Philipp Gruissem, Mark Teltscher, and Team PokerSatrs Pro Eugene Katchalov.
The numbers aren't official yet (there's still some double checking to do), but if it stays the same then the total field of 214 entries will be the exact same as last year.
Ten levels are in the books at European Poker Tour 11 Grand Final €25,500 High Roller, and as you might expect, plenty of big names are sitting at the top of the leaderboard as things roll into Day 2, set to begin at 12:30 local time here in Monte Carlo today.
Steve O'Dwyer (330,200), Tony Gregg (325,800), Max Altergott (311,100), and Matt Waxman (298,500) are the headliners leading the 94 who bagged at the end of Day 1. Team PokerStars pros Daniel Negreanu (182,000), Isaac Haxton (181,700), Scott Seiver (177,700), Sorel Mizzi (154,500), €100,000 Super High Roller winner Erik Seidel (149,100), and Mike "Timex" McDonald (118,800) are also making their presences known and have amassed solid stacks.
Even more high-rolling stars of the game could still show up, as registration is open until 12:15, just before the restart. Players who enter at the last minute will have 50,000 chips to work with as blinds kick off at Level 11 (1,000/2,000/300). Certainly, it's not a ton, but a workable stack nonetheless with 25 big blinds. Today's agenda is identical to Day 1, with 10 one-hour levels on tap. The only change is the possibility of an early stop should the tournament be whittled down to 8 players, at which point play would stop and everyone would come back for the official final table tomorrow.
![[user153638]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Gruissem took a big hit. Gruissem swiped the blinds in the next hand, and then got it in a short time later.
. Altergott checked and then folded when Nitsche bet 15,000.
turn and 
. Colman checked, and Andress bet 5,200. Colman responded with an all-in shove, and Andress quickly called.
turn and 
didn't save him.
