Feature Coverage Dia 3 | 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT

Todas Destaques

2018-04-27 03:49 UTC+2

€1,100 EPT National: Thomas Muehloecker Leads, 1,501 Entries Create Massive Field

KaleGozer

After all three of the €1,100 EPT National at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT starting days are in the bag, it's none other than Austrian high roller Thomas Muehloecker who sits on top of the mountain. Muehlocker's rampage on Day 1b ended with 863,000 in chips, giving him a towering lead over his nearest challengers, Day 1c chipleader Ionut Trifu (676,000), Guillaume Diaz (622,000) and David Urban (600,500).

Muehloecker already boasts over $5,2 million in lifetime winnings and has put himself in strong contention to add possibly six more figures to that total. The total prizepool and payouts will be announced at the start of Day 2.

A 515-strong field showed up for Day 1a and today, 633 registered during the turbo Day 1b. Another 333 took their seats at 7 p.m. for the even speedier Day 1c, which resulted in 1,499 entries total. Two players no-showed the event and were blinded off, creating a total field of 1,501 players (837 unique, 664 reentries). It's a massive increase compared to last year's total of 1,252, when Andreas Klatt walked away with the eventual title and victory. We'll get a new winner this year, as Klatt failed to advance to the second day. With all three starting days now in the books, 224 are still in contention to become the 2018 €1,100 EPT National champion in Monte Carlo.

€1,100 EPT National Day 1 Total Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Thomas Muehloecker	Austria	863,000
2	Ionut Trifu	Romania	676,000
3	Guillaume Diaz	France	622,000
4	David Urban	Slovakia	600,500
5	Jeremy Routier	France	599,000
6	Nicolas Tytgat	France	585,000
7	Adnan Chamaa	United Kingdom	584,000
8	Alexandre Le Vaillant	France	551,000
9	[Removed:44]	Iran	542,000
10	Randy "nanonoko" Lew	United States	533,000

Team PokerStars Pro online Randy "nanonoko" Lew had a terrific showing on Day 1b and finds himself in tenth place after all survivors were combined. "I'm surprised. Usually, people go 'when are you going to bust?'" Lew laughed after the day. "I've been working on my tournament game a lot. I really want to be a very good tournament player," the online cash game phenom added.

Lew wasn't the only notable to make it through from Day 1b, as Gaelle Baumann (473,500), Mattias De Meulder (310,500), two-time National champion Georgios Vrakas (298,500), Markus Durnegger (264,000), Igor Yaroshevskyy (229,000), Christophe De Meulder (177,000), Stefan Jedlicka (158,000) and Nicolas Chouity (111,000) all had a strong showing as well.

On Day 1c, it was Ionut Trifu from Romania who topped the counts during the 20-minute level turbo starting day. American pro Jason Wheeler spun it up to 518,000, the second best stack of the day and 13th place overall, followed by Ivan Deyra (502,500). Paul Tedeschi (279,500), Martin Finger (115,000) and Antoine Saout (74,500) also made it through. Day 1a chipleader Nicolas Tytgat holds the 6th place overall with 585,000 in chips.

At the start of Day 2, the first of two $30,000 Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship up for grabs in this event will be awarded in a random flipout drawing, creating tension right off the bat. One of the 224 remaining players can already punch his free ticket to the Bahama's for next year. PokerNews will keep an close eye out for the lucky winner and provide stories from this massive tournament as Day 2 rolls on. Cards will be back in the air on Friday, April 27 at noon local time, when a scheduled ten levels of 60 minutes will be played out.

A total of 1,501 entries were made on Day 1 of the €1,100 EPT National

Tags: David Urban Guillaume Diaz Ionat Trifu Jason Wheeler Randy Lew Thomas Muehloecker

2018-04-26 23:37 UTC+2

Half of the Field Through in Super High Roller With Badziakouski on Top

mnuwwarah

One of the marquee events of the year on the high roller circuit, the €100K Super High Roller at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT, kicked off Thursday with an eight-level appetizer that saw exactly half of the 44 entries make it through to Day 2.

Chief among those at this point is Mikita Badziakouski, as the Belarusian turned a 250,000 starting stack into 1,381,000. He's had success in the principality before, taking second in a different €100K event here in 2016 for €501,800.

Level 6 (1,500/3,000/3,000) proved to be the turning point for Badziakouski as he won a huge pot against Koray Aldemir that saw the latter use up four of his six time extensions. They had battled with four bets preflop and saw a pretty dead board paired with two eights. Badziakouski, the four-bettor, barreled all three streets and Aldemir called his river shove with queens, mucking to the kings shown down by his foe.

The only other player to reach six figures was Isaac Haxton, who finished with 1,033,000. However, he's likely feeling considerably less cheery about his bag than Badziakouski as it took him three bullets to get there.

That last shell very nearly stayed in the holster, too, as the structure originally called for a single reentry format. Some early bustouts by deep-pocketed players had players grousing about the change, and that only got louder when many of those same players busted again.

Sam Greenwood, Toby Stone & Nick Petrangelo — The players lobby for change.

Haxton was among that number, and a unanimous vote by the roughly 20 players left cleared the way for a change to unlimited reentries.

"It always was an unlimited reentry and [single reentry] came as a surprise to many," PokerStars Team Pro Igor Kurganov said. "The tournament is for the players and the players decided they all wanted unlimited."

Third time was the charm for Haxton, and joining him on Day 2 with above average stacks are the likes of Ole Schemion (949,000), Justin Bonomo (930,000), Christoph Vogelsang (890,000) and Sam Greenwood (616,000).

Greenwood has been one of the hottest players of late on the high roller circuit, booking scores of about $450,000 in Macau and about $1.2 million in Spain, as well as shipping a small high roller at WPT Amsterdam for €125,785.

There's still a long way to go in this thing as registration won't even end until the start of Day 2, which gets going at 12:30 p.m. Friday. Players can buy fresh 250,000 stacks going to 3,000/6,000/6,000, and a long day is on tap with the plan to play down to six players. Stay tuned to PokerNews for more feature coverage while the PokerStars Blog takes care of hand history updates.

Top 10 Chip Stacks

Player	Home Country	Stack
Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	1,381,000
Isaac Haxton	USA	1,033,000
Ole Schemion	Germany	949,000
Justin Bonomo	USA	930,000
Christoph Vogelsang	Germany	890,000
Jan Schwippert	Germany	880,000
Matthias Eibinger	Austria	760,000
Sam Greenwood	Canada	616,000
Timothy Adams	Canada	536,000
Behzad Ahadpour	Iran	479,000

Tags: Mikita Badziakouski

2018-04-26 20:28 UTC+2

Juan Pardo Wins €10K Opening Event (€201,500)

mnuwwarah

At a table featuring several superstars, it was perhaps the least recognizable name, Juan Pardo, who emerged victorious in the €10K opening event at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT. Pardo topped a field of 71 entries for a €201,500 first-place prize in the three-day event.

While that's a relatively modest amount by the standards of these EPT €10Ks, what Pardo has accomplished in such a short time deserves plenty of notice.

He's already pushing towards his first live million with over $750K in cashes despite having less than $3,000 before two sizable scores in Spain earlier this month. There, he burst onto the live radar with scores of €150,000 and €450,000 for fifth- and second-place finishes, respectively in €25K events.

Add another €201,500 to that, and the 24-year-old Spaniard has certainly had quite the lucrative April. Furthermore, he said, the taste of victory sets this one apart.

"It is a dream come true," he said. "I feel tremendously happy and proud to have achieved this victory. I had to face good players like Timothy Adams, Stephen Chidwick or Rainer Kempe, but fortunately today things went perfectly."

Pardo started the day with a relatively short stack and didn't make a ton of headway in the first few levels while Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Chidwick and Orpen Kisacikoglu hit the rail. Former WSOP Main Event champ Ryan Riess rose up and took over the lead from Adams while Pardo remained short.

Adams busted Rainer Kempe in fifth with ace-king over ace-jack and seemed to be on a collision course with Riess. All that remained was to eliminate short stacks Pardo and Paul Newey.

Pardo appeared likely to be next out when he jammed over an Adams button open with threes and ran smack into pocket kings. However, a three hit the flop, and as an added bonus, Riess had cold-called in the big blind and then folded to a reshove from Adams, giving Pardo a triple up.

Pardo was suddenly in business. He got there with king-queen against a short-stacked Newey's ace-nine and then took the rest of Riess' chips in a big flip when jacks held against ace-queen suited. Suddenly, Pardo had a sizable lead heads up with Adams.

Timothy Adams and Juan Pardo play heads up.

The match didn't take long, as Adams had only a little over 20 big blinds. He dropped some pots early and then shove about 12 big blinds with king-nine, and Pardo woke up with ace-king to end things.

"He had a big chip lead and I just couldn't come back," Adams said. "He plays really well. Tricky, aggressive, doesn't give off much. I'm sure he'll keep being around."

That's exactly the plan for Pardo, who came up online as "Malaka$tyle" and now makes his home in the U.K. to play in the global online poker pools. Once a heads-up cash player, he switched his focus to tournaments and is newly establishing himself in the live scene.

He said he has put a lot of effort into his game and worked hard to make the jump into high rollers. He plans to play all of the big tourneys here in Monte Carlo and then play a full Spring Championship of Online Poker schedule before the WSOP.

"My arrival could not be better," he said. "I came to stay."

Official Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Juan Pardo	Spain	€201,500
2	Timothy Adams	Canada	€145,000
3	Ryan Riess	United States	€94,000
4	Paul Newey	United Kingdom	€71,000
5	Rainer Kempe	Germany	€55,000
6	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	€42,700
7	Stephen Chidwick	United Kingdom	€33,500
8	Vladimir Troyanovskiy	Russia	€26,000

Tags: Juan Pardo

2018-04-26 20:26 UTC+2

€1,100 EPT National Smashes Last Year's Total; Tytgat Leads after Day 1a

KaleGozer

A large field in the €1,100 EPT National

Mid-stakes poker tournaments are booming all over and the €1,100 EPT National at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT proves no exception to that trend. With 515 players on Day 1a, 651 on Day 1b and currently 192 on the turbo Day 1c edition, which started at 7 p.m., the total number of players has already surpassed last year's total of 1,252. Late registration on Day 1c is still open for those looking for a last-minute shot at this massive prize pool.

Two $30,000 Platinum Passes to the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship are up for grabs in this tournament. While one Pass will be awarded to the eventual winner on Saturday night, the other one will be given away to the lucky winner of a random drawing on Day 2, creating hugely added value on top of the already substantial prize pool.

€1,100 EPT National Day 1a Chip Counts

Place	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Nicolas Tytgat	France	585,000
2	Salvatore Donato	Italy	520,000
3	Nikolay Arzumanyan	France	515,500
4	Julian Fernandez	France	441,500
5	Jacques Guenni	France	388,000
6	[Removed:102]	France	370,000
7	Antona Pierre	France	369,000
8	Sonny Franco	France	365,500
9	Marco Regonaschi	Italy	341,500
10	Jonathan Proudfoot	United Kingdom	340,500

Day 1a started on Wednesday and played down to the money today, with 77 out of 515 receiving a cash prize for their accomplishment. The dubious honor of bubble boy went to Mohamed Kwaham of Syria, who busted against the eventual chipleader Nicolas Tytgat in the final hand of the day. Kwaham moved in on the button holding queen-eight suited and Tytgat called with ace-five from the blinds. With neither player improving, Tytgat collected all of Kwaham's chips and play for the day was ended right on the spot.

With 585,000, the Frenchman holds a reasonable lead over his nearest challengers Salvatore Donato (520,000) and Nikolay Arzumayan (515,500). French pro Sonny Franco sits in eight with 365,000, while 2017 WSOP Final Tablist Jack Sinclair finished just shy of the top 10 with 336,000. Other notables that made it to Day 2 are Pierre Calamusa (215,000), Bruno Fitoussi (214,500), Michal Mrakes (203,500), Fabio Sperling (195,500), Denis Timofeev (162,000), Joao Vieira (119,000), Sylvain Loosli (111,500) and Maria Ho (59,000).

Andreas Ioakimedis, who was chipleader when chips were bagged last night, advanced as well with 266,500. The 53-year old recreational player from Missouri, USA, is visiting Monaco for the first time in his life and has made his first cash outside of the United States. "Hopefully I'll take this down and then play the Main Event. Let's see what happens," Ioakimedes said.

Although Day 1a has been wrapped up, Day 1b and 1c are still going and play down to the money today as well, before all surviving players will return for Day 2 on Friday, April 27.

Tags: Bruno Fitoussi Denis Timofeev Fabio Sperling Jack Sinclair Joao Viera Maria Ho Michal Mrakes Nicolas Tytgay Pierre Calamusa Sylvain Loosli

2018-04-26 19:36 UTC+2

Lobbying for Change

mnuwwarah

Toby Stone discusses the players' concerns.

The best thing about playing €100Ks is probably having €100K. Or, if someone doesn't have €100K but is playing a €100K, he or she at least has a backer who has €100K, making them eligible to win several million in prize money.

With that out of the way, there's another, more peripheral benefit to playing €100Ks that probably doesn't spring to mind for most people thinking about these events: the ability to affect change in the fundamental structure of a tournament.

If a player were to call over a tournament supervisor in the €1K EPT National here at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT, for example, and argue that some rule governing the tournament should be changed, what would likely happen?

The exact response to the request would probably vary based on the exact person who made his or her way over, but the chances of actually getting something altered would probably be close to zero.

In the €100K Super High Roller, on the other hand, things might actually get done.

First the players requested a change with the time banks chips. Time bank chips have been a staple of poker tournaments using an action timer for several years, as there will always be decisions that take longer than the allotted per-decision bank, usually 30 seconds.

The exact use of the time chips has changed from operator to operator and event to event, but the players here seemed to have requested more 30-second extensions. They argued that the longer the tournament went on, the more extensions a player should have.

Staff seemed to think this was a fairly easy request to accommodate, and after clearing it with all of the players, everyone will start with six extensions and two more will be even to each player when registration closes and then two more when the money is reached.

A thornier issue came up after a few players started to hit the rail, beginning with Isaac Haxton and followed by Ahadpur Khangah. Both players reentered, but that meant they were on their last shells with this year's structure. In the past, the event has featured unlimited reentry.

Bryn Kenney, Daniel Dvoress and PokerStars Team Pro Igor Kurganov all agreed that unlimited reentry is the better format for this event. They requested to speak with a supervisor.

"There is no reason for this not to be unlimited reentry," Kenney said. "What if everyone agrees?"

"I think it's a surprise to most people," Kurganov added.

"I'm afraid it's too late, but I will let someone know," was the supervisor's response.

With the issue escalated, another tournament director explained the situation to the best of his understanding. He explained that it wasn't his decision or his structure. To the best of his understanding, a "small number" of players complained about the format and the operations team had done some research.

"The number of players who reentered more than once was very small," he said.

Thus, they didn't see much harm in limiting the reentries. However, with deep-pocketed players like Haxton and Khangah possibly ready to bolster the prize pool in the event they busted again — and both players have since lost their stacks again — the players left in the event see an opportunity to juice things up further being blocked off.

Furthermore, they suspected the ones taking issue are players not even participating in this field.

"It's the two Daniels," someone said. "Daniel Negreanu and Dan Shak. They aren't even playing this event."

The players requesting the change pushed for a silent vote, adding they'd drop it if support wasn't unanimous.

A couple of hours later, the tournament staff paused the clock and announced the vote was on. Everyone was to submit a card, red or black. The staff would collect the cards and reveal the tally. Only a unanimous vote, all black cards, would mean unlimited reentry.

As it happened, that's exactly how the vote went down. The remaining 21 players voted to allow the unlimited reentry. The tournament director stressed the change was for this tournament only.

Moments later, Haxton strolled to the registration table.

"Hello again," he said with a smile.

2018-04-26 18:34 UTC+2

Facts and Figures of the €100,000 Super High Roller

KaleGozer

Halfway through the day, the €100,000 Super High Roller at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT has attracted 28 unique players, with six of them already buying themselves right back in after busting out. Sam Greenwood is currently the man in charge, with Christoph Vogelsang hot on his heels.

This storied event has a rich history at the EPT and has been held six times in the past, including last year as the PokerStars Championship Super High Roller. Six different winners have lifted the coveted trophy over the years: Justin Bonomo, Max Altergott, Dan Colman, Erik Seidel, Ole Schemion and Bryn Kenney.

The facts and figures of the €100K are as follows:

EPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller champions

Season	Year	Entries		Winner	Country	Prize
EPT 8	2012	45	(38 + 7)	Justin Bonomo	United States	€1,640,000
EPT 9	2013	50	(42 + 8)	Max Altergott	Germany	€1,746,400
EPT 10	2014	62	(50 + 12)	Dan Colman	United States	€1,539,300
EPT 11	2015	71	(58 + 13)	Erik Seidel	United States	€2,015,000
EPT 12	2016	61	(46 + 15)	Ole Schemion	Germany	€1,597,800
PSC	2017	61	(47 + 14)	Bryn Kenney	United States	€1,784,500

2012 - Winner: Justin Bonomo (€1,640,000)

The first of six winners was Justin Bonomo back in 2012, who scored the first of his four seven-figure cashes in an incredibly successful poker career that already spans over 13 years. Bonomo was one of seven players that fired two €100K bullets in this event and ran his second attempt all the way up to the title.

Holding the chip lead from start to finish, Bonomo outlasted a star-studded final table containing Daniel Negreanu, Masa Kagawa, Patrik Antonius, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Tobias Reinkemeier.

2013 - Winner: Max Altergott (€1,746,000)

In 2013, the title went to Germany's Max Altergott, who conquered the final table within six hours and defeated Jason Mercier heads-up. It was one of two cashes Altergott made in the €100,000 Super High Roller (the other being a 3rd place at EPT 11), which makes him the current leader on the all-time money list of this event.

Altergott defeated Mercier after winning a massive hand with a pair of queens on a jack-high board, when the American pro didn't improve with a lower pair and flush draw. The final table also contained Sorel Mizzi, Timothy Adams and Scott Seiver.

2014 - Winner: Dan Colman (€1,539,300)

Daniel Colman - 2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final - Super

2014 was an amazing year for Dan Colman, who won the €100,000 Super High Roller mere months before conquering the Big One for One Drop in Las Vegas. Colman was the only player to fire three bullets in this event and it paid off, parlaying his 300k investment into a sweet 1.7 million.

After striking a three-way deal with Daniel "Jungleman" Cates and Igor Kurganov that left each of them seven figures richer, it took 69 more hands for Colman before winning the trophy and adding the winner bonus of €241,000 on top of the deal.

2015 - Winner: Erik Seidel (€2,015,000)

Poker legend Erik Seidel conquered the largest ever field amassed in Monte Carlo — 71 players — on his way to a payday of more than 2 million euro. Seidel called it "one of the best tournaments of my career", a strong statement from the current #2 on the all-time money list with over $34M lifetime winnings.

Seidel defeated the then ultra-hot Dzmitry Urbanovich heads-up at a final table that also contained Kurganov, Altergott and Fedor Holz.

2016 - Winner: Ole Schemion (€1,597,000)

German mastermind Ole Schemion was top dog back in 2016. Schemion collected €1,597,000 for his accomplishment after beating the likes of Mustapha Kanit, Sam Greenwood and Stephen Chidwick at the final table.

At the 2016 EPT in Monte Carlo, Schemion made his triumphant comeback to the live circuit after a short hiatus, becoming second in the 50K High Roller mere days later for more than €2.5M euro in winnings during the trip.

2017 - Winner: Bryn Kenney (€1,784,500)

Last year, it was Bryn Kenney who emerged victorious in a field of 61, winning the biggest price of his storied career with €1,784,500. Kenney ran as pure as could be, dispatching ever single opponent at the final table himself except for Daniel Dvoress, who was eliminated by eventual runner-up Viacheslav Buldygin.

Kenney spoke with PokerNews after his victory and talked about his amazing run. Check out the video below.

EPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller total winnings

Place	Player	Country	Cashes	Titles	Total Winnings
1	Max Altergott	Germany	2	1	€2,686,700
2	Ole Schemion	Germany	3	1	€2,392,515
3	Igor Kurganov	Russia	3	0	€2,306,600
4	Erik Seidel	United States	1	1	€2,015,000
5	Bryn Kenney	United States	1	1	€1,784,500
6	Justin Bonomo	United States	1	1	€1,640,000
7	Dan Colman	United States	1	1	€1,539,000
8	Mustapha Kanit	Italy	1	0	€1,462,000
9	Dzmitry Urbanovich	Poland	1	0	€1,446,600
10	Viacheslav Buldygin	Russia	1	0	€1,290,800

2018-04-26 17:05 UTC+2

Tight Race With Four Left in the €10K

mnuwwarah

The race has tightened in the €10K opening event as just one player went bust during the last two levels and everyone left will come back from the second break with less than 40 big blinds.

The only person heading to the payout line was Rainer Kempe over the past couple of hours. He paid off Ryan Riess in a big pot wherein Riess defended his big blind with and made fives full on the board. He bet 110,000 on the turn and 245,000 on the river and Kempe was left under 15 big blinds.

Shortly thereafter, Kempe stuck his last 310,000 in with and could not overcome the held by Timothy Adams on his left.

Adams, meanwhile, doubled up Paul Newey again when ace-high couldn't hold versus . He got all that back and more when his ace-king binked a king on the river against Juan Pardo, though.

Pardo got his own lucky triple up when he shoved with threes over an Adams button open and Riess called then folded to a reship by Adams. Pardo hit a set against Adams' kings.

Here's how things stand going into 15,000/30,000/30,000.

Seat	Player	Stack
1	Timothy Adams	1,020,000
2	Juan Pardo	900,000
3	Ryan Riess	1,050,000
4	Paul Newey	590,000

2018-04-26 15:02 UTC+2

Field Reduced to Five at First Break of Opening Event

mnuwwarah

Players are on their first break of the day in the €10K opening event here at 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT, and the landscape has changed considerably over the course of the first two hours.

Just five players remain at this point after early eliminations of Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Stephen Chidwick and Orpen Kisacikoglu.

Troyanovskiy shoved his last 10 big blinds in from the cutoff in an unraised pot, but Chidwick woke up with behind him and called. Troyanovskiy could only muster a dominated and brick-filled board left ace-high the winner.

Chidwick, however, would go to war with Ryan Riess and come out worse for the wear. Eventually, he three-bet a little under 20 big blinds from the button over Riess' cutoff open and then called off his last crumbs to the four-bet. Riess' was in great shape against and an ace-high flop signaled the end for the British crusher.

Kisacikoglu was left short after losing a couple of pots and shoved with in the small blind. It was only about five big blinds and Paul Newey, who has already won at least a couple of all-in pots for his tourney life, woke up with and called. Kisacikoglu flopped a gutter and two live cards he could pair but got no more help.

Where does all of that leave things? Riess now has a considerable chip lead with about 1.4 million of the 3.55 million in play. Here's how things stand after Rainer Kempe just doubled through Juan Pardo in a flip, eights over ace-nine:

Seat	Player	Stack
1	Timothy Adams	930,000
2	Juan Pardo	220,000
3	Ryan Riess	1,400,000
4	Paul Newey	445,000
5	Rainer Kempe	780,000

They continue at 10,000/20,000/20,000.

2018-04-26 15:02 UTC+2

Early Reentry for Haxton in €100,000 Super High Roller

KaleGozer

After the first two levels of play, 20 entries have been made into the €100,000 Super High Roller. 19 of them are unique, which means one unfortunate soul had to dig deep into his wallet to buy himself back into the event. It was Isaac Haxton who had to make the cashier trip to get a fresh stack of 250,000 in chips.

Haxton got clipped by Ali Reza Fatehi in the first level of the day, running kings into aces to leave himself with a mere 17,000. Those remaining chips went in shortly after on a flop, with Haxton holding . Steve O'Dwyer looked his countryman up with and after blanks on turn and river, Haxton was left empty-handed. As expected, Fatehi, the businessman from Iran who lives in Dubai is the early chipleader in this event. For all live updates of this event, head over to our friends at the PokerStars blog to read more.

Ike Haxton, Justin Bonomo & Ali Reza Fatehi — Isaac Haxton (left) vs. Ali Reza Fatehi (second from right)

Both the €1,100 EPT National Day 1a and Day 1b are fully underway as well. In Day 1a, 112 out of 515 entries currently remain, with Joao Vieira, Antonin Teisseire, Sonny Franco and Michal Mrakes among those in contention. Day 1b kicked off at noon as well, where already 505 players have taken their seats. Spotted in the field are Romain Lewis, Ramon Miguel Munoz, Martin Finger, Thomas Muehloecker, Gaelle Baumann, Friend of PokerStars Maria Konnikova, who busted Day 1a earlier today, Pete Chen and Kenny Hallaert.

Tags: Ali Reza Fatehi Isaac Haxton

2018-04-26 14:21 UTC+2

Interview with Sunday Million Anniversary Take 2 winner "Daenarys T" ($1,000,044): "I'm Still in Shock!"

KaleGozer

Want to win a million dollars with online poker? You better be pretty good to achieve it. For cash games, you likely need to play at the highest levels, whereas in tournaments, you need to play a lot, be very good ánd have a ton of fortune to boot. If you want to do it in a single tournament, well, there's just a few chances to do so. One of them was the Sunday Million Anniversary Take 2 this past Sunday and Monday, and Dutchman "Daenarys T" was the one to accomplish it!

On Skype, Frank op de Woerd spoke with the 24-year old full-time poker player from Amsterdam. Although he prefers not to mention his real name publicly, he fully opened up about the biggest score of his poker career.

Online, "Daenarys T" was mostly a tournament player before focusing on PLO cash games. Lately, he decided to make the switch back to his former love. Sunday's latest session was his third or fourth sessions since rekindling his passion for tournament poker. Although he admitted, he's become lazier after moving to Amsterdam, playing mostly live instead of grinding online.

"I was truly stressed at the final three and two tables, as well as the final table. I almost fainted, man, I went totally crazy."

On the first day, the focus wasn't even on the Sunday Million for long and "Daenarys T" admitted he wasn't paying that much attention. "I had to play that final table and wasn't really attention to the Sunday Million. It went well; I had a large stack but can't remember much more aside from that. Nothing specific comes to mind. The reason was mostly because this past Sunday, I had my biggest ever online score up until that point, $19,000!" That amount is relatively nothing compared to the $1,000,044 he'd win a day later, but on Sunday the $109 Bounty Builder, where he'd eventually would finish in second place, had priority.

When the Sunday Million resumed on Monday, there was no stress at the start, even with just 735 out of 56,130 players remaining and $1,102 already locked up. That all changed once players started busting in rapid succession and "Daenarys T" was building his stack. "I was truly stressed at the final three and two tables, as well as the final table. I almost fainted, man, I went totally crazy!"

Playing for those amounts might be stressful, it didn't result in a scared-like approach. On the contrary: "I've kept on hammering because everyone was insane scared money. I played ridiculously aggressive throughout the entire day." Even though never playing for these amounts of money, "Daenarys T" wasn't scared money himself. "I was just playing my game and won a lot of all ins. I've lost quite a few as well, but I won every important one. That was nice."

The level of opposition didn't impress him much at the final three tables. "In my opinion, there weren't that many good players left. Everyone was just folding all the time. I simply clicked raise and everyone folded. I was playing ridiculously aggressive and it worked; everyone was extremely scared."

"Daenarys T" dwindled down to a shorter stack at the final two tables and had to adjust his game slightly. At the start of the final table, he was short as well, and tighter play became the norm. "It was a very surreal experience; every time someone got eliminated, I received a hundred thousand dollars more. That's pretty extreme. I don't know man, I thought it was pretty sick. It's the first time I made such a big final table, so it was exciting in that regard."

From the moment play got down to three-handed, "Daenarys T" could bring out his favored aggressive game again. Heads-up, he was facing Rick "ThEcLaiMEer" Trigg, a British regular. There was no deal, even though the difference between winning ($1,000,044) and second ($715,335) was substantial. This wasn't mainly because of PokerStars demanding at least $225,000 to be left to play for heads-up. This way, "only" $60,000 was left to deal. "That's a lot of money, but not that much relatively. And at the end, I simply thought 'this guy is truly bad, let's just play'."

"I just clicked raise the entire time and everyone folded."

The fact that, if he'd win, he could say he'd won a million dollars also counted as well. It turned out to be the right choice when looking at the results. "Heads-up I simply crushed that guy. He's a good tournament player; he was the only regular left at the final three tables, but heads-up isn't his speciality while I'm relatively strong there. I was also running really well, I was done with him in about fifteen minutes."

What happened next read like something out of a movie script. "Daenarys T" was overcome with joy, screaming with happiness as he ran through his house. Upon returning, he said goodbye to his railbirds at Skype and ended up in tears. Afterwards, he called his girlfriend and cried even more. His girlfriend insisted he'd only call her up if he'd finish fifth or better, making up for the lack of sleep. "I called her and woke her up, in shock, so happy!"

Fifteen minutes later, his roommates came home and he had some beers with them, then walked his dog which still needed to be done. That night he only slept one hour. The night after wasn't much better, with just two nights of sleep. The adrenaline was still raging throughout his body.

"It was a very surreal experience; every time someone got eliminated, I received a hundred thousand dollars more.

His avatar, a picture of Dutch cult hero Tim "FysioTim" Hendriks, brought extra attention. Hendriks himself tweeted a lot about it, and the story on his picture even appeared in the Dutch mainstream media. "I don't really know him, I just thought it was funny to have that picture", "Daenarys T". said, "It's just a funny picture.". Even though the avatar brought him good fortune, he's not planning on keeping it. "I'm going to change it again, he's received enough attention by now."

With one million dollar in his PokerStars account, and soon on his bank account, life has taken a sudden turn for the Dutchman. Being part of a backing deal, "Daenarys T" received 49% of first place prize money himself, still a massive amount. Where some people might consider their options first, "Daenarys T" made his first large purchase already: he's wearing a brand-new Rolex around his wrist. He's not really a connoisseur and wasn't able to tell which model it was on the top of his head. Or maybe it was because of the lack of sleep, because he's still stunned by the win. "I'm completely spent, man, I'm still in shock"

Next week, "Daenarys T" will fly with his girlfriend to Ibiza. Upon returning, the SCOOP awaits and after that, plans are still up in the air. He's considering playing on his own dime online, as opposed to having a backer. Live, there's less doubt in his mind: "Live, I'm definitely keeping a backing deal. I'm already playing €1k, €2k, €4k tournaments live, money can go really fast."

There are no specific live tournaments planned on his calendar just yet, but one tournament where he likely won't appear is the WSOP Main Event. With the Dutch government forcing a 29% tax on tournament winnings in the United States, playing the fabled event doesn't seem like the smartest investment to "Daenarys T". The tournaments that will be played is something the Dutchman will decide soon. Remember, if you meet someone with a brand-new Rolex at your table, chances are it's "Daenarys T"!

Sunday Million Anniversary Take 2

Date	April 22
Buy-in	$215
Guarantee	$10,000,000
Entries	56,310
Prize pool	$11,262,000
ITM	9,296

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Daenarys T	Netherlands	$1,000,043
2	Rick “ThEcLaiMEer” Trigg	United Kingdom	$715,335
3	Noobanx	Mongolia	$505,818
4	peter788502	Bulgaria	$357,667
5	Hidey7	United Kingdom	$252,910
6	Mike180373	Russia	$178,834
7	Sholkey989	Mongolia	$126,456
8	kaizerdrea	Norway	$89,418
9	Rippedut	Canada	$63,229

Tags: Daenarys T

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