2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT

Two years ago, Ali Reza Fatehi, a businessman from Iran and based in Dubai, emerged on the international poker circuit and finished third in the €100,000 Super High Roller here in Monaco. Back then, he scored a payday of €828,500 and he was back in action during the current festival at Le Sporting.

Fatehi once again reached the final three before having to settle for the very same position, earning another €669,920 for his efforts. And he has a secret weapon to take on some of the world's best poker players at the poker tables: an almost infectious smile no matter the outcome of a hand.

“The €100,000 in 2016 was my first-ever tournament that I entered with such a big buy-in," he said. "I don't remember what happened, I got lucky, I played good? I don't know. And all that with the toughest players in the world.

"This time, it was different because I now have a lot more experience on them and I can feel I cannot compare myself with me from two years ago. I am coming to be a winner this time, but you see the hand against Christoph (Vogelsang) I cannot do anything with the nut straight on the flop and he had the gutshot straight flush draw and hit.”

Fatehi picked up poker as a kid and learned different variations early on. They started with five-card poker when he was a teenager. Eventually, they moved on to a hidden-card game with others open, then Mexican poker, and finally hold'em. He was taught poker by Farbod Goharbin, who he lost all his money to in just one hour at the home game. "But then, I taught him black jack and won all the money back!" Fatehi joked.

In 2016, a business trip to the Cote D'Azur and turned out to further light the poker fire. Now, Fatehi's a regular face in events all over, but especially PokerStars-hosted festivals.

Furthermore, he has encouraged his friends and countrymen to take part in poker tournaments. He is friends with EPT Main Event champion Hossein Ensan, among others, and several Iranians have taken part in higher stakes tournaments in the last few years.

“I invite all my friends, I push them," he said. "I didn't know anything about poker before, and you see how I run it up. And after that, if you check those two years, you can see a lot of Iranians start to come to the events — we can do it!"

Fatehi has picked a very specific tournament type in order to improve his game, one that comes with a big buy-in and tends to attract some of the best poker players in the world. Because how else would someone be able to get better if not facing the best?

“I enjoy to challenge with the best in the world," he said. "I prefer to play with them because I can improve myself more.”

The World Series of Poker in Las Vegas would be an option, however the visa and travel requirements are quite complicated. Instead, Fatehi has decided to continue his efforts in the European poker circuit. And whenever the Iranian is around the tables, his trademark smile is around.

“In business, with family and friends, in gaming, I am always like that," he said. "I make jokes and like to have fun. You know, it is not just playing poker, it is life. You have to enjoy all seconds of it and I don't want to sit there like a robot and just play poker.”

His smile and positive attitude also has an influence on the high roller regulars as well. He believes such positivity is infectious, and he can see how he lifts the mood at the table with his easygoing approach.

Fatehi is participating on Day 1b of the €5,300 Main Event and would love to make a deep run in it. It is not just the monetary aspect that is important for him, though. He stressed that enjoyment of the game comes first.

Speaking of money though, Fatehi has moved up to second place in the Iranian all-time money list behind Amir Vahedi If his results over the last two years are any indication of things to come, it is just a matter of time before he will be taking over the top spot.

Tags: Ali Reza FatehiBehzad AhadpourHossein Ensan

Where else would you find poker players wearing mittens, dressed as fish and calling all-in for the tournament life with five-high? Twitchy Pete’s Monte Carlo Mayhem!

A stellar cast of PokerStars Team Pros saw Celina Lin, Randy Lew, Lex Veldhuis, Fintan Hand, Ben Spragg, Jake Cody, Fatima Moreira de Melo and Liv Boeree take to the felt all in with a chance of winning a $10,000 SCOOP High Main Event ticket, along with $5,000 in tournament buy-ins for their fans.

"It was awesome," said Lex Veldhuis, despite him being the first eliminated. "I really like playing against people you have known for a while. It's really awesome

"I mean you still had the SCOOP Main Event ticket up top, but the forfeits and everything was going through everyone's heads. It's almost like we were thinking harder in certain situations because there are honor and gimmicks and trash talking. I think that made things really interesting."

Fellow Team Online pros Fintan Hand and Ben Spragg agreed with Veldhuis that there was a real competitive streak in everyone wanting to get one up on their fellow ambassadors.

"It's been a lot of fun," said Spragg, "Having fun playing with everyone. It's a soft table too(!) Every pot is not exactly the way you'd usually play it, because it's against people you don't usually play with and of course, you want to beat them!"

"There's also a bit of banter because we're changing the games up," said Hand, "We played worst hand wins for a while, and there was this huge hand with Fatima [Moreira de Melo] making a call with five-high."

Yes, you read that correctly. Team Pro Fatima Moreira de Melo called all-in for her tournament life with five-high. With the table playing 'worst hand wins' for the rest of the level, Spragg raised to 10,000 with from under the gun and Jake Cody three-bet to 30,000 with . Moreira de Melo called with in the hijack and Spragg folded.

A strange assortment of hands saw a flop of and it was at this point that host Joe Stapleton stepped back to the table and explained that, because the level had finished, the rules were returning to normal.

Cody bet 20,000 and Moreira de Melo called. The turn was the and both players checked. The river was the and Cody moved all in for 119,900, covering the 114,100 of his fellow Team Pro.

In one of the weirdest river decisions in the history of poker, Moreira de Melo tanked and contemplated calling with five-high.

She continued to tank, getting to her feet as she thought. "It just feels like I should call. It's that delicious feeling where you feel like you just want to."

After a few moments more she called and lost to Cody's pair of sevens. "If you had been right, it would have been the coolest thing ever," remarked Liv Boeree.

Boeree was also involved in several funny hands, most involving her wearing a pair of brightly colored oven gloves.

"I love it," she said, "The boxing gloves have become part of my body! It just feels weird playing poker without them."

Also having to contend with a new piece of poker apparel was Celina Lin, who was forced to wear a fish costume for part of the tournament.

"It felt like a sauna!" she explained, "It's a lot of fun. I'd never met Fintan or Spraggy before this trip and they're really cool guys. The gimmicks and random things that Joe's thrown in are really fun."

Three-handed both Fintan and Spragg were still in action, battling with Boeree. In the end it was Fintan Hand who emerged victorious after his spiked an eight against the of Boeree to take down his second trophy in two days, after winning the Right to Play charity event yesterday evening.

Tags: Ben SpraggCelina LinFatima Moreira de MeloFintan HandJake CodyLex VeldhuisLiv BoereeRandy Lew

Guillaume Diaz first started playing poker while he was at school, and yesterday he put on a lesson for his tablemates as he walked away with €250,000 after winning the €1,100 EPT National.

To the untrained eye, it appears that Diaz has a certain knack for running deep at least once a year in big field events. In 2015 he finished runner-up in the €1,200 PMU.fr WPT National Paris for €100,000. Then, at the 2016 World Series of Poker, he final tabled the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, where he finished ninth for $45,254. In 2017 he returned to Vegas and went one better in the $888 Crazy Eights, finishing eighth for $86,888.

However, 2018 brought his biggest cash to date and only his second ever recorded live tournament win; his first since a €91,000 score for taking down a €2,200 side event at EPT 10 Deauville.

"It's settled in a bit now," said Diaz while on break in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT Main Event. "I've had to focus back on the Main Event. I really enjoyed it yesterday. The feeling this morning, when I woke up, was pretty insane!"

A lot of poker players comment after a big one that it can sometimes feel strange to revert back to the style of poker played in the early levels, especially after making a final table or going deep in a tournament. For Diaz, starting a tournament afresh is just a habit.

"Although this one had two opposite things. Firstly, it's exciting because lots of people are congratulating you, and you are thanking them, so that distracts you. But then you maybe are already in the zone; more confident and everything.

"Maybe I'm going to play better today than if I didn't win yesterday!"

Diaz tight-knit poker community and several of them were on the rail to celebrate his win.

"It's amazing to share things with my friends. It means that we all learn together, and we were all full of confidence when we came here.

"It's just a real community. When I was a child playing football, I was part of a team and that was one of the things I miss in poker. We feel like we are all part of a team, just like in football or basketball."

One key moment at the final table of yesterday's tournament was when he held ace-king against pocket kings and the board ran out quad fives. Diaz said that he couldn't remember such a hand occurring live but that it had "probably" had online.

"Normally when I win a hand like that I'd be totally respectful. But the runout was just that much insane and everyone was like "Woah!" and I jumped on them. It felt like I scored a goal. It was insane.

"So then I went to see the guy and apologize, and he was really cool and friendly and understood what happened."

After the EPT wraps up in Monte Carlo, Diaz will head on a short break with his girlfriend along the south coast of France. Then he'll head off to the World Series of Poker.

"I'm going to be playing every day. I have a big Vegas schedule planned and I'm going to be playing everything."

However, Diaz has one small crumb of comfort should his summer go belly-up.

"Even if I lose everything until January, I know that I will be playing this tournament which is a good thing.It's going to be a huge event. But it's awesome that I'm already there in the Atlantis! Means I don't have to find a cheap hotel, which is impossible. It's quite cool."

We'll be keeping an eye on Diaz to see whether or not he can buck the trend and bag himself two major scores in a year!

The €50K Single-Day High Roller closed registration with 41 entries. While players had already redrawn for the final two tables, they had to repopulate another table after a last-minute entry pushed the number of live players back to 17. However, Timothy Adams quickly busted out and another redraw went down.

The new blind level is 3,000/6,000/6,000. Right after the redraw, Orpen Kisacikoglu busted Ole Schemion to cut it to 15.

Payouts have been released. In the mean time, graves have been dug for Christoph Vogelsang and Behzad Ahadpour.

The PokerStars meet and greet for online qualifiers to 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT was meant to be a fun occasion for satellite winners to eat, drink and mingle with poker pros from the PokerStars roster.

For at least one partygoer, though, it turned confrontational.

"I hate him!" he exclaimed upon seeing popular Twitch streamer and PokerStars Team Online's Lex Veldhuis.

The unsuspecting Dutchman waded into the room, which appeared be relaxed enough as people slowly filtered in and munched on lamb kebabs and sipped beer and wine. He quickly found himself accosted.

The aggrieved player, an online qualifier from Finland by the name of Tuomo Niskanen, revealed the source of his consternation. A budding streamer himself, he occasionally tuned in to Veldhuis' channel and found himself as a peripheral character in the show when the two shared a table. Veldhuis has a habit of tagging many of his opponents, and Niskanen didn't appreciate the label he was given.

"You have me with a fish tag!" Niskanen said pointedly.

Veldhuis wore the guilty smile of a kid who had been caught pilfering from the cookie jar.

"Fun tag," he said. "I play for fun, too."

Veldhuis explained further that the fun tag could have been simply the result of an instantaneous impression. Like an observer who immediately thinks Stephen Curry is a poor shooter because he missed an open shot, Veldhuis uses a snap-judgment method. That is, if he's seated with an untagged player, he automatically assumes the player is inexperienced and tags them right away so he has everyone categorized.

There are too many opponents on too many different tables to wait for any kind of sample size.

That explanation didn't appear to sway Niskanen.

"I have played with you a lot of times and you haven't changed it," he said suspiciously.

If Veldhuis was going to spend the evening under fire, he wasn't going to do it sober. He excused himself to grab a beer, and when he returned, the conversation continued with Niskanen continuing to express mock outrage.

The Finnish player went on to tell Veldhuis that he might want to pay a bit more attention to some of his tags. A friend of Niskanen's who has had plenty of success online, including wins in Sunday majors, still bears a "fun" tag as well on the stream, he said.

"That should tell you something," Veldhuis protested, still defending himself. "Sometimes, I get it wrong. Now, I'm not playing against him the way I should."

"Not anymore," someone nearby said with a laugh. "Now, you snitched on him!"

A video team soon hustled Veldhuis away to film a spot on the balcony, where more online qualifiers mingled with beers in hand, taking in the dusky ocean view or lounging on couches.

One such qualifier could be heard throughout the party, piping out thunderous laughs and booming French yells. Identifying himself only as "Jean," he said he played online as "173800" on PokerStars.

He said he won his seat to EPT Monte Carlo in three minutes, taking down a series of three Spin & Gos before spending the next hour exulting alone in his home.

Jean proclaimed himself to have no chance of winning the Main Event. And he didn't mind because "I don't like the money." The only thing that mattered, he said, was his family and friends, and if he made it into the money, he'd spend it all to fly his people in so they could all have a good time.

While Veldhuis had disappeared by this time — perhaps scampering to get online and change certain tags on PokerStars — other sponsored players had arrived. Andre Akkari and Maria Konnikova joined Ben "Spraggy" Spragg inside as waiters settled dessert trays onto a table.

Niskanen was still around, and while the conversation had turned to other things — flat earthers and trying not to swear while wearing sponsorship patches — eventually, things circled back to Veldhuis and his fun tags.

Niskanen wanted revenge, and he hatched a plan with Marc Convey of PokerStars Blog to get it. Veldhuis was scheduled to appear on a "PokerStars Twitch Special" with other sponsored players to battle for Spring Championship of Online Poker tickets on a live stream.

Veldhuis would get his own tag, the two decided. They'd have a special patch made, and Niskanen would march onto the stage and label Veldhuis the way the Dutch pro labeled all the poor grinders on stream who crossed his path.

On Sunday, it went exactly as planned. A little while into the game, Niskanen made his entrance.

"How are you Lex?" he asked, leaning on Veldhuis shoulder. "Do you know what? On the live stream, you are the fish."

With that, he slapped a purple and blue fish onto Veldhuis' chest and the pro laughed and clasped Niskanen's hand.

"As soon as I saw your face, I knew it was going to be brutal," he said. "I deserved this."

Tags: Lex Veldhuis