The nearest player to Beumers is Belarussian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (315,500) who finished second in the PCA $25,000 High Roller, with Rainer Kempe not too far behind him. The German High Roller regular, who has $15 million in lifetime earnings, won the last hand of the night to clip the wings of Beumers (albeit not by much) and bag a respectable 268,000.
Earlier in the day there were big names galore, as the four High Roller regular winners so far at EPT Monte Carlo joined the field. Juan Pardo, Sam Greenwood, Justin Bonomo and Steve O'Dwyer all jumped in, along with PSC Monte Carlo €25,000 High Roller winner and de facto defending champion Julian Stuer.
Alongside the familiar faces there were a couple of new ones; Maria Konnikova (pictured above) and Bruno Lopes aka French rap legend Kool Shen were making their €25,000 High Roller debuts, but Konnikova would bust in Level 4, after losing an earlier hand with ace-queen against the ace-king of [Removed:17].
Another early elimination was David Grieco, who min-cashed yesterdays €25,000 Single Day High Roller. After running pocket jacks into the aces of Beumers, he re-entered only to be eliminated almost immediately at the hands of Eric Sfez.
Among the early chip leaders was Albert Daher, and he would hold onto that chip lead until the dinner break, with Beumers breathing down his neck along with Jean-Noel Thorel, who had earlier eliminated €10,000 High Roller champion Pardo.
With two levels to go, Daher had slipped back after a confrontation with Mustapha Kanit, and Beumers had grasped the initiative as the heads of state settled into their positions at the top of the chip counts. Beumers made trip nines against Lijo Lander to strengthen his position, and although Vaskaboinikau (pictured above) finished strongly, it was Beumers who holds the chip lead ahead of Day 2.
The prize pool is already over €2.6 million and is expected to grow by the time play resumes Friday at 12:30 p.m. local time, with late registration and single re-entry open until the start of play. Stay up to date with all the action from the €25,000 High Roller right here on PokerNews.
Although only eight 60-minute levels are in the books, the winner of the €100,000 Super High Roller along with the winners of the €25,000 and €50,000 Single Day High Rollers are still in the mix.
€100,000 Super High Roller Winner Sam Greenwood
Greenwood sat down in level one and has had a quiet day. He currently sits on just over starting stack of 55,000. That may have something to do with who is sat to his direct right...
€50,000 Single Day High Roller Winner Steve O'Dwyer
O'Dwyer is that player sat to his right, and the presence of other big names including [Removed:17], Benjamin Pollak and Julian Thomas have also reigned in O'Dwyer's progress. In addition to winning the €50,000 Single Day High Roller, he also finished runner-up in the €25,000 High Roller which was won by...
€25,000 Single Day High Roller Winner Justin Bonomo
Last night in his winner's interview Bonomo said that he'd be bringing his A-Game to the €25,000 High Roller and it's clear to see that that's the case. Bonomo currently sits on 160,000, way above the average of 80,000 at this point. Bonomo is seated at a tricky table, mainly because it contains...
Defending Monte Carlo €25,000 High Roller Winner Julian Stuer
Stuer is sitting on a healthy average stack as he looks to take down this event for the second time in two years. Last year he defeated John Juanda heads-up and with Juanda out of the tournament, he'll be hoping for another deep run!
There are two levels left in Day 1 of the €25,000 High Roller after which players will bag for the evening. Late registration and single re-entry will close at the start of Day 2.
How do we know that? Well, we can count six masseuses in action midway through the seventh level of play. And, with ten levels scheduled on Day 1 tonight, there is sure to be more players wanting a massage, hence another masseuse is standing by.
The six masseuses in action in the Main Event suddenly became five with the elimination of former EPT champion Hossein Ensan, who decided to continue his massage off the felt, now perhaps with an even greater need to relieve the tension in the German's shoulders.
To those familiar with High Roller tournaments, it's the usual suspects getting their knots kneaded. Jack Sinclair is a particular massage aficionado as shown by his tweet from earlier this month:
Monaco update: 73rd in the first event for €2.8k, which almost covered my massage expenses, but I did get the ## fl… https://t.co/SW8drtPCpK
— Jack Sinclair (@jacksincredible)
The tournament currently sits with 66 players remaining from a field of 104 (including 15 re-entries). Late registration is open until the start of Day 2, and it's a single re-entry format. One of the more recent players to take advantage of this was Jan-Eric Schwippert who was eliminated by Albert Daher on his first bullet, but is back for more.
Five years ago Steve O’Dwyer took down what was arguably the most-stacked final table in European Poker Tour history, as he beat off competition from Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Jake Cody and Jason Mercier (among others) to win the EPT Grand Final and €1,224,000 in prize money.
Made the final 8!! 1.6m and the sickest EPT final table in history, plays out tomorrow
— Jake Cody (@JakeCody)
For those of you who don't remember, here's the final table results:
Position
Name
Country
Payout (€)
Payout ($)
1
Steve O'Dwyer
United States
€1,224,000
$1,604,972
2
Andrew Pantling
Canada
€842,000
$1,104,074
3
Johnny Lodden
Norway
€467,000
$612,355
4
Daniel Negreanu
Canada
€321,000
$420,912
5
Jake Cody
England
€251,000
$329,124
6
Noah Schwartz
United States
€189,000
$247,827
7
Jason Mercier
United States
€137,000
$179,642
8
Grant Levy
Australia
€103,000
$135,059
O'Dwyer had already had some close shaves before he finally got over the line in 2013. In 2011 he finished runner-up to Benny Spindler in the EPT London Main Event, taking home £465,000 ($726,790). He then finished seventh in EPT Copenhagen a year later for a further DKr 290,000 ($51,265).
Then, just two months before the Grand Final, O'Dwyer made his third EPT final table at EPT London, finishing fifth for £146,000 $219,704.
Here we get some thoughts from players and media about that infamous 2013 final table, including from John Juanda who finished 11th that year.
Dominik Nitsche
“Obviously I remember that final table! From what I remember that was the season Steve O’Dwyer had his real break-through. He also final-tabled EPT London. I suppose that was the beginning of the run of Steve O’Dwyer. And to this day it hasn’t stopped – he still does not lose!”
John Juanda
“I remember that there was an amazing last two tables. Oh and Daniel [Negreanu] was there, I remember now. There were some very talented players who went deep, especially for the Main Event. Usually you get a bunch of random players! I lost two big pots to Steve O’Dwyer. He won a coin flip against me; I think it was ace-king against tens. The fact that he won that coin flip probably helped him!”
Jack Sinclair
“I wasn’t around for that event at the time, but I was watching some highlights from O’Dwyer on the livestream this week and I was like ‘What event was this from?’ I mean I couldn’t believe it was the Main Event.”
Kenny Hallaert
“Nowadays Monte Carlo is just another tournament on the schedule, another 5k tournament, but back then it was still a 10,000 tournament and it was the most prestigious tournament in Europe. I remember it ran out with a pretty stacked field!”
Stephen Bartley - PokerStars Blog
“So many final tables slip your mind. But this one was something else. There were no weak spots. Had any of the other finalists won the title it would have made for a great story. But O’Dwyer seemed to fit the moment. When he won, he looked exhausted. As if he’d just achieved something even he doubted he could do. Which when you think of it, is exactly how you want champions to look.”
The seven re-entries are Mustapha Kanit, Aleksander Uskov, Stephen Chidwick, Daniel Dvoress, Juan Pardo, Nicola Grieco and Matthias Eibinger. Grieco was the second player to bust after €10,000 High Roller winner Juan Pardo, and he was the third player to bust after losing all his chips on his second bullet.
Others who have hit the rail are Ryan Riess, John Juanda, Igor Yaroshevskyy and Maria Konnikova.
The average stack at the moment is around 70,000, with Rainer Kempe (120,000), Kenny Hallaert (140,000), Albert Daher (165,000) and [Removed:414] (170,000) among the bigger stacks.
Late registration is open until the start of Day 2.
Ho said she hadn’t even realized that she had become eligible, and was honored to be selected among the initial 11 nominees.
“I literally just turned 35 a week or two before the public nomination process ended, so when I found out that I was nominated I was really surprised. I’ve been in the industry for 12 years, which is a fair bit of time. I know there are so many amazing and deserving womean that have done so much for this industry that would — and perhaps should — get nominated before me."
Earlier this week, it was announced that following a vote by WiPHoF Hall Members and selected media members, Ho had been selected for the Class of 2018.
“I honestly didn’t believe it at first. It really was one of those things where it was just an honor to be nominated. I know that’s something that everybody says but it really was! I really wasn’t expecting to be voted in. I felt like I was up against so many incredible women that I was just happy to be part of the group of nominees!”
Ho is no stranger to the WiPHoF after speaking at the 2016 ceremony where Debbie Burkhead and two-time EPT champion Victoria Coren-Mitchell were inducted.
“It was an honor to be asked to speak at the Induction Luncheon. It was a priority! I was playing in a tournament, but I came and spoke and then headed back to the tournament! It’s such a great celebration and I know some of the people already voted in and I have tremendous respect for all of them.”
According to Ho, she calls WiPHoF members and poker legends Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher her “poker moms”.
“I look up to the pair of them so much. They’ve always been huge proponents of everything that has to do with women in poker. I’m just happy to have a chance now to be even closer with this bond we now share of being in the WiPHof.”
Poker Results
Throughout her career, Ho has had several remarkable scores, not least in being the only player to ever hold the title Last Woman Standing on four separate occasions across WSOP and WSOPE Main Events.
The first of these was in 2007 where she finished 38th in the WSOP Main Event for $237,865, with Ho just a year and a half into a professional poker-playing career.
“To be able to have such big results on a stage as big as the Main Event is nothing you can prepare for or imagine, especially in your early career. It wasn’t just the best learning experience I could have gotten at the time, but it also just opened up so many doors for me. Not just in terms of opportunities, but have the realization personally that maybe I have the opportunity to do more in poker than I thought. When I first got into the game, I viewed my career purely in terms of playing. I didn’t think of the possible platform I could have moving forward or the ways I could help or impact other females trying to get into the game."
They’re just not things you think about until you have a run like the one I did in 2007, where you realize that there’s actually some importance in this finish. I took that responsibility very seriously. I remember being like ‘Maybe this is a turning point, where I look at poker as more than just playing the game?’”
Four years later, Ho made history by recording the largest ever cash by a woman at the WSOP, after finishing second in Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em for the astonishing amount of $540,020.
In her runner-up interview at the time, an emotional Ho — now in her sixth year as a professional poker player — was disappointed with her runner-up finish.
“I feel bad for saying that because I won a lot of money,” she said at the time, “And I should be proud, but there is a point in every poker player’s career where you want that bracelet. It’s so tough to get here. But if my finish, and how I do, and any success in poker I have had is something that other females can share and enjoy and that will perhaps bring them into the game, then I feel happy to say I contributed to that.”
Now, nearly seven years on, Ho still admits that she was humbled by her biggest success.
“I was so close to winning a bracelet, but I was denied. Even having that realization makes you want it so much more, and makes you realize the work that has to go into getting to that next level, and setting myself up to have that opportunity again.
“The result also meant I stopped looking at my poker as having to prove something. In poker, you always feel like you have to prove yourself, not just if you’re a woman. You always feel like there are better players than yourself judging what you’re doing. That moment [in 2011] was where I felt like I had started doing it for myself and I was believing in myself and the work that I’ve put into the game.
Once you don’t feel like you have anything to prove anymore, it’s a whole weight off your shoulders and you can approach the game from a different, more confident angle.”
Away from the Tables
Ho’s career has come a long way since then, taking on more roles away from the poker tables. In 2013, she joined the Heartland Poker Tour’s broadcast team, becoming the first woman in history hired to a poker television show as the resident strategic commentator. She has since co-hosted and commentated on a variety of other shows including the Super High Roller Bowl and was part of the WSOP Main Event broadcast team on ESPN in 2017, and now co-hosts WPT’s King of the Club on Fox Sports Net.
“In the last few years, in some ways playing poker has taken a little bit of a step back in my list of priorities and where I’m spending my time. With my ambassadorial and broadcasting roles, I’ve found that it’s giving me more fulfillment by branching out and doing different things.
"I love the challenge. Not that I don’t find poker challenging, it’s just that in these new roles you’re just a little less comfortable. I love finding things that maybe I don’t think I’m that good at, but that I want to be good at. There’s nothing like just putting yourself out there.”
However, Ho admits that she doesn’t want the game of poker to pass her by and that she constantly wants to be seen and known as a good poker player. In the 2017 WSOPE Main Event, she finished sixth for 174,365 ($202,875).
“Having a deep run in the WSOPE Main Event was really important to me because I don’t want a stagnant career. I want to put up new benchmarks and always feel like I’m outdoing myself. You see, certain people come and go or fade away, and I just always want to feel like I’m making sure that as long as I’m still passionate, I’m doing everything I can to improve and move forward.”
Ho says that over her career, she has seen women take great strides in the poker industry. She spoke about how she would often be the only female in the room, whereas now she is part of more than a handful in a given tournament.
“In my time in the game over the past decade, I’ve seen more and more women in the game which is already a huge win. There are always new faces and people that are very competitive, especially those who are at the top-end of the rankings, and playing 25k tournaments. It’s great to see that sort of progress and it’s great to feel that women are more comfortable in this environment.
“We’ve still got a long way to go. Women account for 3-4% of fields and I really think that there are so many elements of this game that actually favor females in some ways. I just want people to firstly be interested in poker, but also to be willing to put themselves out there in a situation that is different to what they’re used to.”
The Future
Before Ho leaves poker (she didn’t specify a timeframe), she says that she wants to contribute even more to the industry, especially with her experience with the Amazon eSports’ Mobile Masters.
“I’m always thinking about how we can make this an environment more welcoming to recreational players. Even from the broadcasting side, I am trying to think about how we can make it entertaining. I see how the eSports world has transformed the way people are watching video games and that whole experience, and I want people to get that similar experience from playing poker.
2020 is a long way away yet, but with two poker heavyweights scheduled to turn 35, the same age as Ho, we couldn’t help but ask her what she thought of the chances of Vanessa Selbst and Liv Boeree.
“I think Vanessa’s chances are great. She’s a shoe-in. If they let me in my first year... Vanessa should definitely be in. What she has done can’t be understated. She is one of the all-time greatest tournament players, and in females especially.
Liv as well, she’s done so much outside of poker with her TED talks among other things. To me it’s all about having that reach; someone like Liv really has that reach and that is very important to the poker community as a whole.
“I think both of their chances are great, but Vanessa’s definitely a shoe-in in my book.”
Steve O'Dwyer is the only one of the four to not have entered the tournament, but another of the cohort has already been eliminated. He narrowly missed out on a Single Day High Roller double yesterday evening after finishing runner-up to Justin Bonomo in the €25,000 after winning the €50,000 equivalent two days earlier.
Event
Entrants
Prizepool
Winner
Payout
€10,000
71
€688,700
Juan Pardo
€246,598
€100,000
46
€4,462,920
Sam Greenwood
€1,520,000
€50,000 Single Day
41
€1,988,910
Steve O'Dwyer
€676,300
€25,000 Single Day
50
€1,200,500
Justin Bonomo
€378,000
Jean-Noel Thorel opened and Juan Pardo three-bet to 2,000. Thorel four-bet to 4,000 and Pardo called. The flop came and Thorel continued for 5,000. Pardo called. The turn was the and Thorel bet 10,000. Pardo called.
The river was the . Thorel checked and Pardo moved all in. Thorel called. Pardo showed for two pair, but Thorel had for a better two pair, and sent his opponent to the rail.
Other names in action already include 25k High Roller debutants Maria Konnikova and Bruno Lopes, along with regulars Stephen Chidwick, Nick Petrangelo, Paul Newey, Charlie Carrel, Christopher Frank, Isaac Haxton, Bryn Kenney and Vladimir Troyanovskiy.
There are 45 players left in the Main Event, with live updates available here. Big names still in contention include former champions Adrian Mateos, Patrik Antonius and Dimitar Danchev.
Also getting underway at 12:30pm is the €25,000 High Roller, scheduled for three days. Last year it was Julian Stuer who emerged triumphant after winning over one million euro after taking down the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo €25k. The final table was stacked with talent, and some of those players are here in Monte Carlo again this year and expected to take to the felt once again.
2017 PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo €25,750 High Roller Results
Place
Winner
Country
Prize
1
Julian Stuer
Germany
€1,015,000
2
John Juanda
Indonesia
€683,900
3
Thomas Muehloecker
Austria
€471,400
4
Dario Sammartino
Italy
€384,340
5
Javier Gomez Zapatero
Spain
€306,500
6
Charlie Carrel
UK
€235,400
7
Ekrem Sanioglu
France
€171,300
8
Julian Thomas
Germany
€124,150
We'll be bringing you feature coverage from both events throughout the day, so stay tuned to PokerNews.com