A massive pot was brewing over on the table of Pierre Calamusa and the Frenchman, who finished 5th in this very event two years ago, failed with a big check-shove on the river of a completed board of . His opponent was Ranno Sootla and the latter eventually called for an almost even stack.
Calamusa turned over and Sootla had that beat with for top pair. "I guess it was just a live read," the Estonian said while racking up his chips, the table broke right after.
After ten full levels of one hour each, the Day 1b field has been cut down all the way to just 186 hopefuls and Ali Reza Fatehi soared to the top after bagging up 289,300. It had been quite an eventful festival and day for the businessman from Iran, who finished third in the €100,000 Super High Roller already. Fatehi took part in the €50,000 Super High Roller, busted before the money and his first bullet in the €5,300 Main Event lasted all but half a dozen hands.
However, he immediately jumped back in and doubled up right away. On his way to the top of the leader board, Fatehi cracked the pocket aces of Raffaele Carnevale when he hit two pair on the river with jack-seven. Another double elimination with quad deuces against the ace-king of Yehoram Houri and pocket aces of another player ensured his top spot in the last level of the night, however Mark Demirdjian remains in the overall lead with his 350,500 from Day 1a.
Several other notables bagged up big stacks on the second starting day including Alexandros Kolonias (238,000), Maxim Panyak (219,400), Denis Timofeev (210,000), Ranno Sootla (205,000), Tsugunari Toma (204,500), Andrei Boghean (200,000), Jason Wheeler (195,000), Gary Miller (185,900), Said Butba (182,900), Saar Wilf (175,100), Federico Petruzzelli (174,500) and Hossein Ensan (135,000). Kolonias and Panyak have sweet memories from right here at Monaco, the former finished 2nd in the €25,750 High Roller in 2016 for €805,900 while Panyak was 5th in the 2017 PokerStars Championship €5,300 Main Event.
Two PokerStars Team Pros advanced from Day 1b in Andre Akkari (119,000) and Fatima Moreira De Melo (48,700), while Pokerstars ambassador Maria Konnikova played twice without success. On her second entry, Konnikova four-bet all in for 17 big blinds with pocket jacks and Josip Simunic got there with ace-ten. Two-time EPT Main Event champion Victoria Coren Mitchell was unable to bag up chips on Day 1a, however the second attempt worked much better and she made it through with 96,500.
Among those to bust throughout the ten levels were such familiar names as Benny Glaser, Andreas Klatt, Pierre Calamusa, Raffaele Sorrentino, Kalidou Sow, Michal Mrakes, Akin Tuna, Dominik Nitsche and EPT National Championship €1,100 Main Event winner Guillaume Diaz.
Klatt failed with a nut-flush draw against the pocket aces of Franck Makaci to lose a massive pot while Sow's two pair with an ace was no good against better two pair. Calamusa check-shoved a ten-high river with trey-four suited for a pair and busted straight draw, but Ranno Sootla's “live read” with king-ten for top pair sent the Frenchman to the rail. Last but not least, Diaz lost his remaining seven big blinds with ace-ten against the ace-deuce suited of Mikhail Korotkikh.
The survivors of both starting tables will combine for Day 2 and 286 hopefuls out of the 762 entries remain, the registration will close once the cards are back in the air at noon. Action resumes in level 11 with blinds of 800-1,600 and a big blind ante of 1,600. Five levels of 90 minutes are scheduled and a 30 second shot clock will be in play as of Day 2 and until the conclusion of the event.
As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to cover all the action, so make sure to tune back in regularly and find out who becomes the next EPT champion.