Welcome to Day 1a of the €1,100 French National Championship in Monte-Carlo
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The 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour has kicked off with a beautiful view over the French Riviera and one of the festival highlights will get underway at 12 p.m. local time at The Monte-Carlo Sporting with Day 1a of the €1,100 French National Championship. Poker enthusiasts from near and far will take their seats in the Salle des Etoiles for the highly popular mid-stakes event that was formerly branded as the France Poker Series and EPT National.
A big field is expected throughout three starting days, as this very tournament attracted more than one thousand runners in each of the last three years. In 2018, a new record was with a massive field of 1,501 entries and it was French poker pro Guillaume Diaz that took home the title and top prize of €250,000. Also featured on the final back then were Federico Petruzzelli, Michal Mrakes, Abraham Passet, and Randy Lew.
Diaz will certainly be back in action again to defend his title, and he will face plenty of opponents from his home country France, along with Italy and many other European countries. However, Monte Carlo is also a very popular stop for international players and typically attracts some of the biggest names in poker to showcase their abilities at the table.
The €1,100 French National Championship will feature a total of three starting days on Friday, April 26th, 2019 and Saturday, April 27th, 2019 with a level duration of 40 minutes throughout. Players can enter a total of three times with re-entry to a following flight and receive 30,000 in chips. There will be a break every three levels and a dinner break of 75 minutes after the end of level nine.
The tournament features the popular big blind ante format and each Day 1 will play down to 15% of the field. All survivors will bag and tag for the night, combine to one field for Day 2 and all those coming back will have a portion of the prize pool locked up. The PokerNews team will be there to provide live updates throughout and until a champion is crowned.
, Jacqueline Gaillard check-raised from 500 to 1,500 out of the big blind and Thomas Sinsen on the button was the only caller. Gaillard bet the 
turn for 2,000 to get called and another bet of 5,000 on the 
river resulted in a call, too. Gaillard turned over 
for a set of jacks and Simsen mucked, mentioned in table chat he had 
and "pity it wasn't clubs."
and Antonin Teisseire confirmed the action.
but ended up second-best on the turn when the chips went in.
flop and Rebei checked behind to see the 
turn. Weissman checked and called a bet of 5,000 by Rebei before ending up check-folding the 
river when facing a bet of 6,000.
and Ami Barer bet, Benjamin Dunac reraised and Christophe Di Miceli made it three bets to more than 27,000. Barer moved all in and Dunac called that for less. Di Miceli gave it some thought and eventually called too, putting two players at risk.
turn, but secured a big triple up on the 
river to get 58,700 off both opponents. Barer doubled his remaining 53,400 through Di Miceli, who went from one of the chip leaders to half the starting stack.
and Haim Dahan was waiting for Benoit Martin and Kristen Bicknell to battle for the main pot, as he was all in on a previous street. Martin led from the small blind and Bicknell jammed for more than 67,000, which Martin called after some consideration.
and Martin had just 
river was a blank.
turn, but the 
and 
