A field of 60 runners has been reduced to 11 after 14 levels of play in the PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® €10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller. Finnish player Sampo Ryynanen has the chip leader after turning his 50,000 starting stack into 590,000 by day's end.
Ryynanen won a massive during Level 14 (2,500/5,000) that propelled him from the middle of the pack into the chip lead. As he told us after the players bagged, he got it in preflop with aces three ways. Veselin Karakitukov also held aces, while chip leader George Wolff had a double-suited queen-high rundown.
However, Ryynanen's other two cards happened to be ten-four, and that made all the difference in the world when he hit two pair on a board with mostly low cards, busting the unlucky Karakitukov and doubling through Wolff, who likely had the best equity in the pot.
Imad Derwiche (512,000) and Sylvain Loosli (502,000) also bagged north of 10 starting stack. Derwiche the final table of the €25K High Roller here each of the last two years for over €1 million in winnings, and now he's looking to add a big PLO score to those successes.
The tournament offered players one reentry option and plenty took advantage, as the early stages of the event proved to be fairly action-packed. Fedor Holz, Ole Schemion, Isaac Haxton and PokerStars Team Pro Felipe Ramos were among those swinging and missing at least once.
Notables Mike Watson, Anthony Zinno and Ami Barer all made it through, although they're among the shorter stacks.
The restart will be at noon local time on Tuesday, with the players battling for €174,600 in first-place prize money. Here's a look at how the field will be sitting when play resumes:
Mike Watson opened on the button for 7,500, and Felipe Ramos potted to 24,000 in the big blind. Watson called, seeing flop. Ramos jammed for 36,500 and Watson called.
Ramos:
Watson:
Watson had an inside wrap, but the turn and river instead improved Ramos to a flush.
Minh Phuc Nguyen:
Francesco Grande:
[Removed:119]:
The board ran out . Grande made a flush to triple up his short stack. Nguyen also made a flush, doubling his remaining 72,000 through Bensadoun, who was left shaking head.
Just before the previous level ended, Joao Simao got his stack of nearly 60,000 in on an flop holding . His top set was good against Federico Quevedo, who had for second set and a flush draw. The turn was a and the river a , so Quevedo sent over most of his stack after missing his heart draw.
Jean-Noel Thorel just got all of his chips in way ahead with on a flop of , which gave him the nut straight. [Removed:119] had for an inferior straight draw and a backdoor flush draw, but a turn and river gave him a full house to eliminate the disgusted Thorel.
Jean-Noel Thorel limped in from the cutoff and called a raise from Bogdan Capitan, who had the button. The flop came and Thorel check-called 1,600. He checked the and Capitan put in 3,000. Thorel moved all in for 5,800, and Capitan quickly called.
Capitan:
Thorel:
Thorel was in bad shape as only an offsuit king would send him the pot, but the river was a .
The PLO High Roller is well underway here in Monte Carlo, and PokerNews will now pick up coverage as your exclusive source for live updates. There's already 11 players seated at two tables.