2017 PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®

Jeff Hakim steamrolled the field, making a couple of huge hands at opportune times to bag the chip lead at the conclusion of the first eight levels of Day 1a of PokerStars Championship presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® €5,300 Main Event.

The online crusher — he has $8 million in cashes primarily as "YoungSupremacy" and "Jeff710" — had his best live result in last year's WSOP Main Event, finishing 22nd for $269,430. Hakim's stack of 305,300 puts him well clear of second-place Stefan Schillhabel, who finished with 203,000.

Day 1a, the first of two starting days, drew 235 players, and a total of 107 survived. They'll get Sunday off and then return on Monday for Day 2.

Midway through the day, Hakim emerged as one of the leaders. He saw a five-way pot with ten-nine and flopped a ten-high straight with two diamonds on the felt. A player with jack-nine of diamonds didn't want to give it up and missed his combo draw to give Hakim 175,000 at 250/500/75.

In the last level of the night, Hakim flopped quads on a four-seven-four flop and check-raised an opponent's 4,500 bet to 11,500. His opponent made it 22,000 to go, and Hakim called. The turn gave his opponent a useless backdoor flush draw to go with two overcards — he'd been bluffing with jack-high on the flop — and that was enough to convince him to shove all in for 70,000.

Of course, that wound up being a sweat-free donation to Hakim's stack.

Schillhabel worked up a huge stack before dinner and then coolered unfortunate opponent Joshua Moore for nearly 200 big blinds with aces over kings.

Other players bagging big included Manig Loeser (195,700), Ole Schemion (144,900), and PokerStars Team Pro Celina Lin (125,500). Expecting couple Jason and Natasha Mercier put chips in the bag, with the former at 83,400 and the latter at 91,600. This despite Jason not buying in until less than an hour remained in the day.

Players eliminated from contention included Anthony Spinella, Stephen Chidwick, Mike Watson, Freddy Deeb, and PokerStars Team Pros Vanessa Selbst, Andre Akkari and Jake Cody. As this event is a freezeout, they won't have another chance to reenter.

There's still time for new entries to register and accumulate chips for Day 2, as Day 1b kicks off Sunday at noon local time here in Monaco. Come back to PokerNews then for more coverage.

The clocks have been stopped and the screens show 113 out of 237 players remaining. They will play three more hands before Day 1a officially comes to an end.

Jason Mercier got his stack of 27,800 in with on a flop against the of Dan Smith. The turn and river were both clubs, and Mercier got there with his flush draw for a double.

After Paul Tedeschi tried coming in for the minimum in the cutoff, the small blind made it 3,800. Jeff Hakim fired in 11,000 from the big, and Tedeschi counted out his stack and tanked a bit before mucking. The small blind came along, seeing a flop. Hakim bet 12,000 and received a call. His 20,000 turn bet on the did the trick, though, forcing a fold.

On the three-way flop of , Christoph Vogelsang in the small blind, Anton Hrabchak and El Amir Ziad Chehab in the cutoff invested 3,200 each before heading to the turn. Hrabchak bet 7,300 and Ziad Chehab moved all in, which Vogelsang folded. Hrabchak called for his last 23,400 and the cards were turned over.

Anton Hrabchak:
El Amir Ziad Chehab:

The on the river was a blank and Hrabchak found a late double.

A few tables over, the river was already complete and showed . Peyman Luth in the big blind announced "eight" and then placed a bet of 8,000 into a pot of 23,500. The floor was called by [Removed:172] to clarify the bet, as 800 was an option, and it was ruled as a bet of 8,000 indeed. Kramer eventually called and Luth showed for a full house to claim the pot.

Like Klitschko versus Joshua, Dmytro Shuvanov and Adrian Mateos exchanged jabs yet again. In a preflop raising war, it was Mateos putting in the last raise to 12,600. Shuvanov called to see a flop.

Shuvanov and Mateos slowed down by checking the flop and turn. On the river however, Shuvanov suddenly moved all in. It was for Mateos' remaining stack of 33,000, who didn't appear too pleased with the situation.

After glossing it over for a minute, Mateos elected to fold and Shuvanov won another round after the huge laydown earlier on.

Steffen Sontheimer was seen heading for the exit and his former neighbors told us what had happened. Ramin Hajiyev and Sam Grafton shared that Sontheimer had shoved for his last 9,000 or so under the gun with . He got looked up by a player with and that was the end of it for the German high roller.

One table over, Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier sat down. He just bought in and got 30,000 to work with.