€5,300 Main Event
Day 1a Completed
2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final
€5,300 Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€5,325,300
Entries
1,098
Level
34
Blinds
125,000 / 250,000
Ante
50,000
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
The first of two starting days for the 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final €5,300 Main Event attracted a field of 286 entries. Eight levels of 75 minutes each were played on Day 1a and 152 participants bagged up chips with the hopes of etching their name in the poker history books.
Defending champion Adrian Mateos was not in today's field, and the early attention belonged to Ronaldo. The former international football star lasted less than one level and was the first player on the rail. EPT Grand Final champion Ivan Freitez, from Season 7, followed next after getting his stack in with ace-ten suited against the ace-king of EPT Season 10 Grand Final champion Antonio Buonanno. The Italian made it through to Day 2 with 70,000 in chips.
Also among those to bust early on were also Rasmus Agerskov, Daniel Pidun, Dan Shak, Oleksii Kolvalchuk, and Huy Pham. Agerskov made a straight and ran into the flush of Steven van Zadelhoff. Pidun walked with kings into aces, and Shak failed to get there with ace-king suited against pocket kings. Pham flopped top set in a multi-way pot, but Sarah Herzali turned a set and rivered quads.
Other casualties included Anthony Zinno, Steve O'Dwyer, Sean Winter, Marvin Rettenmaier, Mike McDonald, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and Mohsin Charania. Charania flopped the nut flush in a six-way pot with another playing holding the second nut flush, but they were both sent to the rail by Patricio Rojas Parra's pocket tens that made quads on the river.
It was Ukraine's Roman Verenko who bagged up the most chips by some margin with 198,800. His two biggest pots came off the eliminations of Nick Petrangelo and Sergio Castelluccio. Petrangelo put his hopes on king-jack suited and a flopped flush draw, but the top set of Verenko held. The Ukrainian then turned the nut straight to better Castelluccio's set of aces.
Other Day 1a big stacks included Govert Metaal (171,200), Paolo Compagno (170,500), the aforementioned Rojas Parra (167,100), Thi Xoa Nguyen (148,000), Anthony Spinella (129,400), and Roman Korenev (125,300).
Additionally, three PokerStars Team Pros participated and all of them made it through: Jake Cody (114,300), Jason Mercier (55,700), and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (29,500).
Former PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion John Gale (99,100), Isaac Haxton (97,000), Max Silver (96,000), Faraz Jaka (95,100), van Zadelhoff (85,000), and Justin Bonomo (72,600) also advanced with above-average stacks.
Sunday will see Day 1b at 12 p.m. local time, and the €50,000 Single-Day High Roller will get underway half an hour later. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand to bring you updates from both events, so make sure to tune back in regularly to find out what is happening from the high-stakes action on the French Riviera.
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
198,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
|
171,200
19,200
|
19,200 |
|
170,500
70,500
|
70,500 |
|
167,100
72,100
|
72,100 |
|
153,400
3,400
|
3,400 |
|
148,000
83,000
|
83,000 |
|
138,100
-1,900
|
-1,900 |
|
129,400
-10,600
|
-10,600 |
|
125,300
-4,700
|
-4,700 |
|
124,000 | |
|
121,600
121,600
|
121,600 |
|
114,300
-15,700
|
-15,700 |
|
||
|
110,800 | |
|
107,200 | |
|
|
106,100
-18,900
|
-18,900 |
|
105,500 | |
|
104,500
71,500
|
71,500 |
|
103,300 | |
|
99,200 | |
|
99,100
-28,900
|
-28,900 |
|
|
97,900
-2,100
|
-2,100 |
|
97,000
7,000
|
7,000 |
|
96,800
53,800
|
53,800 |
|
96,000
-4,000
|
-4,000 |
|
95,100
-9,900
|
-9,900 |
|
||
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
Jean Montury busted an even shorter opponent when cracking the over pair with 
, the river brought the two outer with the 
.
Roman Verenko got through with a bluff by betting the size of the pot on a board of 
. His opponent in the one seat tanked for a long time and Verenko called time, as soon as the minute countdown started the opponent folded and Verenko was relieved before showing his 
.
Mike McDonald bought in late and busted just before the end of the day.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
195,000
25,000
|
25,000 |
|
18,000
-2,000
|
-2,000 |
|
|
||
|
Busted | |
|
|
||
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
There are just six more hands that need to be played before the day is done.
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
170,000
-4,000
|
-4,000 |
|
|
152,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
|
|
150,000
25,000
|
25,000 |
|
|
140,000 | |
|
|
140,000
36,000
|
36,000 |
|
|
130,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
128,000
48,000
|
48,000 |
|
|
125,000 | |
|
120,000 | |
|
110,000
46,000
|
46,000 |
|
||
|
95,000
-10,000
|
-10,000 |
|
|
90,000
-35,000
|
-35,000 |
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
On a rather innocent flop 
with around 5,000 in the main pot, the fireworks started and Enzo Del Piero somehow managed to get into a raising war with table neighbor Maximos Pertsinidis. The latter eventually called all in for 47,250 with top pair and top kicker, Del Piero had a straight draw.
Pertsinidis: 
Del Piero: 
The 
turn and 
river gave the Greek a full house and Del Piero's roller coaster ride on Day 1a sent him back below starting stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
100,000
16,000
|
16,000 |
|
|
25,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
125,000
-3,000
|
-3,000 |
|
|
110,000
-18,000
|
-18,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
105,000
-27,000
|
-27,000 |
|
|
100,000
6,000
|
6,000 |
|
80,000
-11,000
|
-11,000 |
|
70,000
28,000
|
28,000 |
|
||
|
67,000
29,000
|
29,000 |
|
65,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
60,000
35,400
|
35,400 |
|
55,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
46,000
-34,000
|
-34,000 |
|
32,000
1,500
|
1,500 |
|
22,000
2,000
|
2,000 |
|
|
20,000
-1,000
|
-1,000 |
|
|
||
|
16,000
-54,000
|
-54,000 |
|
||
|
15,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
Natasha Barbour had her pocket kings cracked by an opponent with pocket queens while Daniele Guidetti ran with 
into the of a fellow Italian in the small blind. The board ran out blank 
and that was it for Gudetti.
Marvin Rettenmaier's seat is empty as well, the German is gone.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted | |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted |
Level 8
: 300/600, 75 ante
Poker Players showed up to support the Right to Play Charity Poker Tournament.