Main Event
Day 1a Completed
2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT
Main Event
Day: 1a
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT
Buy-in
€5,300
Prize Pool
€3,768,450
Entries
777
Level
32
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
200,000
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
After ten levels of play in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT Main Event, it is Mark Demirdjian who bagged a jaw-dropping 350,500 to lead at the end of Day 1a.
Helped by the eliminations of Stephen Chidwick and two-time EPT champion Victoria Coren-Mitchell, Demirdjian is way clear of his rivals and is in good shape going into Day 2.
Other big stacks include Nick Petrangelo (213,000), David Peters (191,300), Antoine Saout (123,100) and Christopher Frank (126,700).
Notables advancing include Justin Bonomo (32,100), former EPT winner Mark Teltscher (54,000), Ryan Riess, (34,100), PokerStars Team Online Randy Lew (74,400), Team Pros Leo Fernandez (66,700) and Jake Cody (18,300), Rainer Kempe (87,000), Sosia Jiang (90,900) and Paul Newey (30,300).
The day started at midday, with the first players taking their seats with Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin and former EPT Grand Final champion Steve O'Dwyer in the mix. Lin was soon joined by fellow Team Pro Fatima Moreira de Melo and two-time EPT champion Mitchell
Coren-Mitchell was seated at a table with Ondrej Drozd, Kenny Hallaert and Jan-Eric Schwippert and didn't have an easy day before she was eliminated with jacks into the aces of Demirdjian.
Another notable in the field was Andreas Klatt, who last year won the PokerStars National Championship Monte Carlo (€151,445) and finished runner-up in the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo Main Event (€402,786).
The big names would continue to arrive, with Team Pros Liv Boeree, Leo Fernandez and Jake Cody along with Team Online's Randy Lew joining the field, along with €100k High Roller final tablists Ole Schemion, Justin Bonomo and Ike Haxton.
Among the players who failed to make it through to Day 2 at the first time of asking were Mikita Badziakouski, Team Pros Boeree and Moreira de Melo, Mustapha Kanit, Benjamin Pollak, Dominik Nitsche, Matthias De Meulder and Bryn Kenney.
Day 1b gets underway at midday local time tomorrow (29th April) and PokerNews will bring you all the live updates.
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
350,500
25,500
|
25,500 |
|
||
|
213,000
38,000
|
38,000 |
|
198,600
38,600
|
38,600 |
|
193,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
|
191,300
11,300
|
11,300 |
|
||
|
181,500
181,500
|
181,500 |
|
173,000
-2,000
|
-2,000 |
|
172,500
172,500
|
172,500 |
|
162,900
62,900
|
62,900 |
|
157,400
92,400
|
92,400 |
|
152,100
12,100
|
12,100 |
|
146,000
-4,000
|
-4,000 |
|
139,000
98,000
|
98,000 |
|
134,500
4,500
|
4,500 |
|
130,800
800
|
800 |
|
129,800
-200
|
-200 |
|
||
|
129,100
-10,900
|
-10,900 |
|
||
|
126,700
-23,300
|
-23,300 |
|
126,400
81,400
|
81,400 |
|
124,000
4,000
|
4,000 |
|
123,100
33,100
|
33,100 |
|
122,000
92,000
|
92,000 |
|
115,900
-18,100
|
-18,100 |
|
115,400
25,400
|
25,400 |
|
114,100
-5,900
|
-5,900 |
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
In the very last hand of the night, Tibor Nagygyorgy got his last 21,900 in with the 
and Igor Yaroshevskyy as initial raiser called with the 
. The board came 
and Nagygyorgy avoided the re-entry on Day 1b with a very late double up. He had previously lost a lot of chips to Andre Haneberg, who finishes a roller coaster day well above the average.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
175,000
-5,000
|
-5,000 |
|
|
130,000
58,000
|
58,000 |
|
47,000
-38,000
|
-38,000 |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted |
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
The clock has been stopped with some 14 minutes remaining on the level and the screens show 108 players still in contention. They will play another four hands before bagging and tagging.
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
It remains unclear just how good Mark Demirdjian has run as of lately, as the Canadian is the run-away chip leader in the final level of the night. A few other big stacks have emerged that may take a shot at the overnight spotlight including Dan Abouaf, but Demirdjian remains at the top for now with a black "tight is right" shirt.
Abouaf had been responsible for the elimination of Jean-Noel Thorel when calling down the three barrels of his fellow countryman with 
for flopped top pair. Thorel only had 
for bottom pair and headed straight to the registration desk in order to re-enter.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
325,000
160,000
|
160,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
190,000
190,000
|
190,000 |
|
|
180,000
110,000
|
110,000 |
|
|
180,000
148,000
|
148,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
175,000
20,000
|
20,000 |
|
|
150,000
35,000
|
35,000 |
|
|
140,000
-35,000
|
-35,000 |
|
|
120,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
|
85,000
64,000
|
64,000 |
|
||
|
|
30,000
-25,000
|
-25,000 |
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
Boutros Naim promised to leave early if he had more than 100,000 chips and he just fulfilled that promise after doubling through Pete Chen. It was a preflop raising war that saw Naim's stack of 56,400 go into the middle of the table and a typical coin flip emerged.
Boutros Naim: 
Pete Chen: 
The board of 
kept Naim's queens best and he left right after.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
115,000 | |
|
44,000 |
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
Luis Fernandez was one of the few Spaniards to take part on Day 1a and he was just sent to the rail after his pocket aces were cracked according to the PokerStars Blog team, who caught the action.
It all went downhill on a flop of 
, on which Fernandez got his chips in with the 
. PokerStars online qualifier Carl-Fredrik Tingvall called with the 
and the 
turn and 
river bricked off.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
88,000
-20,000
|
-20,000 |
|
|
Busted |
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
At the end of the previous level, Ivan Deyra got his last 30 big blinds in preflop with ace-king and Nikola Damcevski reluctantly looked him up with the 
. The board of 
gave Damcevski a runner runner flush and Deyra a bad beat story to tell.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
75,000
38,000
|
38,000 |
|
Busted |
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
The initial raise by Georgios Karakousis was already pulled in and Jean-Noel Thorel had three-bet to 8,000. Karakousis moved all in and Thorel quickly called.
Georgios Karakousis:
Jean-Noel Thorel: 
The board came 
and Karakousis doubled for 58,700 to cut Thorel's stack in half.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
178,000
18,000
|
18,000 |
|
|
130,000
45,000
|
45,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
120,000 | |
|
|
115,000
85,000
|
85,000 |
|
|
110,000
32,000
|
32,000 |
|
110,000
66,000
|
66,000 |
|
|
55,000
-105,000
|
-105,000 |