David Peters Leads PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT Main Event
One of the best in all of tournament poker made his mark on Day 2 of the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino €5,300 EPT Main Event: David Peters. Peters, number 15 on the all-time money list with over $20 million in lifetime winnings, vaulted himself to the top of the leaderboard in a day that lasted just over three levels of 90 minutes.
With 120 players left, play was suspended one table shy of the bubble. For 111 players, a share of the €3,768,450 prize pool is up for grabs, with a mincash worth €9,400. The winner, crowned on Friday, May 4, will receive the first-place prize of €712,000 along with the honor of the title of 2018 EPT Monte-Carlo champion.
Peters soared to the overall chip lead in a big hand against Lucas "Bit2Easy" Reeves during the twilight portion of the day. Holding ace-eight in a four-bet pot, Peters flopped an eight and rivered an ace for aces-up. The American overbet shoved on the river and Reeves called it off for his tournament life with ace-king. Reeves was eliminated and Peters scooped up a 500k pot to vault himself to the top spot.
Another top stack belongs to last year's Day 2 chipleader and runner-up in the €50K Single-Day High Roller the day before, Nick Petrangelo. Petrangelo amassed 463,000 in chips to make himself a prime contender for a deep run. Last year, Petrangelo's Day 2 chip lead ended up in a relatively disappointing 82nd place, and he's looking to improve on that performance this year.
Other notables that bagged big include Ali Reza Fatehi (435,500), Ole Schemion (285,000), Sam Greenwood (246,000), Team PokerStars Online Randy "nanonoko" Lew (231,500), Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari (227,000) and 2015 EPT Monte Carlo champion Adrian Mateos (181,000).
PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT Main Event Day 2 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Peters | United States | 603,500 |
| 2 | Maxim Panyak | Russia | 494,500 |
| 3 | Nicolas Dumont | France | 483,000 |
| 4 | Said Butba | Russia | 475,000 |
| 5 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | 463,000 |
| 6 | [Removed:432] | France | 452,000 |
| 7 | Dan Abouaf | France | 440,500 |
| 8 | Ali Reza Fatehi | Iran | 435,500 |
| 9 | Boutros Naim | Lebanon | 430,000 |
| 10 | Eric Qu | France | 403,500 |
The room was buzzing with excitement at the start of the day as all players played a flipout tournament to try and win the free $30,000 Platinum Pass that awaited the lucky winner. After winning three flipouts in a row, a loud cheer erupted from the Salle des Etoiles as Paul-Francois Tedeschi grabbed the Pass to punch himself a free ticket to the Bahamas and the PokerStars Players Championship next year.
After the buzz died down, players started Day 2 and late registration was closed. 777 entries were made into the Main Event, consisting of 594 unique players, 201 reentries and 2 no-shows. A late shower that tried to spin things up was Steve O'Dwyer, but he got eliminated in the very first hand of the day. The same empty-handed fate awaited Team PokerStars Pros Igor Kurganov, Celina Lin and Fatima Moreira de Melo, as well as Platinum Pass winner Tedeschi, Daniel Dvoress, Maria Lampropulos, Justin Bonomo, Isaac Haxton and Tsugunari Toma.
On Day 3, there's 01:15:18 to be played out in level 14, followed by a maximum of four more levels of 90 minutes each. The Day 3 table draw can be found here. Cards will be back in the air at noon and levels will resume with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a big blind ante of 3,000. PokerNews will be on the floor to provide all the coverage from the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT €5,300 Main Event as we get closer to crowning the new champion.
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