In the very first hand of the day, Martin Jacobson opened for 40,000 under the gun and Dan Smith called from the hijack. Yingui Li then three-bet to 90,000 from the button, and chip leader Andrey Andreev ripped all in from the big blind. Both Jacobson and Smith folded, and then Li snap-called off for nearly 800K.
Li:
Andreev:
Li was a heavy favorite, but not when a ten appeared in the window on the flop. Suddenly he was in big trouble, and the turn didn't help his case. Li needed an ace and an ace only on the river, but it was not meant to be as the blanked.
Just like that, Li, who began the day sixth in chips, was out the door in 12th place for €86,800.
Dan Smith, who was feeling very under the weather yesterday, is back and in good form, apparently, as he says he's feeling much better. He said he fought through it due to the magnitude of the tournament, but if it was a 5K, he would have either just left or "ripped it a few times."
Andrey Andreev is one of two relatively unknown players left in the field, especially to the common poker fan. He is from Russia and has just $42,311 in live tournament earnings. He stands to double that amount with the money he's earning already (€86,800), but with the big chip lead of 2.27 million and over 21% of the chips in play, he stands to score a lot more.
Andreev's largest live tournament result is worth €13,900, and it comes as a result of an 84th-place finish in EPT Barcelona Main Event in 2014. In October 2014, Andreev cashed twice in EPT London side events, and then he finished 22nd in the EPT Malta €2,150 Turbo Bounty event for €2,470.
Charlie Carrel hails from the UK and is making the fourth result from the two most recent European Poker Tour stops, this EPT Grand Final and the last one in Malta. Now with over $400,000 in live tournament earnings, Carrel recently scored €183,800 for a fifth-place finish in the EPT Malta €10,300 High Roller.
While that result is Carrel's largest, it wasn't a win. Carrel's biggest live win came in November of last year when he topped a field of 212 entries in the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand Final £2,125 Main Event. He beat Paul Nunes in heads-up play and earned £108,625 as the top prize.
His specialty is six-max cash games and multi-table tournaments, and he's certainly making the most of experience in the latter with a deep run here in one of the most prestigious events in the world.
Carrel will enter Day 3 second in chips with 1.534 million.
Italian Dario Sammartino is making an early case for breakout player of the year, and his success started at the last European Poker Tour stop in Malta.
It was there that Sammartino played in the Global Poker Masters event as part of Team Italy. As a part of the team, Sammartino and the others took the title and the success has been rolling in ever since.
Sammartino started his Monaco festival by winning a satellite into the €100,000 Super High Roller — by far the largest poker event of his career. He not only played the biggest event of his young career, but he went on to earn his largest score after making the final table and finishing fourth for €709,500. Sammartino followed that impressive result up by taking to action in the 564-player EPT Grand Final €10,600 Main Event. A few days after starting, Sammartino finished in 17th place for €51,350.
Now that he's in the money with the third largest stack of 1.3 million in the €25,500 High Roller, Sammartino is on the biggest rush of his life.
Before these results, Sammartino boasted a poker résumé with just shy of $1.3 million in live tournament earnings. He's now up to over $2.1 million in live tournament earnings, not including the €86,800 he's already locked up here.
Las Vegas resident Jeremy Ausmus earned his first live poker cash in January 2008. Since then, he's racked up more than $4.25 million in live event winnings, including 28 World Series of Poker cashes.
Of those 28, Ausmus' big breakout performance came in the 2012 WSOP Main Event when he reached the final table and took fifth for over $2.155 million. In 2013, Ausmus traveled to WSOP Europe and won the €1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha event for his first gold bracelet and €70,324. Then last summer, he nearly won a second bracelet when he took second in the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event for $414,104.
Uruguay's Pablo Melogno may not be a household name just yet, but it could soon become one.
Melogno brought 990,000 in chips to Day 3 of the €25,500 High Roller and was fifth in chips. He's been playing with poise and confidence, and he has quickly proven to be one of the toughest competitors in the field. Through the first two days, Melogno was constantly applying pressure to his opponents and wielding one of the larger stacks in the tournament.
Prior to this score, Melogno's live tournament earnings were nearly $300,000. His first result on record was in 2010 when he took fourth in the 2010 Conrad Poker Tour in Punta del Este of his home country. There he earned $133,000. He has another fourth-place finish in the Latin-American Poker Tour Punta del Este event in 2012 for $60,420, and then two more cashes for $40,000 and $32,000 in $1,000 events in the 2014 Conrad Poker Tour.
Melogno has only cashed once our of 12 times outside of Latin America, and that was in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker last summer.
Yingui Li is one of two unknown players to enter Day 3, with the other being the chip leader Andrey Andreev.
Li is from China and will enter the third and final day of play with 791,000. He only had $16,478 in live tournament earnings before this event started, and that means the €86,800 he's earning already is by far his largest cash result of his career. Previously, Li had four results on record for between $2,600-$5,400.
Two of Li's results stem from Li's performance in poker tournaments in Macau. Another is from Las Vegas, and then the fourth is from the France Poker Series Monaco €1,100 Main Event that took place during this festival last year.
Martin Jacobson is one of poker’s most consistent players, but last year was when his life truly changed. Jacobson entered the famous World Series of Poker Main Event as a top pro amongst the field of 6,683 entries. When it was all said and done in November, Jacobson proved to be the last man standing to claim the $10 million top prize from poker's grandest event.
In that event, Jacobson rode the Day 1a chip lead all the way to victory, and he currently boasts nearly $15 million in live tournament earnings. In fact, this result here — no matter what the finish from here on out — will push him over $15 million in live winnings.
Originally from Stockholm, Sweden, Jacobson now makes London his home base as he travels the globe playing his trade. He's ranked first on Sweden's all-time money list and ninth on the overall poker all-time money list.
Since the life-changing score, Jacobson has continued to put up results, but this one will be his largest since.
turn didn't help his case. Li needed an ace and an ace only on the river, but it was not meant to be as the 
blanked.
