While the sun itself has been notoriously absent in the normally sun-drenched city of Monte Carlo, the action in Le Sporting Casino at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort is undoubtedly heating up today. On the second day of the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT, the €10,300 No-Limit Hold'em continues at 12:30 p.m. local time. 31 out of 47 entries have made their way into Day 2, with late registration still open for another two hours to allow more players to crack a shot at the already near half a million prize pool.

Maria Ho, who recently spoke about her first-ever job before discovering poker, sits in second place after the starting day, behind Tim Adams. Familiar faces such as Benjamin Pollak, Ryan Riess, Stephen Chidwick and Rainer Kempe also bagged big after Day 1. The high rollers will play eight more levels of 60 minutes each before chips are bagged and tagged for the night.

At noon, cards will also be in the air for the first of three starting days of the ever popular €1,100 EPT National. Ten levels of 60 minutes are scheduled for Day 1a, before play is suspended for the night. Day 1a will then continue tomorrow and play down until the money has been reached. On Thursday, April 26, Day 1b and 1c will commence with shorter levels directly from the start and will play down to the money as well.

This allows all surviving players to rack up a cash before returning on Friday, April 27 for Day 2. The final table of this event will be played out on Saturday, April 28 at noon. The big blind ante will be in play, replacing the need for everyone to post their ante and speeds up gameplay.

PokerNews will be on the floor during the day to track the progress in the €10K opening event and €1,100 EPT National, as well as bringing interesting stories and interviews on the side.