Fatehi Tops Day 1b; Kolonias, Panyak and Toma Bag Big

As expected, the second starting day of the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT €5,300 Main Event drew a far bigger field than the 282 entries of Day 1a and the Salle des Etoiles saw a total of 480 entries emerge. That includes 72 re-entries and the total number of entries for the Main Event has increased to 762, however that is still subject to change with the registration and single re-entry option available until the start of Day 2 on Monday, April 30, at 12 p.m. local time.

After ten full levels of one hour each, the Day 1b field has been cut down all the way to just 186 hopefuls and Ali Reza Fatehi soared to the top after bagging up 289,300. It had been quite an eventful festival and day for the businessman from Iran, who finished third in the €100,000 Super High Roller already. Fatehi took part in the €50,000 Super High Roller, busted before the money and his first bullet in the €5,300 Main Event lasted all but half a dozen hands.

However, he immediately jumped back in and doubled up right away. On his way to the top of the leader board, Fatehi cracked the pocket aces of Raffaele Carnevale when he hit two pair on the river with jack-seven. Another double elimination with quad deuces against the ace-king of Yehoram Houri and pocket aces of another player ensured his top spot in the last level of the night, however Mark Demirdjian remains in the overall lead with his 350,500 from Day 1a.

Tsugunari Toma among the big stacks after Day 1b

Several other notables bagged up big stacks on the second starting day including Alexandros Kolonias (238,000), Maxim Panyak (219,400), Denis Timofeev (210,000), Ranno Sootla (205,000), Tsugunari Toma (204,500), Andrei Boghean (200,000), Jason Wheeler (195,000), Gary Miller (185,900), Said Butba (182,900), Saar Wilf (175,100), Federico Petruzzelli (174,500) and Hossein Ensan (135,000). Kolonias and Panyak have sweet memories from right here at Monaco, the former finished 2nd in the €25,750 High Roller in 2016 for €805,900 while Panyak was 5th in the 2017 PokerStars Championship €5,300 Main Event.

Two PokerStars Team Pros advanced from Day 1b in Andre Akkari (119,000) and Fatima Moreira De Melo (48,700), while Pokerstars ambassador Maria Konnikova played twice without success. On her second entry, Konnikova four-bet all in for 17 big blinds with pocket jacks and Josip Simunic got there with ace-ten. Two-time EPT Main Event champion Victoria Coren Mitchell was unable to bag up chips on Day 1a, however the second attempt worked much better and she made it through with 96,500.

Victoria Coren-Mitchell still on track for third EPT title

Among those to bust throughout the ten levels were such familiar names as Benny Glaser, Andreas Klatt, Pierre Calamusa, Raffaele Sorrentino, Kalidou Sow, Michal Mrakes, Akin Tuna, Dominik Nitsche and EPT National Championship €1,100 Main Event winner Guillaume Diaz.

Klatt failed with a nut-flush draw against the pocket aces of Franck Makaci to lose a massive pot while Sow's two pair with an ace was no good against better two pair. Calamusa check-shoved a ten-high river with trey-four suited for a pair and busted straight draw, but Ranno Sootla's “live read” with king-ten for top pair sent the Frenchman to the rail. Last but not least, Diaz lost his remaining seven big blinds with ace-ten against the ace-deuce suited of Mikhail Korotkikh.

The survivors of both starting tables will combine for Day 2 and 286 hopefuls out of the 762 entries remain, the registration will close once the cards are back in the air at noon. Action resumes in level 11 with blinds of 800-1,600 and a big blind ante of 1,600. Five levels of 90 minutes are scheduled and a 30 second shot clock will be in play as of Day 2 and until the conclusion of the event.

As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to cover all the action, so make sure to tune back in regularly and find out who becomes the next EPT champion.

Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	1	Maya Geller	USA	34,100	21
1	2	Yichuan Ye	China	24,300	15
1	3	Tuomo Niskanen	Finland	49,100	31
1	4	Viacheslav Goryachev	Russia	38,300	24
1	5	Jonathan Proudfoot	UK	31,700	20
1	6	Frederic Steinbach	France	91,400	57
1	7	Isaac Haxton	USA	28,400	18
1	8	Jeffrey Hakim	Lebanon	41,700	26

2	1	Alan Rocamora Garcia	Spain	72,500	45
2	2	Gary Miller	UK	185,900	116
2	3	Jonathan Concepcion	Spain	54,700	34
2	4	Patrick Bruel	France	103,500	65
2	6	Brian Altman	USA	47,000	29
2	7	Stanislav Koleno	Slovakia	17,000	11
2	8	Tomas Jozonis	Lithuania	93,500	58

3	1	Mark Demirdjian	Canada	350,500	219
3	2	Fabrice Maltez	France	20,600	13
3	3	[Removed:350]	Thailand	16,800	11
3	4	Dario Sammartino	Italy	104,400	65
3	5	Ali Chaieb	France	67,400	42
3	6	Vladimir Troyanovskiy	Russia	26,000	16
3	7	Dragos Trofimov	Moldova	94,100	59
3	8	Dimitar Danchev	Bulgaria	129,100	81

4	1	Ranno Sootla	Estonia	205,000	128
4	2	Xia Lin	China	51,900	32
4	3	Said Butba	Russia	182,900	114
4	4	Rony Halimi	France	52,700	33
4	5	Philippe Narboni	France	45,800	29
4	6	Olivier Ferrero	France	57,400	36
4	7	Jean Koja	France	29,600	19
4	8	Muhamet Perati	Italy	59,300	37

5	1	Robert Schiffbauer	USA	15,600	10
5	2	Ivo Bartoletti	Italy	137,100	86
5	3	Ricardo Graells	Switzerland	18,100	11
5	4	Erik Seidel	USA	57,500	36
5	5	Mazin Khoury	UK	209,000	131
5	7	Matthias Tikerpe	Estonia	115,900	72
5	8	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	47,700	30

6	1	Andreas Freund	Austria	24,200	15
6	2	Robert Kaggerud	Norway	64,200	40
6	3	Samir Moukawem	Lebanon	72,900	46
6	5	Andre Haneberg	Austria	130,800	82
6	6	Armando Di Giorgio	Italy	47,500	30
6	7	Alexandros Kolonias	Greece	238,000	149
6	8	Adrian Tulbure	Romania	30,800	19

7	1	Andrei Boghean	Romania	200,000	125
7	2	Walid Bou Habib	Lebanon	95,000	59
7	3	Stefan Huber	Switzerland	55,000	34
7	4	Arseniy Meshcheryakov	Russia	27,700	17
7	5	Javier Fernandez Alonso	Spain	139,000	87
7	6	Kilian Loeffler	Germany	36,000	23
7	7	Julian Stuer	Austria	95,000	59

8	1	Nicolas Borlot	France	56,100	35
8	2	Arnaud Peyroles	France	53,600	34
8	3	Shiguang Zeng	China	55,600	35
8	4	Pierre Morin	France	112,700	70
8	5	Mikhail Korotkikh	Russia	55,000	34
8	6	Fatima Moreira De Melo	Netherlands	48,700	30
8	7	Paul Byrne	UK	58,700	37
8	8	[Removed:37]	France	106,000	66

9	1	Wei Huang	China	120,100	75
9	2	Sadri Saleh	Canada	60,100	38
9	3	Markku Koplimaa	Estonia	79,800	50
9	4	Federico Petruzzelli	Italy	174,500	109
9	5	Christoph Vogelsang	Germany	17,500	11
9	7	Paul Linton	UK	74,700	47
9	8	Timothy Adams	Canada	115,400	72

10	1	Zoltan Szabo	Hungary	46,000	29
10	2	Toby Orion Boas	USA	150,100	94
10	4	Fred Weiss	France	42,600	27
10	5	Franck Makaci	France	48,700	30
10	6	Jose Gonzales	Argentina	134,500	84
10	7	Raffaele Carnevale	Italy	52,700	33
10	8	Guntis Aleskins	Latvia	57,000	36

11	1	Bahram Chobineh	Iran	86,900	54
11	2	Eric Sfez	France	172,500	108
11	3	David Peters	USA	191,300	120
11	4	Volodymyr Drokin	Ukraine	82,400	52
11	5	Antal Roth	Hungary	85,000	53
11	6	Paul Tedeschi	France	26,500	17
11	7	Boris Kuzmanovic	Croatia	157,400	98
11	8	John Juanda	Indonesia	129,800	81

12	1	Anthony Blanchard	France	95,700	60
12	2	Alexander Donev	Switzerland	61,800	39
12	3	John Mooney	UK	146,000	91
12	5	Mamouni Smain	Canada	90,600	57
12	6	Jake Cody	UK	18,300	11
12	7	Snjezana Milisa	Croatia	25,500	16
12	8	Aleksandr Sheshukov	Russia	127,000	79

13	1	Florent Estegassy	France	71,000	44
13	2	Vadim Kuvshinkov Vadim	Russia	44,400	28
13	3	Sylvain Loosli	France	55,800	35
13	4	Christophe Larquemin	France	36,800	23
13	5	Arthur Conan	France	27,000	17
13	6	Paul Hoefer	Germany	40,200	25
13	7	Sosia Jiang	New Zealand	90,900	57
13	8	Ouri Cohen	France	50,100	31

14	1	Tsugunari Toma	Japan	204,500	128
14	2	Ghassan Bitar	Ghana	62,500	39
14	3	Thomas Lilamand	France	100,000	63
14	4	Denis Timofeev	Russia	210,000	131
14	5	Igor Yaroshevskyy	Ukraine	173,000	108
14	6	Nicolas Dumont	France	116,100	73
14	7	Antonio Scalzi	Italy	60,200	38
14	8	Ole Schemion	Germany	104,900	66

15	1	Lily Kiletto	USA	138,000	86
15	2	Sara Nassar	Lebanon	40,900	26
15	3	Andrey Demidov	Russia	69,700	44
15	4	Jack Salter	UK	30,700	19
15	5	Hayg Badem	France	100,900	63
15	6	Marius Toverud	Norway	22,800	14
15	7	Alan Mutschlechner	Italy	56,300	35
15	8	Felix Bleiker	Switzerland	44,000	28

16	1	Ermo Kosk	Estonia	53,300	33
16	2	Jan Bednar	Czech Republic	96,200	60
16	3	Gavin O'Rourke	Ireland	74,000	46
16	4	Andrei Zarojanu	Romania	27,500	17
16	5	Wei Lin	France	55,500	35
16	6	Claudio Di Giacomo	Italy	112,000	70
16	7	Liwei Sun	China	131,500	82
16	8	[Removed:138]	France	57,400	36

17	1	Jason Wheeler	USA	195,000	122
17	2	Gary Hasson	Belgium	11,400	7
17	3	Ondrej Drozd	Czech Republic	141,800	89
17	4	Ville Tapio Sissonen	Finland	35,400	22
17	5	Pasquale Braco	Italy	168,900	106
17	6	Firas Nassar	Lebanon	82,700	52
17	7	Luca Marchetti	Italy	39,400	25
17	8	Roberto Musu	Italy	47,900	30

18	1	Celina Lin	China	28,200	18
18	2	David Eggenberger	Switzerland	57,100	36
18	4	David Lascar	France	61,800	39
18	5	Jack Sinclair	UK	27,600	17
18	6	Hubert Matuszewski	Poland	70,200	44
18	7	Anton Kraus	Bulgaria	91,500	57
18	8	Luke Haward	UK	12,500	8

19	1	Patrik Antonius	Finland	66,500	42
19	2	Xixiang Luo	China	60,000	38
19	3	Oshri Lahmani	Israel	39,500	25
19	5	Christophe De Meulder	Belgium	69,900	44
19	6	Adrian Mateos	Spain	126,500	79
19	7	Javier Gomez Zapatero	Spain	33,200	21
19	8	Jean-Jacques Zeitoun	France	36,500	23

20	1	Benjamin Chicheportiche	France	90,400	57
20	2	Philipp Salewski	Germany	56,300	35
20	3	Jean-Louis Perez	France	60,600	38
20	4	Ekrem Sanioglu	Turkey	128,300	80
20	5	Dan Abouaf	France	193,000	121
20	6	David Tovar Lasierra	Spain	90,000	56
20	7	Nikola Damcevski	France	60,700	38
20	8	Philipp Gruissem	Germany	38,000	24

21	1	Massou Cohen	France	84,000	53
21	2	Carlos Ibarra Gonzalez	Chile	77,800	49
21	3	Randy Lew	USA	74,400	47
21	4	Andres Korn	Germany	162,900	102
21	5	Andreas Eiler	Germany	57,500	36
21	6	[Removed:17]	New Zealand	150,000	94
21	7	Saar Wilf	Israel	175,000	109
21	8	Krisztian Gyorgyi	Hungary	80,100	50

22	1	Chaofei Wang	China	64,900	41
22	2	Dan Djorno	France	40,700	25
22	4	Fabio Sperling	Germany	114,100	71
22	5	Alexis Fleur	France	134,300	84
22	6	Colin Robinson	USA	95,300	60
22	7	Alain Goldberg	Switzerland	45,000	28
22	8	James Hoeppner	USA	18,100	11

23	1	Jeffrey Colpitts	Canada	30,400	19
23	2	Yong Wang	China	84,300	53
23	3	Sam Greenwood	Canada	17,700	11
23	5	Lucas Reeves	UK	68,400	43
23	6	Alexandre Le Vaillant	France	23,900	15
23	7	Akseli Paalanen	Finland	91,500	57
23	8	Sonny Franco	France	36,800	23

24	1	Johan Guilbert	France	12,800	8
24	3	Ghassan El-Hoss	UK	114,300	71
24	4	Davor Lanini	Italy	27,900	17
24	5	Pascal Hartmann	Germany	10,500	7
24	6	Seth Fischer	Canada	11,000	7
24	7	Stephane Dejean	France	64,000	40
24	8	Christian Aris	France	24,200	15

25	1	Tibor Nagygyorgy	Hungary	49,500	31
25	2	Julian Thomas	Germany	57,100	36
25	3	Borge Sandsgaard	Norway	33,200	21
25	4	Antoine Saout	France	123,100	77
25	5	Romain Lewis	France	126,400	79
25	6	Maroun Jazzar	Lebanon	86,200	54
25	7	Andre Akkari	Brazil	119,000	74
25	8	Makram Saber	Lebanon	40,000	25

26	1	Leo Fernandez	Spain	66,700	42
26	2	Mario Garrasi	Italy	78,000	49
26	3	Jorge Lores Galavis	Spain	26,200	16
26	4	Conor Beresford	UK	181,500	113
26	5	Milos Lalovic	Serbia	53,500	33
26	6	Lars Bonding	Denmark	46,000	29
26	7	Yen Han Chen	Taiwan	59,300	37

27	1	Nicola D'Anselmo	Italy	47,200	30
27	2	Lukasz Cygan	Poland	83,000	52
27	3	Paul Newey	UK	30,300	19
27	4	Hossein Ensan	Germany	135,000	84
27	5	Hassan Ezzeldine	Lebanon	89,400	56
27	6	Danut Chisu	Romania	109,600	69
27	7	Michel Eid	Lebanon	80,200	50
27	8	Adrien Delmas	France	37,000	23

28	1	Ryan Riess	USA	34,100	21
28	2	Victoria Coren Mitchell	UK	96,500	60
28	4	Laurent Patroni	France	171,300	107
28	5	Vlado Banicevic	Montenegro	54,100	34
28	6	Boutros Naim	Lebanon	108,900	68
28	7	Nicola Grieco	Italy	77,000	48
28	8	Marcin Chmielewski	Poland	75,900	47

29	1	Thierry Brigitte	France	65,400	41
29	2	Gaelle Baumann	France	36,700	23
29	3	Hani El Assaad	Lebanon	51,000	32
29	4	Eric Qu	France	114,000	71
29	5	Clemente Malheiro Carreira	Portugal	75,000	47
29	6	Georgios Vrakas	Greece	82,800	52
29	7	Quentin Lecomte	France	51,000	32
29	8	Thomas Pettersson	Sweden	79,800	50

30	1	Shyngis Satubayev	Kazakhstan	152,100	95
30	2	Joe Mouawad	Lebanon	78,100	49
30	3	Lucien Cohen	France	68,700	43
30	4	Samuel Kiourktchian	France	56,000	35
30	5	Ionut-Flavius Voinea	Romania	161,600	101
30	6	Yorane Kerignard	France	126,000	79
30	7	Dinesh Alt	Switzerland	38,400	24

31	1	Nathan Gozlan	France	41,400	26
31	2	Makoto Haga	Japan	198,600	124
31	3	Thierry Gogniat	France	133,000	83
31	4	Roman Emelyanov	Russia	35,400	22
31	6	Elie Ghazal	Lebanon	20,500	13
31	7	Dmitry Varlamov	Russia	62,900	39
31	8	Yury Kanunnikov	Russia	166,100	104

32	1	Giuliano Bendinelli	Italy	120,900	76
32	2	Francois Evard	Switzerland	59,100	37
32	3	Remy Lubespere	France	115,400	72
32	4	Andrey Ivlev	Russia	11,200	7
32	5	Nick Petrangelo	USA	213,000	133
32	7	Mark Teltscher	UK	54,000	34
32	8	Pavel Ignatov	Russia	44,400	28

33	1	Sebastian Von Toperczer	Germany	62,900	39
33	2	Carl-Fredrik Tingvall	Sweden	100,000	63
33	3	Pierre Barthelemy	France	74,100	46
33	4	Jose Nunez Fernandez	Spain	34,500	22
33	5	Emil Patel	USA	25,200	16
33	6	Karim Souaid	Switzerland	129,400	81
33	7	Samy Ouellani	France	105,300	66
33	8	Govert Metaal	Netherlands	89,800	56

34	1	Jimmy Guerrero	France	67,000	42
34	2	Philipp Kaempf	Germany	56,000	35
34	3	Pablo Melogno	Uruguay	105,300	66
34	4	Manuel Ruivo	Portugal	52,100	33
34	5	Christopher Frank	Germany	126,700	79
34	6	Maria Lampropulos	Argentina	60,000	38
34	7	Daniel Koninger	Germany	18,000	11
34	8	Aryeh Leon Rose	USA	28,000	18

35	1	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	96,200	60
35	2	Dario Talio	Italy	22,400	14
35	3	Bruno Lopes	France	48,300	30
35	4	Georgios Karakousis	Greece	124,000	78
35	5	Vlad Darie	Romania	122,000	76
35	6	Maxim Panyak	Russia	219,400	137
35	7	Jan-Eric Schwippert	Germany	35,000	22
35	8	Antoine Labat	France	42,300	26

36	1	Rainer Kempe	Germany	87,000	54
36	2	Justin Bonomo	USA	32,400	20
36	3	Francesco Grieco	Italy	76,400	48
36	4	Paraschos Stavridis	Greece	33,000	21
36	5	Jens Vinther	Denmark	25,400	16
36	6	Michel Abecassis	France	41,500	26
36	8	Florian Maurer	Austria	78,300	49

37	1	Martynas Valantiejus	Lithuania	56,200	35
37	2	[Removed:432]	France	113,000	71
37	3	Jacques Guenni	France	77,300	48
37	4	Martin Finger	Germany	36,900	23
37	5	Josip Simunic	Austria	62,400	39
37	6	Michael Glick	USA	210,000	131
37	7	Ali Reza Fatehi	Iran	289,300	181
37	8	Christoph Strehl	Austria	38,700	24

38	1	Andreas Kaju	Estonia	153,100	96
38	2	Henri Kasper	Estonia	93,400	58
38	3	Aroldo Fioroni	Switzerland	17,700	11
38	4	Arianna Son	USA	47,100	29
38	5	Honglin Jiang	New Zealand	63,300	40
38	6	Hicham Moussa	Nigeria	97,700	61
38	7	Leo Margets	Spain	49,300	31
38	8	Nadim Hage Ali	France	70,000	44

Tags: Alexandros Kolonias Ali Reza Fatehi Andreas Klatt Benny Glaser Denis Timofeev Guillaume Diaz Hossein Ensan Kalidou Sow Maria Konnikova Raffaele Sorrentino Ranno Sootla Tsugunari Toma Victoria Coren Mitchell