Mike Watson Leads €25,000 High Roller After Day 1
There were a total of 132 entrants in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour €25,000 High Roller, an increase of 20 players from the same stage last year. Several big names and High Roller champions from PokerStars Live events were out in force but by the end of ten levels, it was Canadian Mike Watson who leads the way.
In fact, it was almost a Canadian one-two with Luc Greenwood (301,500) third in chips, but for Russian architect Vasily Klyukhin (302,500) who snuck into second. David Dayan is the only player over 300,000, with 56 advancing to Day 2.
Among them is last week's Super High Roller champion Sergio Aido (220,000), EPT Monte Carlo €10,000 High Roller champion Sylvain Loosli (63,000), WSOP Europe Main Event champion Jack Sinclair (96,500), along with last year's runner-up Shyngis Satubayev (46,000), and fifth-place finisher Joao Vieira (247,500).
Other notables advancing include Koray Aldemir (190,000), Rainer Kempe (175,500), Erik Seidel (147,500), Sean Winter (129,500), Nick Petrangelo (99,000), Steve O'Dwyer (98,000), Mikita Badziakouski (82,500) and Maria Ho (63,000).
Day Recap
Charlie Carrel was among the early entrants, looking for another final table of the festival. He was joined by PokerStars Team Pro Andre Akkari, Kazuhiko Yotsushika and Bryn Kenney among others.
Several players today made use of their single re-entry, but failed to bag, including Alex Foxen, Michael Soyza, Ben Heath, David Peters and Sam Higgs. Defending champion Albert Daher also appeared in the field, but failed to make it through to Day 2.
Ivan Leow was fresh off a third-place finish in the €5,200 PLO High Roller, and appeared at the top of the chip counts midway through the day, along with Aido, Alexander Uskov and Joao Simao, before Watson started his ascent, at the expense of Leow.
With 56 players advancing to Day 2, and registration open until the start of play for any new players or those re-entering, the €25,000 High Roller looks certain to be another exciting event, bringing EPT Monte Carlo to a close in two day's time. Day 2 gets underway in the Americas room at 12:30pm.
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