It's been another busy day at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®️ and the action stepped up a gear today with Day 1 of the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller wrapping up moments ago.
The biggest buy-in event of the series saw 32 entrants on its first day, generating a prize pool of €3,104,640. Just 21 of those made it through to Sunday's Day 2.
Norway's Kayhan Mokri was the player who ended the opening session with the chip lead and will transfer a stack of 976,000 for the event's second stage. Mokri began his ascent by taking some chips from Sam Greenwood and was propelled to the top of the chip counts after picking off a bluff from Isaac Haxton. Throughout the rest of the day, Mokri steadily added to his stack and is in great shape for Day 2.
Stephen Chidwick and Orpen Kisacikoglu also had a fruitful session on the tables and bagged and tagged 835,000 and 831,000, respectively.
€100,000 EPT Super High Roller Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 976,000 | 163 |
| 2 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 835,000 | 139 |
| 3 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | 831,000 | 139 |
| 4 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 578,000 | 96 |
| 5 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 467,000 | 78 |
| 6 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | 455,000 | 76 |
| 7 | Seth Davies | United States | 441,000 | 74 |
| 8 | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | 367,000 | 61 |
| 9 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 342,000 | 57 |
| 10 | Sirzat Hissou | Germany | 331,000 | 55 |
Action from Day 1
The day began with 23 entries and, as expected, it was a star-studded lineup that consisted of poker's elite, such as Justin Bonomo, Steve O'Dwyer and Nick Petrangelo, to name just a few.
Defending champion Adrian Mateos was also in the mix and nabbed the first bust out of the day after eliminating Santhosh Suvarna. Mateos ended the day with 467,000 and is still in contention to pull off back-to-back EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller wins.
It is unlikely that Suvarna will return for Day 2 after firing two bullets today. Soon after he reentered, he lost a huge flip to Chidwick and was then finished off by the Englishman just a few hands later.
Another player to buy in twice was Mike Watson, and like Suvarna, he failed to find a Day 1 bag. On his first entry, he ran his pocket tens into O'Dwyers pocket queens and failed to improve.
After a short reprieve, Watson was back in the mix, but his fortunes didn't change as kicker problems resulted in him heading to the wrong side of the rail for a second time.
Timothy Adams and Haxton were the other two players to put in an extra €100,000. Adams was eliminated late in Level 6, while Haxton was dispatched as Level 7 got underway. As mentioned, both players opted to reenter and still ended Day 1 with less than a starting stack.
Sosia Jiang, Joao Vieira, Vicente Delgado and Jean-Noel Thorel also bought in on Day 1 but were unable to navigate the first hurdle. However, as late registration is open until the start of Day 2, they all have the option to take one last throw of the dice.
Proceedings for Day 2 start at 12:30 p.m. local time, with the players returning on Level 9, where the blinds will be 3,000/6,000 with 6,000 big blind ante.
Expect more entries as well as the growth of the already seven-figure prize pool, so be sure to stick with PokerNews to keep up with all the action.
