Adrian Mateos opened the action from the cutoff to 500 and both Yuan Li and Christoph Vogelsang made the call from the blinds.
The flop fanned out A♦3♠2♥ and all three players checked their options to the 8♣ turn. Again both blinds checked over to Mateos who bet out 500, which only Li called.
The A♥ completed the board and Li checked a third time. Mateos took a moment before tossing out a bet of 1,700 and Li quickly called. Mateos rolled over A♠5♠ for rivered trip aces and took down the pot when Li mucked his hand.
When the action was caught there were already 16,800 chips in the middle, for a pot of more than 80 big blinds. Felipe Ketzer was in the small blind and bet another 4,000 on the A♠7♠3♦9♠ board. His opponent was Alexandros Kolonias and he made the call.
Ketzer then opted to check the 4♥ river and Kolonias quickly checked behind. Ketzer was trying to set a trap on the river, as he showed A♦A♥ for flopped top set. It would be hard for Kolonias to beat this, and indeed he did not, as he mucked his cards.
There were 4,000 chips in the middle in a pot between Julien Sitbon and Pablo Silva. The board read 8♠Q♥6♣Q♦ and Sitbon check-called a 2,000 bet from Silva, who was sitting in the cutoff.
The river 3♣ was checked quickly by both players and Sitbon tabled 6♠5♠ for a pair of sixes along with the pair of queens on the board. Silva had that beat, however, as he tabled his K♦K♠ for an early pocket kings.
Another staple event of the 2023 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® is set to kick off today at 12.30 p.m. local time. The players with a larger bankroll will gather at the beautiful Sporting Monte Carlo for Event #42: €25,000 EPT High Roller.
The event will run for three days and a winner will be crowned on the final day of the festival, Saturday, May 6th. All players will have the option for a single reentry, with late registration closing at the start of Day 2.
Everyone will start with a stack of 50,000 chips, which is good for 250 big blinds in Level 1 and 2, where blinds will be 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante. Day 1 will play through ten levels of 60 minutes each, with a 20-minute break scheduled after every two levels. After level six that break will be 75 minutes instead, to allow the players to go and have dinner.
Level
Duration
Small Blind
Big Blind
Big Blind Ante
1
60 min
100
200
200
2
60 min
100
200
200
20 min break
3
60 min
100
300
300
4
60 min
100
300
300
20 min break
5
60 min
200
400
400
6
60 min
200
500
500
75 min dinner break
7
60 min
300
600
600
8
60 min
400
800
800
20 min break
9
60 min
500
1,000
1,000
10
60 min
600
1,200
1,200
Gianluca Speranza is the defending champion in this event, besting a field of 179 entries to win €853,000 during EPT Monte Carlo 2022. He defeated a strong final table line-up that included Bruno Lopes, Dimitar Danchev, and Steve O’Dwyer. All of these players have already been spotted in the tournament halls this year, and they are expected to make another attempt at coming out on top in the €25,000 buy-in this year.
Gianluca Speranza after his 2022 €25,000 EPT High Roller win
Players who already forked over €25,000 at the registration desk and are confirmed to compete include Tom-Aksel Bedell, Harry Lodge, Julien Sitbon, and Felipe Ketzer, whose latest recorded tournament result is a second place in a €25,000 buy-in during EPT Paris for €232,800. Of course, many more household names are expected to appear throughout Day 1 and at the start of Day 2.
PokerNews will be providing the live report from hand one to the final one, so be sure to tune in today to not miss any of the High Roller action.
