Ben Heath opened to 6,000 from under the gun and Michel Dattani put in a three-bet to 18,000 from middle position. The rest of the table got out of the way and Heath announced all in, well covering the 94,000 total for Dattani, who quickly called for his tournament life.
Michel Dattani: 10♦10♣
Ben Heath: Q♣Q♥
Dattani was in need of help to stay alive, and when the board ran out K♦K♥2♠2♦7♥, it was the queens for Heath that held up to send Dattani to the exit.
Patrik Antonius raised his button to 7,000 before Pablo Silva three-bet to 20,000 from the big blind. Antonius then put his opponent all-in by putting enough chips in the middle to cover his stack of roughly 100,000. Silva snap called and the two showed down.
Pablo Silva: K♣K♠
Patrik Antonius: A♣10♠
Silva was in good shape for a double-up, but the A♦4♥3♥ saw him drawing to two direct outs. No king or chop came about as a pair of sixes completed the board: 6♦6♠.
Antonius added another 100,000 to his tower of chips while Silva took his leave with 8 tables remaining.
Mikita Badziakouski was already sitting among the chip leaders when he made the raise to 5,000 from under the gun. Adrian Mateos was in the cutoff and three-bet to 15,000. Badziakouski matched the bet and a flop was dealt.
The 9♦J♥10♥ would be the last cards dealt this hand, as Badziakouski check-raised Mateos' 12,500 continuation-bet to 40,000. Mateos quickly folded and Badziakouski added even more chips to his stack, solidifying his position among the top.
Patrick Bruel and Sam Grafton had arrived on the flop when the action was caught. With 20,000 in the middle, Bruel bet 5,500 into the 20,000 pot from under the gun. Grafton was in the cutoff and made a raise to 16,000. Bruel thought for a bit but called within his allotted time.
On the 2♠ turn Grafton downsized a bit to 15,500, but the smaller bet still made Bruel opt to check-fold his hand. Grafton has not had the hottest of starts on Day 2, but he won some chips back with this pot to put himself over the 200,000 mark again.
Steve O'Dwyer opened to 4,500 from the button before Dimitar Danchev made it 19,000 to go from the big blind. O'Dwyer paid the extra 14,500 and a flop was dealt.
Q♦8♣J♦ was spread across the table and Danchev continued betting by putting 11,000 chips in the middle. O'Dwyer was not ready to abandon the hand yet and he called for the same amount.
Danchev slowed down on the 9♥ turn and checked to O'Dwyer. O'Dwyer chose to take over the betting lead and fired 23,000. A quick fold from Danchev followed, putting O'Dwyer in the top echelons of the chip counts. He now plays over 300,000, more than double average.
Steve O'Dwyer raised from the button and Martin Jacobson three-bet to 18,500 from the big blind. O'Dwyer called and the flop was fanned out as A♠8♣10♦.
Jacobson fired a small continuation-bet of 7,500, which O'Dwyer swiftly called. The pair then checked the K♦ turn before Jacobson started up the aggression again on the 3♣ river. This time, he bet a more sizable 37,000.
O'Dwyer almost immediately folded and the 2014 WSOP Main Event Champion had doubled the 50,000 chips he started with today.
Daisuke Ogita was sitting in the big blind and only had 3,500 total chips. 2,000 of those were posted as the big blind when the action folded around to Jeremie Zouari in the small blind. He made the raise for the final bit of Ogita's stack and Ogita made the call.
Daisuke Ogita: 7♣5♥
Jeremie Zouari: 10♦9♥
Neither player made a pair or better on the A♥K♠A♣4♦3♦ runout and Zouari's ten-high remained the best hand. He won the smallest of pots to eliminate Ogita and is still sitting under the 50,000 he started today with.
A total of 211 entries joined the action to create a massive prizepool of €5,066,110 with the winner taking home €1,070,260. A full list of prizes is shown below.
Conor Beresford busted his first bullet on Day 1, but rejoined at the start of Day 2. He and Nikita Kuznetcov were battling over a 22,000 pot on a flop that read Q♦7♦8♦. Beresford fired out a bet of 4,000 from the button after a check from Kuznetcov. Kutznetcov made the call and a fourth diamond hit the turn in the shape of the 4♦.
Both players now checked and a 6♣ river was dealt. Kuznetcov checked once more, but Beresford fired in 22,500, leaving himself only 1,500 chips behind. Kutznetcov spent two time bank extensions before ultimately putting in the chips.
Beresford showed 10♣10♦ for the fourth-best flush and it had beaten Kuznetcov's holding, as his cards quickly joined the muck.
At 12:30 pm. local time, the €25,000 EPT High Roller kicks off Day 2 with late registration or reentry still possible until that moment. The 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®️ is coming to an end with two more days to play down but the action will be hot and heavy all day long. There were 183 entries collected on Day 1 and 95 of them made it nicely through to Day 2.
Argentina's Alejandro Lococo bagged one of the biggest stacks after the dust settled on Day 1 with an enormous stack of 361,500, good for 241 big blinds. Lococo will look to add to his already impressive poker resume with a deep run here.
Close on his tracks are high stakes regulars Juan Pardo (302,000), and Orpen Kisacikoglu (239,000) who finished in the top five.
Lithuania's Marius Kudzmanas bagged the chip lead with a stack of 364,000. Although Kudzmanas isn't a high roller regular, he will still be sure give the top name players a run for their money. Kudzmanas took down the EPT Monte Carlo €1,100 NLHE Freezeout for €42,590 in 2019 and finished runner-up in the €10,300 EPT Prague High Roller for €339,830 less than a year ago.
Top Ten Chip Counts from Day 1
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Marius Kudzmanas
Lithuania
364,000
243
2
Alejandro Lococo
Argentina
361,500
241
3
Juan Pardo
Spain
302,000
201
4
Romain Lewis
France
251,000
167
5
Orpen Kisacikoglu
Turkey
239,000
159
6
Ben Heath
United Kingdom
228,500
152
7
Sam Grafton
United Kingdom
223,000
149
8
Felipe Fontoura
Brazil
213,500
142
9
Dominykas Mikolaitis
Lithuania
212,500
142
10
Marton Czuczor
Hungary
206,000
137
Many of the top names in poker came out to the action on Day 1 and some who were fortunate enough to find a bag included PokerStars AmbassadorsSam Grafton (223,000), and Ramon Colillas (116,000), as well as high stakes regulars Isaac Haxton (94,500), Patrik Antonius (84,000), and this series' €1,100 FPS Main Event Champion Daisuke Ogita (67,500).
Sam Grafton
Action will resume in Sporting Monte Carlo, with another 10 levels of 60 minutes each scheduled to play. Level 11 will be the first level of the day which features a small blind of 1,000, a big blind of 1,500, and a big blind ante of 1,500.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the first flop till the final bag has been sealed for Day 3 so make sure to follow along.
