Joachim Haraldstad Leads 13 Into Day 5 of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event
Day 4 of the €5,300 Main Event has come to an end at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) presented by Monte-Carlo Casino® and Joachim Haraldstad leads the final 13 players into Friday’s penultimate Day 5.
Haraldstad has the lead after four 90-minute levels of play that took the field from 38 to its final 13. The flagship tournament of the series drew a total of 1,098 and generated a prize pool of €5,325,300.
Arunas Sapitavicius of Lithuania trails Haraldstad by more than one million chips and the United Kingdom’s [PLAYER="leo-worthington-leese"Leo Worthington-Leese[/PLAYER] is in third with 3,135,000. Leonard Maue and Jason Wheeler round out the top five chip stacks.
2023 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event Day 5 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 5 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joachim Haraldstad | Norway | 5,635,000 | 141 |
| 2 | Arunas Sapitavicius | Lithuania | 4,520,000 | 113 |
| 3 | Leo Worthington-Leese | United Kingdom | 3,135,000 | 78 |
| 4 | Leonard Maue | Germany | 2,920,000 | 73 |
| 5 | Jason Wheeler | United States | 2,815,000 | 70 |
| 6 | Maduka Meragal | Canada | 2,795,000 | 70 |
| 7 | Samy Boujmala | France | 2,275,000 | 57 |
| 8 | Mike Watson | Canada | 2,020,000 | 51 |
| 9 | Arnaud Enselme | France | 1,945,000 | 49 |
| 10 | Ori Hasson | Israel | 1,605,000 | 40 |
| 11 | Nicola Grieco | Italy | 1,455,000 | 36 |
| 12 | Kenan Taylor | United Kingdom | 1,135,000 | 28 |
| 13 | Oleg Vasylchenko | Ukraine | 750,000 | 19 |
Day 4 Highlights
The day started with a long list of notable players and former champions, including PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) champion Aliaksandr Shylko and PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas. Shylko was the first to go during the day's first level, and he bowed out in 36th for €19,850. Colillas was not far behind in 32nd when Sapitavicius made a straight to catch up to the Spaniard’s flopped pair of kings.
Other notables that started the day include 2016 PCA Main Event champion Mike Watson and 2021 EPT Sochi Main Event victor Artur Martirosian. Watson battled in the middle part of the leaderboard for most of the day, and will return with 2,020,000. The latter was up and down the tallies all day long, but he ran out of room near the end of the night when his pocket fours ran into Wheeler’s pocket nines. Martirosian hit the rail in 13th place, and he took home €45,900 for his trouble.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|
| 1 | €890,000 |
| 2 | €556,600 |
| 3 | €397,450 |
| 4 | €305,750 |
| 5 | €235,150 |
| 6 | €180,900 |
| 7 | €139,150 |
| 8 | €107,050 |
| 9 | €82,350 |
| 10-11 | €63,300 |
| 12-13 | €52,750 |
Day 3 chip leader Kenan Taylor bagged for Day 5, but not without some help. Taylor entered the day with the most chips, but he needed a double at the end of the night to keep his Main Event hopes alive. The trouble started when Arnaud Enselme picked off Taylor’s bluff in the early part of the day, and it continued when Andrew Hulme picked up a second pair on the river to beat Taylor’s pocket nines.
It got even worse, however, when Wheeler picked up an ace on the turn to beat Taylor’s pocket fours and send him to the bottom of the leaderboard. A late respite came in the form of a double through Oleg Vasylchenko to live to see Day 5.
Other notables that made it to Day 4 but did not bag include Renat Bohdanov, Pedro Neves, Alexandre Landron, and Day 2 chip leader Markkos Ladev.
Players will return on Friday at 12 p.m. local time to play Day 5. Blinds will resume in Level 25 at 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante. Day 5 is the penultimate day, and a winner will be crowned at the end of Saturday’s Day 6. Stay tuned to the PokerStarsLIVE app for the most up-to-date tournament information.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the exciting final days of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event at Sporting Monte-Carlo in beautiful Monaco.