Renat Bohdanov was out of position in a heads-up pot against Ramon Colillas with the board reading 6♥3♥6♦Q♥J♠.
With an array of chips already in the middle, Colillas bet a sizable 50,000 and Bohdanov went in the tank before calling. Colillas tabled A♠10♠ for just ace-high, Bohdanov showed J♥7♥ for a flush.
In a heads-up pot with just over 50,000 in the middle on a completed board showing 8♦6♦5♦2♦A♠, Danielle Noja bet 18,000 from the hijack and Aleksejs Ponakovs moved all in for 120,000 next to act. Noja went deep in the tank, contemplating for several minutes.
"Sorry guys I don't usually take this long," said Noja as he was deep in thought.
After close to three minutes, Noja reluctantly let his cards go and the pot was sent to Ponakovs.
"Pick a card," said Ponakovs to Noja who gladly accepted and picked the card nearest to him. Ponakovs rolled over the A♦ and Noja was relieved to have picked the card confirming he made a good fold.
On the last hand of the level at the feature table, picking up the action on a flop of 5♠4♠5♥ and a pot of about 50,000:
Artur Martirosian checked from the cutoff to Andriy Lyubovetskiy on the button, who took his time to bet 25,000. Martirosian called to see the 3♠ on the turn. This time he opted to lead out for 20,000, which Lyubovetskiy called.
The river brought the 2♣ and Martirosian jammed for 266,750, having Lyubovetskiy well covered. Lyubovetskiy took an extended visit to the tank, apologizing to the table for taking so long, before committing his last 96,500 to the pot and revealing A♦A♣ for a wheel.
Martirosian rolled over 2♠2♦ for rivered deuces-full to take the pot, sending Lyubovetskiy to the rail just before the break. With that pot, Martirosian joined those at the top of the leaderboard.
Picking up the action on the turn, Aliaksandr Shylko and Yiannis Liperis were involved in a hand with a little less than 30,000 in the middle. The board read 7♠6♦5♦4♣ and Shylko led out with a bet of 7,000 from the big blind. Liperis raised to 27,000 and Shylko clicked it back to 64,000 which Liperis called.
The 6♠ paired the board on the river and Shylko pushed out a bet of 90,500, leaving just a single big blind behind. Liperis dipped into the tank and eventually, the clock was called. As time was running out, Liperis stuck in a call and Shylko turned over 9♣8♥ for the nut straight to scoop the pot.
Manig Loeser was out of position in a heads-up pot against Christopher Puetz on a flop of Q♦J♥10♣.
Loeser checked and Puetz bet 4,500. Loeser check-raised to 14,500 and Puetz in turn three-bet jammed a stack of around 70,000. Loeser asked for a count and then called with a bigger stack.
Christopher Puetz: K♥K♣
Manig Loeser: 9♠8♥
Loeser was ahead with a flopped straight and the runout of K♦8♣ confirmed Puetz' elimination to earn the 2019 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event champion the pot.
Axel Hallay limped in from the cutoff and Aylar Lie shoved all in for 21,000 in the small blind. Mark Teltscher reshoved all in from the big blind and Hallay stepped aside.
Aylar Lie: A♦J♣
Mark Teltscher: Q♥Q♣
The board ran out 7♦2♠2♥J♦5♠ and Lie's pair of jacks was not enough to overcome the pocket queens of Teltscher.
The final numbers are in for the €5,300 EPT Main Event and show a total of 1,098 players, including re-entries, tying the entry record set in 2016 when the Main Event was run as a freezeout. While it wasn't the biggest EPT Monte Carlo Main Event in terms of unique entries, there's still plenty to celebrate.
This year, there were 775 unique entries representing a total of 63 countries from Belarus to Tunisia to South Korea. As anticipated, France is the most represented country this year with 152 players making up 19.61% of unique entries. The next most represented country is the neighboring Italy with 74 players for about a tenth of the field.
All other countries make up a single-digit percentage of the massive field, among them the United Kingdom (42 players - 5.42%), Spain (37 players - 4.77%), Germany (35 players - 4.52%) and Romania (33 - 4.26%).
There is also some North and South American representation here in Monaco, including Canada (23 players - 2.97%), the United States (23 players - 2.97%) and Brazil (16 players - 2.06%).
Other nations represented include Middle Eastern countries Israel (13 players - 1.68%), Lebanon (nine players - 1.16%) and Iran (seven players - 0.90%) and Asian countries Japan (21 players - 2.71%), Hong Kong (8 players - 1.03%) and China (three players - 0.39%).
The full stat breakdown for the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event is available in the table below.
Picking up the action on the turn, the board read J♦10♦3♣6♣ and [Removed:428] was heads-up with Magnus Carlsen. Maloku checked to Carlsen who bet 12,000 and Maloku check-raised all in. Carlsen called off his stack of 35,500 and the cards were tabled.
Magnus Carlsen: 6♠6♦
[Removed:428]: AxAx
Carlsen turned a set of sixes to outdraw the pocket aces of Maloku. The river was the 4♣ and Carlsen scored himself a double-up.
The €5,300 EPT Main Event attracted a total of 1,098 entries to create a prizepool of €5,325,300 with the winner taking home €890,000 and the pretigious EPT trophy. The top 159 will make a minimum cash of €8,700. A full list of payouts are down below.