Eduard Simonyan Tops Field as 63 Players Make it Through Day 1b
Day 1b, the final starting flight of the €2,200 PokerStars France Poker Series High Roller, has now concluded. Running as part of the 2024 European Poker Tour at Sporting Monte-Carlo, the flight attracted 422 entries and, of those, 63 players made it through to Day 2.
They will join successful entrants from Day 1a to make for a total of 181 players who bagged and tagged for Day 2 and will return to play for their share of the €2,336,640 prize pool.
Eduard Simonyan of Armenia claimed the Day 1b chip lead, bagging 670,000. Vladimir Heinich of France finished in second place with 663,000 chips, and Paul Runcan of Romania took third with 595,000.
However, the overall chip leader going into Day 2 is Kamel Marzouk, who finished Day 1a with 710,000 chips.
End of Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eduard Simonyan | Armenia | 670,000 | 134 |
| 2 | Vladimir Heinich | France | 663,000 | 133 |
| 3 | Paul Runcan | Romania | 595,000 | 119 |
| 4 | Carlos Ribeiro | Brazil | 430,000 | 86 |
| 5 | Bernat Capdevila Montes | Spain | 408,000 | 82 |
| 6 | Omar Lakhdari | Algeria | 400,000 | 80 |
| 7 | Paul Lagan | Ireland | 380,000 | 76 |
| 8 | Jamil Wakil | Canada | 350,000 | 70 |
| 9 | Dimitrios Asgoudakis | Greece | 349,000 | 70 |
| 10 | Vladas Tamasauskas | Lithuania | 347,000 | 69 |
Other notables who bagged and tagged outside of the top ten include Andrew Hulme (216,000), Dominik Nitsche (158,000), Julien Sitbon (142,000) and Simeon Spasov (91,000).
Day 2 begins at noon on Sunday, April 28th and is set to play down to a winner. Play will resume at Level 16 with blinds on 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante.
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