Masashi Oya Leads the Way into Day 3 of the €25,000 High Roller
The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo at Sporting Monte-Carlo continued today with an action-filled Day 2 of the €25,000 High Roller. Over the Day 1 flight yesterday, up until the conclusion of late registration this morning, a massive 247 entrants made up this prestigious high roller. After ten levels of play, only 24 found a bag for the Day 3 restart tomorrow morning.
A prize pool of €5,930,470 was generated ensuring the 24 finalists a payday of €58,700, but all eyes remain focused on the gold PokerStars shard and the first-place prize of €1,253,070.
As the dust settled, Masashi Oya bagged the overall chip lead, taking through an impressive total of 1,290,000 for tomorrow's finale. Oya is the first and only player to have eclipsed the one million chip mark.
Oya put on a clinical performance from start to finish, showing the poker world exactly why he deserves to play at the highest of stakes. Not afraid to collide in big pots with fellow chip leader Daniel Rezaei time and time again, Oya quickly solidified himself as one of the biggest stacks in the room, right from the word "go".
End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masashi Oya | Japan | 1,290,000 | 86 |
| 2 | Sergey Lebedev | United Kingdom | 965,000 | 64 |
| 3 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | 955,000 | 64 |
| 4 | Mauricio Sanchez | Colombia | 955,000 | 64 |
| 5 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 875,000 | 58 |
| 6 | Felipe Boianovsky | Brazil | 805,000 | 54 |
| 7 | Lander Lijo | Spain | 805,000 | 54 |
| 8 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 705,000 | 47 |
| 9 | Arsenii Karmatckii | Russia | 605,000 | 40 |
| 10 | Elias Gutierrez | Spain | 540,000 | 36 |
Team PokerStars:
The PokerStars team were out in force with a total of six ambassadors and Team Pro members alike taking to the felt this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for either Andre Akkari, Alejandro Lococo and Sam Grafton, who were all eliminated before the money. Grafton was eliminated in a particularly brutal fashion as his two pair fell short to the straight of Leon Sturm.
Though the campaign for PokerStars Team Pro to lift the trophy is far from over with Rafael Moraes (420,000), Ramon Colillas (315,000), and streamer Elias Gutierrez (540,000) all making the money and progressing to Day 3.
Bubble Time:
With a minimum cash of €51,000 on the line, a lengthy bubble was to be anticipated. However, no one could have predicted that the stone bubble would go on to last two and a half hours.
Eventual bubble boy Aliaksandr Shylko, who was left short after paying off Oya’s straight, was virtually forced all in blind for his remaining 3,000, ultimately falling short to the second pair of Shyngis Satubayev.
The remaining 24 players will return tomorrow, on Saturday May 4th, at 12:00 p.m. local time. Action will resume at Level 21 with blinds of 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 big blind ante.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for the coverage of this event from the moment cards are in the air until a winner is crowned tomorrow.