Nível: 16
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 1,000
Nível: 16
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 1,000
Pablo Melogno Cabrera put in 80,000 from the small blind on a flop, putting Roman Emelyanov at risk. Emelyanov, who was under the gun, called it off immediately with . Cabrera had , and his rags didn't turn to riches as running deuces hit the board.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Roman Emelyanov |
219,500
188,300
|
188,300 |
Pablo Melogno |
113,000
-54,500
|
-54,500 |
This year's 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final €25,500 High Roller attracted 215 total entries, with 162 of those being unique entries, and then 53 reentries. That's quite the plump field for an event priced at €25,500 per entry, and it generated a prize pool of €5,267,500.
Just how big is this event, though?
In term of total entries in the field, in order to be ranked in the top 10 largest events with a buy-in of $25,000 or €25,000, one would have to have a field of 214 or more. Last year's EPT Grand Final High Roller attracted 214 total entries and was the event of this buy-in with the 10th-largest field size in history.
Now that this year's field topped last year's by one, it's the new standard to break into the top 10, as seen in the table below.
Rank | Event | Entries | Winner | Prize Pool | First-Place Prize |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2007 WPT World Championship | 639 | Carlos Mortensen | $15,495,750 | $3,970,415 |
2 | 2006 WPT World Championship | 605 | Joe Bartholdi | $14,671,250 | $3,760,165 |
3 | 2008 WPT World Championship | 545 | David Chiu | $13,216,250 | $3,389,140 |
4 | 2005 WPT World Championship | 453 | Tuan Le | $10,961,000 | $2,856,150 |
5 | 2004 WPT World Championship | 343 | Martin De Knijff | $8,342,000 | $2,728,356 |
6 | 2009 WPT World Championship | 338 | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | $8,172,250 | $2,143,655 |
7 | 2015 PCA High Roller | 269 | Ilkin Garibli | $6,456,000 | $1,294,460 |
8 | 2014 PCA High Roller | 247 | Jake Schindler | $6,051,500 | $1,279,880 |
9 | 2011 WPT World Championship | 220 | Scott Seiver | $5,309,500 | $1,618,344 |
10 | 2015 EPT Grand Final High Roller | 215 | --TBD-- | €5,267,500 | €1,114,000 |
With the Euro being valued higher than the U.S. Dollar, the prize pool for the €25,500 High Roller at the EPT Grand Final is usually always a bit higher than the $25,500 High Roller held at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure each January. But, the event in January tends to get a larger field.
As previously written in Four Exciting Things To Watch For at the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monaco, "The EPT Grand Final €25,500 High Roller and the PCA $25,500 High Roller are very similar in field-size history. This year will be the seventh installment of the EPT Grand Final €25,500 High Roller, and the PCA $25,500 High Roller had its seventh installment earlier this year in January. Minus one down year for each event, the fields sizes have gotten larger each edition."
Adding in the field from this year's EPT Grand Final High Roller, the following table looks at the two events side by side.
Year | PCA $25K Entries | % Change | EPT GF €25K Entries | % Change |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | 48 | -- | 79 | -- |
2010 | 84 | +75% | 113 | +43% |
2011 | 151 | +79.8% | 58 | -48.7% |
2012 | 148 | -2% | 133 | +129.3% |
2013 | 204 | +37.8% | 158 | +18.8% |
2014 | 247 | +21.1% | 214 | +35.4% |
2015 | 269 | +8.9% | 215 | +0.47% |
Average | +36.8% | +29.7% |
The one decline in the EPT Grand Final High Roller field was mainly due to the event being held in a different location. In 2011, the event was held in Madrid, and the turnout suffered because of it. Other years, it has been held in Monte Carlo. The PCA High Roller and the EPT Grand Final High Roller when held in Monte Carlo have seen increases in the field size each year. That's an extremely positive trend for events of this buy-in size, and we wanted to find out a little more as to why they're always so successful.
"I think super high roller events continue to grow for two reasons," stated Chad Holloway, managing editor at PokerNews. "First, both high-stakes players and wealthy amateurs don't want to grind weeklong tournaments, which is the length of many of today's premiere main events. They'd rather play for three days or less for a chance at a seven-figure score. Second, super high roller events are the new standard in prestige. It's there that you're guaranteed the highest level of play against the best players in the world. That's appealing."
As a regular member of the media at these tournaments, Holloway makes some very good points. Another regular at these stops is EPT tournament supervisor Luca Vivaldi. Like Holloway, we also talked to Vivaldi about the success of these events to see what he thought.
"I think the players kind of know that it's going to be a big number in these events, so they tend to come and play these tournaments," Vivaldi said. "Maybe they save some buy-ins from other tournaments because they know how big these fields are going to be. That's the most simple reason that I can give you. Everybody seems to like the structure as a three-day event and it attracts a lot of players."
After speaking to a member of the media and a tournament official, we also wanted to get the view from a player's perspective. For that, we caught up with Matt Waxman, who happens to be building quite a contending stack in this event.
"With these events in particular, it's because of PokerStars," Waxman said. "When they have their own tour, they're able to facilitate all of the high-stakes players very well so that they can just use their online accounts to come to these events and buy in. That's very convenient. Not to mention the destinations are nice, too. You get to go to the Bahamas, which is pretty nice for vacation, and Monaco is very nice as well."
Big fields, large payouts, player-friendly structures, elite competition, and impressive locations all seem to play a hand in making these events as successful as they are. In a poker world where tournament field size numbers can jump around like an electrocardiogram, it's refreshing to see a healthy, positive trend in the realm of these high-stakes events.
Martin Jacobson's momentum continues to build.
The defending Main Event champ called a bet of about 25,000 on a flop from Daniel Negreanu. Bryn Kenney folded from the button, and Christoph Vogelsang, who had checked in the big blind, followed suit. Negreanu piled in his stack of 134,500 on the turn, and Jacobson thought briefly and called with . Negreanu was crushed: .
"That was the one hand I was trying to get you off," Negreanu said with a laugh.
The river didn't save Negreanu, and the Team PokerStars pro bowed out while the world champ has heaps now.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Martin Jacobson |
542,500
399,300
|
399,300 |
|
||
Daniel Negreanu | Eliminado | |
|
There's been a flurry of eliminations here in Level 16. Here are some players that are no longer with us as the money bubble approaches.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Connor Drinan | Eliminado | |
Fabian Quoss | Eliminado | |
Mike Watson | Eliminado | |
|
||
Joao Vieira | Eliminado | |
|
||
Rhys Jones | Eliminado | |
Mark Teltscher | Eliminado | |
|
||
Yevgeniy Timoshenko | Eliminado | |
Sergio Aido | Eliminado | |
|
Faraz Jaka shoved his last 59,500 from early position only to have Dan Smith three-bet all in over the top for 178,000. Action folded to last year's runner-up, Scott Seiver, and he four-bet all in from the small blind. The big got out of the way, and Seiver had both players at risk.
Seiver:
Smith:
Jaka:
Jaka had the best hand going in, while Seiver was ahead in the side pot. Both players maintained their positions through the flop and turn, but then the spiked on the river.
Seiver slammed down some chips in frustration as Smith spiked his out to win both pots. The river card also eliminated Jaka from the tournament.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Dan Smith |
415,000
106,000
|
106,000 |
|
||
Scott Seiver |
185,000
-80,000
|
-80,000 |
|
||
Faraz Jaka | Eliminado |
Dario Sammartino collected all of Quan Zhou's chips when the latter got it in with and failed to improve, with Sammartino hitting a set of jacks and filling up on the river on the board.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Dario Sammartino |
550,000
312,000
|
312,000 |
|
||
Quan Zhou | Eliminado |
Artem Metalidi three-bet to 35,000 from the cutoff over a Christoph Vogelsang open, and Martin Jacobson barreled out with a cold four-bet to about 85,000 from the blinds. Vogelsang wanted no part of things, and Metalidi shoved in for about 240,000. Jacobson quickly called.
Jacobson:
Metalidi:
Metalidi was in a bad spot with two outs, and the board ran out .
"Nice table change for you," Bryn Kenney laughed, referring to the fact that Jacobson had come to the table with around 100,000 and was now sitting with nearly nine times that.
With Metalidi's elimination, the tournament is on the bubble.
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Martin Jacobson |
885,000
342,500
|
342,500 |
|
||
Artem Metalidi | Eliminado |
Jogador | Fichas | Oscilação |
---|---|---|
Imad Derwiche |
475,000
147,000
|
147,000 |
Steve O'Dwyer |
340,000
88,000
|
88,000 |
|
||
Yingui Li |
335,000
70,000
|
70,000 |
|
||
Simon Appleby |
300,000
186,700
|
186,700 |
Pablo Melogno |
275,000
162,000
|
162,000 |
Roman Emelyanov |
250,000
30,500
|
30,500 |
Ramin Hajiyev |
220,000
167,500
|
167,500 |
Walid Bou Habib |
200,000
105,000
|
105,000 |
Mikita Badziakouski |
115,000
40,000
|
40,000 |
Georgios Sotiropoulos |
100,000
-100,000
|
-100,000 |
|
||
Piotr Franczak |
75,000
-165,000
|
-165,000 |
Nicola D'Anselmo |
60,000
-101,600
|
-101,600 |
We’re not saying Scott Seiver is a high roller specialist but… actually we are and he’s poised for a remarkable Monaco high roller hat-trick. Read all about it in the PokerStars Blog.