Ole Schemion Bursts the Bubble and Tops 102 Survivors on Day 1b
The 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour (EPT) is off to a great start for German superstar Ole Schemion, who hasn't been traveling as much on the international poker circuit in the last few years, but still showcases his talents whenever he shows up and takes a seat at the poker tables.
Schemion already finished 7th in the €10,000 Single Re-Entry Event for €33,270 and topped the 679-entry strong field in the second starting day of the €1,100 French National Championship at The Sporting Monte-Carlo.
After a lengthy bubble period in the early morning hours, it was the German who now resides in Vienna that made sure the top 15% and final 102 players were reached. Schemion raised first to act with aces and Balazs Biri jammed in the big blind for more than 25 big blinds with queen-nine to become the Day 1b bubble boy. Schemion bagged up 782,000 to claim the overall lead for Day 2 and narrowly edged past Catalan Josep Maria Galindo Lopez, who advanced with 770,000.
Several other players burst through half a million in chips such as WSOP APAC bracelet winner Sam Higgs (631,000), Dennis Schienagel (620,000), Mikhail Soltanov (600,000), Artur Martirosian (584,000), Bruno Volkmann (548,000), Luca Famea (520,000) and Davor Lanini (513,000).
Higgs decided on short notice to make the trip from Dubai to Monte-Carlo with his fellow countryman Michael O'Grady, and bagged the third-biggest stack on Day 1b. Martirosian was one of the players that survived an all in on the bubble when his flip with ace-king suited against the pocket queens of David Splettstoesser provided an ace on the board.
Other notables and big stacks that advanced include Denis Timofeev (438,000), Paul-Francois Tedeschi (328,000), Benny Glaser (237,000), Norbert Szecsi (221,000), Jack Sinclair (214,000), former French football professional Jimmy Kebe (166,000), Erwann Pecheux (148,000), Sonny Franco (46,000) and Gaelle Baumann (24,000).
For the red spade, the second of three flights was an unfortunate affair, as Maria Konnikova, Kalidou Sow, Ramon Colillas, Celina Lin and Fatima Moreira De Melo all ran out of chips much earlier than they had hoped for. Defending champion Guillaume Diaz also failed to make it through, he never recovered from paying off the top set of aces of Bruno Caron and bowed out without being able to lift the trophy once more in Monte-Carlo.
The story of the day would have very likely been Frenchman Philippe Le Touche, who had already amassed six starting stacks by the end of level three. Le Touche would soar up to more than 620,000 with the elimination of Lucas Sfez in level 12, however, just three levels later he had distributed his monster stack evenly on the table and headed out of the tournament area.
Many other notables were sent to the rail without anything to show for such as Yan Li, Anson Tsang, Darie Vlad, Pierre Calamusa, Michael Wang, Remi Castaignon, Jan Bendik, Marton Czuczor, Davidi Kitai, Antoine Saout, Maria Ho, Kristen Bicknell, and Nick Pupillo. Bicknell lost a flip with jacks against the ace-king suited of Jack Sinclair and Wang jammed at the wrong time with ten-nine against the ace-king of Artur Martirosian.
All 102 Day 1b survivors will join the 53 players that bagged up the previous night and the 59 survivors in the final flight as of 12 p.m. local time. Day 1a finished with 12:12 minutes left in level 16 at blinds of 2,000-5,000 with a big blind ante of 5,000 and that's where the action resumes for all players on Day 2, and the payout structure will be announced before the cards go back in the air.
Make sure to tune back in then, as the PokerNews live reporting team will provide continued updates from the floor until a champion is crowned.