2022 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo

With 55 players out of 371 entries surviving Day 1a of the €1,100 FPS Main Event here at the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino, the long day has come to an end after 14 hours.

Claiming the Day 1a chip lead is Alexander Tkatschew with 650,000 in his bag for Day 2 on Saturday, April 30 at noon local time.

Tkatschew was near the top of the leaderboard throughout much of the day but he really extended his lead in the last hour of the night when he eliminated PokerStars Team Pro Ramon Colillas. After that, it was put in cruise control for Tkatschew who had no problems navigating the money bubble.

Some other notable stacks moving on to Day 2 include Giulio Astarita (524,000), Alessandro Adinolfo (427,000), and Florian Decamps (417,000), as the only players with over 400,000 chips. A few names to recognize that have locked up at least a min-cash are Andrea Rocci (351,000), Bryan Paris (325,000), Jason Wheeler (270,000), Leo Margets (125,000), and Julien Sitbon (56,000).

FPS €1,100 Main Event Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts

Day 1b is currently still playing in the midst of level 13 with 80 players remaining out of 272 total entries. That field will be playing down to the final 41 players before the action is complete at Monte Carlo Sporting for the day. Day 1c will take place at 12 p.m. noon tomorrow with 40-minute levels and Day 1d will begin at 6 p.m. local time and be played as a turbo format with 20-minute levels.

All players bagging chips will return on April 30 for Day 2 and the levels will be increased to 60 minutes throughout. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor to bring you all of the updates throughout the remaining flights on the way to crowning a champion.

Tomas Jozonis opened to 13,000 in early position and Antoine Labat jammed all in for 150,000 in the cutoff. Kacper Swiderski re-shoved all in for 220,000 in the big blind which got Jozonis to quickly muck.

Antoine Labat:
Kacper Swiderski:

The action completed at the other tables and the dealer fanned the flop of . The on the turn gave Swiderski a set of kings which meant Labat was drawing dead to the on the river.

The remaining 55 players will now bag their chips as they have reached the money and will return for Day 2 on April 30. Full chip counts and a recap of the day's action will be soon to follow.

Laurent Vauquelin opened to 16,000 from under the gun and Sylvain Mazza just flat-called from a couple of seats over. Marco Regonaschi also came along from the hijack as the three players saw a flop of .

Vauquelin checked and Mazza tossed in a bet of 14,000. Regonaschi raised to 43,000 which got Vauquelin to fold. Mazza jammed all in for 64,000 and Regonaschi quickly called.

When the action at the other tables was complete, Mazza showed his but had to fade the clubs as Regonaschi held . The turn was the and the river was the , giving Mazza a full double up.

With the recent eliminations, the tournament is now down to just 56 players, one player away from bagging for the night. Thus, the tournament has begun the hand-for-hand portion on the money bubble.

After losing a recent pot to Antoine Sabat, Lucas Scafini lost the majority of his chips to Tomas Jozonis and was left with just a couple of big blinds. Jozonis raised from middle position and was called by Olivier Murrachioli on his left and Scafini was all in from the big blind.

The flop came and Jozonis led out with a bet of 12,000. Murrachioli called which created a side between the two players. The turn was the and Jozonis fired out another bet of 40,000. Murrachioli still called and the completed the board.

Jozonis counted out another bet of 40,000 and Murrachioli instantly called again. Jozonis showed but Murrachioli flopped a set of nines with . Scafini was unable to beat either hand as he was eliminated near the bubble.

At another table, Fabien Motte was all-in with for around 45,000 and was called by Laurent Vauquelin who turned over . The board ran out and Motte was also eliminated.

The remaining 59 players are going on their last 15-minute break of the night. When they return, they will be just four eliminations away from the conclusion of Day 1a.