Morten Hvam Leads 187 Surviving Players From Day 1b of the EPT Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event
Day 1b of the EPT Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event has come to an end and a total of 1,049 runners have turned out to the Monte Carlo Sporting Complex over two opening flights for the flagship event of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) presented by Monte-Carlo Casino®.
Tuesday's second flight drew 418 runners, which combined with the 631 on Day 1b to bring the total near that of the record EPT Monte Carlo Main Event turnout of 1,098 set in 2016. A total of 307 will return for Day 2 with registration still open until cards go in the air, and the action will be streamed live on PokerStars TV. The field has generated a prize pool of €5,087,650 after the two opening flights.
Morten Hvam of Denmark is the chip leader after 10 levels of play and he will return for Day 2 with 327,500. Among the other big stacks is PokerStars ambassador Rafael Moraes, as well as Boris Kuzmanovic, Didrik Mantor, Gangzhou Hu, Rocco Palumbo, Claudio Di Giacomo, and Daniel Rezaei.
Also returning for Day 2 is PokerStars ambassador Andre Akkari, Patrik Antonius, and bracelet winners Davidi Kitai, Alexandros Kolonias, and Jason Wheeler.
2022 EPT Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chips | Day 2 Big Blinds |
| 1 | Morten Hvam | Denmark | 327,500 | 218 |
| 2 | Gangzhou Hu | France | 272,000 | 181 |
| 3 | Boris Kuzmanovic | Croatia | 259,500 | 173 |
| 4 | Didrik Mantor | Norway | 232,500 | 155 |
| 5 | Claudio Di Giacomo | Italy | 231,000 | 154 |
| 6 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 230,500 | 154 |
| 7 | Rocco Palumbo | Italy | 226,000 | 151 |
| 8 | Jonathon Genovese | United Kingdom | 211,000 | 141 |
| 9 | Ferenc Deak | Hungary | 203,500 | 136 |
| 10 | Nicolas Vayssieres | France | 203,500 | 136 |
Day 1b Highlights
2019 WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan was knocked out in the early stages of Day 1b after he fell behind and found the opportunity to get his short stack in with king-queen, but he ran into the pocket queens of Akan Kaya and couldn’t improve to stay in the tournament.
Elsewhere, Gianluca Speranza’s day came to an early end when he fell behind in the opening levels and got his short stack in with ace-jack, only to run into the pocket kings of Sebastian Gahl. Belarmino De Souza also met the same fate in the middle levels of the day when Eugenio Peralta doubled through him with pocket eights and Boris Kolev took the rest of his remaining stack a few moments later with ace-jack.
March’s EPT Prague Main Event champion Grzegorz Glowny made his bid for a second straight title on the circuit, but the Poland-native couldn’t gain any momentum and his day came to an end in Level 8 when his king-queen couldn’t improve against the ace-king of Michael Chetrit.
Tamon Nakamura bounced back after hitting the rail on Day 1a to make a run deep into Day 1b. He picked up chips near the end of the evening when he sniffed out Ermanno Di Nicola’s bluff and called with ace-king high. Nakamura bagged 136,000 and he will return on Day 2 for a chance to spin it up.
Ferenc Deak sits among the big stacks at the end of the day, but he fell behind early and was nearly out before he got a shove through to start moving in the right direction. Despite surrendering a double a short time later to Ricardo Graells, Deak continued the momentum throughout the day and he bagged 203,500 to advance to Day 2.
Day 2 on Wednesday
The surviving players from the two opening flights will return on Wednesday at Noon local time to play Day 2. Action will pick up in Level 11 with blinds at 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante and the plan is to play six levels before the remaining players bag up and return on Thursday for Day 3.
Day 2 will also kick off the streaming coverage of the Main Event, with James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton covering the action on PokerStars TV with special guests throughout the rest of the tournament. The livestream will start shortly after cards go in the air and play will be broadcast on a 30-minute security delay.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team throughout the rest of the week for the latest live updates from the floor of the EPT Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event.
flop. Cassio Pisapia De Almeida Kiles bet 7,000 out of the blinds only for Gangzhou Hu to raise to 22,300. The Brazilian moved all-in and Hu beat him into the pot.
turn confirmed his departure, making the 
river a formality.
, Nouira hit the superior flush and sent Lewis to the rail.
river, Ermanno Di Nicola bet 11,000 into a pot of more than two times of that while in the small blind. Tamon Nakamura was in the tank in the big blind and eventually settled on the call by flicking in the required chips.
for a bluff. Nakamura had also missed the board with his 
flop left Rodrigues in desperate shape and it was all over on the 
, the chips trickled in between Dimitri Joubert and Aliaksandr Hirs with the former betting the river for 12,500. Hirs then pushed all-in with the slightly superior stack and Joubert called it off.
for jacks full and Joubert flashed pocket queens. Both stacks were counted and Joubert was covered to hit the rail in the final hand before the break.
on the board when Sandro Pitzanti checked from the small blind and Damien Pilkington-Lewis bet 2,100 from the big blind. A player in middle position called and Pitzanti shoved for around 12,000. Pilkington-Lewis called and the player in middle position folded. Action was heads-up and Pitzanti was at risk. 
flop, Hayato Kitajima bet 5,200 in the small blind. Dinesh Alt eventually raise to 15,000 in the big blind and that forced a fold from Noah Novick. Kitajima moverd all-in for little more and Alt called.
turn instantly improved Alt to the superior pair and the 
river was a blank, sending Kitajima to the buy-in desk in order to re-enter.
for a pair of sixes, which his opponent had beat with the 
