Day 1b of the €5,300 Main Event has reached a conclusion here at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo hosted at Sporting Monte-Carlo after ten hour-long levels of play.
The second of two starting flights attracted 739 entrants of which 239 players managed to find a bag by the end of the night. That brings the number of entrants so far to 1,132 between both flights, with 358 players advancing to Day 2, surpassing last year's Main Event which had 1,098 entrants. The prize pool currently stands at a staggering €5,572,650 and that number will continue to grow as late registration remains open until the start of Day 2 tomorrow.
By the end of the night Philipp Wenzelburger of Germany held the biggest chip stack in the room, finishing with 283,500, worth 189 big blinds going into Day 2. Wenzelburger is most closely followed by Kayhan Mokri (253,000) and Birger Ohl (229,000).
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philipp Wenzelburger | Germany | 283,500 | 189 |
| 2 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 253,000 | 169 |
| 3 | Birger Ohl | Germany | 229,000 | 153 |
| 4 | Selahaddin Bedir | Turkey | 223,000 | 149 |
| 5 | Aram Sargsyan | Armenia | 222,500 | 148 |
| 6 | Guillermo Gordo | Spain | 222,500 | 148 |
| 7 | Sergey Lebedev | Russia | 215,500 | 144 |
| 8 | Jamel Hassani | France | 200,000 | 133 |
| 9 | Sylvain Loosli | France | 198,000 | 132 |
| 10 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | 195,500 | 130 |
Other notables to bag big by the end of the second starting flight include PokerStars Ambassadors Felix Schneiders (115,500), Simon Wiciak (79,000) and Andre Akkari (22,500) as well as Roman Hrabec (166,000), Ana Marquez (163,000), Mustapha Kanit (130,500) and Ankit Ahuja (103,500).
Further down the leaderboard are Nikita Luther (95,500), Marle Spragg (95,000), Daniel Dvoress (92,000), Arsenii Karmatckii (76,000), Joao Vieira (66,000), David Yan (52,500), defending champion Mike Watson (47,000) and Benny Glaser (37,000).
Some familiar faces who entered Day 1b but fell before the end of the night include PokerStars Ambassadors Benjamin Spragg, Jen Shahade, Ramon Colillas, Fintan Hand, Parker Talbot, Sebastian Huber and Maria Konnikova. Nacho Barbero, Jon Kyte, Ian Hamilton, Olga Iermolcheva and Dimitar Danchev also couldn't find a bag.
Day 1a and Day 1b survivors will combine on Tuesday, April 30th at noon local time for Day 2. Action will resume at Level 11 with blinds at 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 big blind ante.
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for our continuing coverage of the Main Event.
