Hundreds left with nothing, while three left with some change and a good story to tell. That left just 154 players still with a dream following Day 2 of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo €5,300 Main Event.
Eros Calderone ended up as the chip leader with 667,000. Calderone jumped up the leaderboard early when he rivered a full house in a big pot against fellow big-stack Alan Ferraro, then stayed there the rest of the night. The Italian has two EPT Main Event cashes on his resume, both coming from EPT Barcelona in the last two years.
EPT veteran Vladimir Troyanovskiy is in second place with 642,000. The Russian has multiple EPT titles and will be looking to claim another one. Ashkan Fattahi (640,000), Francisco Benitez (632,000), and Konstantyn Holskyi (616,000) round out the top five.
Dan Smith waited until the end of the night to make his big move up the leaderboard. Smith won a three-way all in on the last hand with a set of nines as he bagged up 564,000, placing him firmly in the top 10 heading into Day 3. A victory for Smith this week would make him only the 10th player to complete poker's Triple Crown as he seeks the only thing missing from his already stellar resume. Selahaddin Bedir (546,000), Kayhan Mokri (508,000), Rania Nasreddine (507,000), Irish Open champion David Docherty (495,000), and Alexandre Reard (474,000) also finished as big stacks.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eros Calderone | Italy | 667,000 | 133 |
| 2 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russia | 642,000 | 128 |
| 3 | Ashkan Fattahi | Iran | 640,000 | 128 |
| 4 | Francisco Benitez | Uruguay | 632,000 | 126 |
| 5 | Konstantyn Holskyi | Ukraine | 616,000 | 123 |
| 6 | Christophe Morbee | Belgium | 610,000 | 122 |
| 7 | Dan Smith | United States | 564,000 | 113 |
| 8 | Oleksii Ievchenko | Ukraine | 560,000 | 112 |
| 9 | Selahaddin Bedir | Turkey | 546,000 | 109 |
| 10 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 508,000 | 102 |
Other players to advance to Day 3 include 2015 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event champion Adrian Mateos (355,000), Ankit Ahuja (300,000), Peter Jorgne (287,000), Ana Marquez (231,000), Day 1a chip leader and streamer Elias Gutierrez (200,000), and Marle Spragg (101,000). Rafael Moraes (226,000) and Felix Schneiders (146,000) also made it through and will be representing Team PokerStars, while past EPT Barcelona Main Event champion Sebastian Malec (144,000) will be chasing a second title.
One player who made his mark on Day 2 was Alexander Seibt. To his millions of online followers he’s known as “Wolfgang Poker,” and today Seibt secured his first EPT cash in only his second attempt. Seibt shared a table with Roman Hrabec and Mustapha Kanit the entire day and battled the seasoned pros, picking up aces to double up off Hrabec’s kings while spiking an ace on the river to double off Kanit. He ended up with 122,000, while Hrabec finished with 273,000 and Kanit 271,000. Defending champion Mike Watson squeaked into the money with 49,000, as did Spanish high roller superstar Juan Pardo (61,000).
Day 2 began with 75 players joining the returning players from the two opening flights to create a total field of 1,208, the largest in EPT Monte Carlo history. They were playing for a prize pool of €5,858,800, with the top 175 finishers earning a payday. Sam Grafton, Parker Talbot, Gus Hansen, Andre Akkari, Steve O’Dwyer, and Simon Wiciak were among those who fell early as the bubble rapidly approached.
With 176 players remaining in the last level of the night, four players found themselves all in and at risk. Oleksii Natoptanyi lost with jacks when Oleksii Ievchenko spiked a king on the flop. Demosthenes Kiriopoulos hit an ace on the river to crack Sylvain Loosli’s kings, and finally Jeremie Zouari flopped a full house holding pocket aces and sprung a trap on Lincoln De Souza until the river when De Souza moved all in for his short stack with a smaller full house. The three players split a €5,800 min-cash, with the remaining 173 players making the money.
The 154 players who return tomorrow at noon local time for Day 3 are guaranteed €8,700. The eventual winner will take home €1,000,000 and the prestige of conquering the largest field in this event’s history.
But first, another grueling day of survival is in store tomorrow, and PokerNews will be back providing live updates throughout the day.
