The 2019 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €5,300 NLHE Main Event is now in the books, with Manig Loeser emerging on top of a 922-player field to win his first-ever EPT Main Event title.
In the latest edition of the weekly rant (was recorded May 2nd but released 2 days ago due to "techinical issues"), Daniel Negreanu talks about his recent success at EPT Monte Carlo, Amarilo Slim - who passed away on April 29th, a video with Howard Lederer discussing business ethics, and a lot more. Click here too check out the video blog!
A big congratulations to Tobias Reinkemeier who took home the High Roller event of EPT Monte Carlo the other day. It was a very tough final table I must say, and it took about 5 hours of play before the tournament was down heads-up. Tobias Reinkemeier and Olivier Busquet were the 2 last men standing - both with equal stacks and plenty of chips to play with. It was a even duel at first, however, everything changed after this fantastic bluff by Tobias Reinkemeier.
Reinkemeier mini-raised from the button and called a three-bet of 220,000.
FLOP Q[s]2[c]8[h] Busquet bet 240,000 and Reinkemeier call.
Nicolas Chouity from Libanon played fantastic poker in the 2 last days of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. He reached the final table as massive chip leader and continued to play great throughout the tournament. In fact, I have never seen a player dominating a final table like he did - he knocked out 6 of 7 opponents.
Nicolas Chouity had a 4-1 lead when he played heads up against his final opponent Josef Klinger. And it took Nicolas no-time to send him off the rail as well. A very, very well deserved win for Nicolas Chouity! Expect to hear a lot more about this guy in future poker tournaments!
113 players paid the buy-in of €25,000 and entered the High Roller Event at EPT Monte Carlo. As you can imagine there were quite a few notables! Just to mention a few,Gus Hansen, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Rousso.
Anyhow, Day 1 of the High Roller Event has now passed. 41 players will return today to play Day 2 of the tournament. Among these players we find notables such as ElkY, Gus Hansen, Tony G, Sorel Mizzi etc. In the chip lead is Tobias Reinkemeier (457,300) with Luke Scwartz (300,500) and Markus Goiser (291,000) close behind.
The total prize pool is €2,825,000. In other words, lots of money up for grabs! But these guys are used to these kind amounts, so they will for sure treat this tournament just like any other major tournament and play their game.
24 players made it to Day 4 (was played yesterday) of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. It turned out to be a very interesting and action filled day. However, it was a bit shocking that only 1 of the top 6 players in the beginning of the day made it to the final table. Well, he made it there with a monster stack! Nicolas Chouity (picture) has accumulated a huge stack and is in a big chip lead on the final table. He will for sure take down the tournament if he continues playing as good as in Day 3 and 4 of the tournament. Anyhow, here are the 8 finalists:
Seat 1: Herve Costa - 1,590,000 Seat 2: Roger Hairabedian - 1,130,000 Seat 3: Aleh Plauski - 1,695,000 Seat 4: Dominykas Karmazinas - 2,285,000 Seat 5: Josef Klinger - 1,170,000 Seat 6: Mesbah Guerfi - 3,670,000 Seat 7: Nicolas Chouity - 10,280,000 Seat 8: Andrew Chen - 3,670,000
It almost feels like it was yesterday that the main event of EPT Monte Carlo started, but here we are, 4 days later, with only 24 remaining players. Among these 24 players, who have survived a field of 848 players, we find notables such as Nick Schulman and Ramzi Jelassi. Unfortunately neither of them are in the top of the felt at the moment. But both of them are far more experienced than many of the other remaining players. Lets hope that their routine will be enough to take them all the way to tomorrow's final table. Ladies and gentlemen, some serious prize money is getting closer and closer! It will be a final table not to miss out on tomorrow!
413 players made it to Day 2 of the tournament - 116 of them will return to the tables today and play day 3 of the tournament. These 116 player are now to battle for some serious money. Chip leader is no one else than Nick Schulman, the man who won the fourth season of WPT and has lots of great results in other major tournaments.
Other notables in the top of the field of remaining players are Chris Moneymaker (457,000), Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro (552,000), Victoria Coren (236,500) and Ramzi Jelassi (411,000). There are a few other familiar faces left in the tournament as well, however, they can be found further down in the field.
Lots of players (many familiar faces) took part in EPT Main Event Day 1b. Unfortunately many notables went off the trail during the day. Just to mention a few, Eric Lindgren, Daniel Negreanu, Tony G, ElkY, Boris Becker, Pieter de Korver (last year's champ), Jason Mercier.
Of course a few notables made it to Day 2 as well. Joe Cada, Isabelle Mercier, Marcel Luske and Joe Hachem and a few more. But still - would have been nice if more notables made it through Day 1b.
Around 400 player will be returning to play Day 2 of the tournament today. Chip leader is Thiago Decano (264,2000) followed by Paul Berende (195,500) and Tommaso Briotti (175,400). A bit further down in the felt we can find a few big names. For example the PokerStars Pros Joe Cada (123,600) and Alex Gomes (122,800).
The 2004 WSOP Champ Greg Raymer is one of the players who made it to Day 2 in the Main Event of EPT Monte Carlo yesterday. Even though he was doing very well the whole day, he still got so annoyed and frustrated at one point that he threatened to punch another player at the table.
351 players took the felt in Day 1a of EPT Monte Carlo, which was played yesterday. Around 180 players made it through the day and will now get a day of rest before its time for Day2. Among the players who made it to Day 2 we find a few notables - Chris Moneymaker, Neil Channing, Men Nguyen, Chris Bjorin, Greg Raymer and a few more.
Many big names failed to make it to Day 2 as well. Just to mention a few, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Barry Greenstein, Phil Laak and Gavin Griffin.
Around 500 players are expected to take part in Day 1b of the tournament. Lets hope that the second starting day will be more acton filled and exciting than Day 1a was.
Rumors that the mystery swede Isildur1 is going to play at EPT in Monte Carlo have been been circulating on the web for the past few days. The rumors started after that a Swedish blogger (apparently with good connections to the EPT crew) wrote in her blog that Isildur1 already has signed up for a tournament at EPT Monte Carlo.
She really believes that Isildur1 wont cancel this time since he already paid the expensive buy-in and also because he can be more anonymous than in the Big Game. However, she makes it clear that she wont make a "Tony G" and put her hopes up too high.
None of the notable players that we mentioned in last update made it to the final table of EPT Monte Carlo this year. Instead it came to be a battle between Pieter de Korver, Holland, and Matthew Woodward, USA.
