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2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT

Feature Coverage
Jours 2

Half the Field Left on Day 1a of EPT National; €10K on Bubble

Gaelle Baumann
Gaelle Baumann

After eight of the ten levels on Day 1a, around half the field remains in the €1,100 EPT National. A slew of familiar faces joined the fray, including Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree Kenny Hallaert, Thomas Muehloecker, Liv Boeree, Quentin Lecomte, Xuan Liu. Gaelle Baumann and Georgios Vrakas, who won both a regular and a high roller edition of the Nationals last year. After busting out of the €10,300 8-Max, Maria Ho, Mustapha Kanit and Jack Salter also took their seats in this event.

Stack wise, none of them have made any waves thus far. One player that surely did is Andreas Iaokimedes, who amassed heaps during the day and is the presumable chipleader with 320,000 in chips. The American circuit grinder is looking for his first cash outside his home country and positioned himself in prime position to do so. Another player wielding a large stack is Sonny Franco, who's playing 285,000 as we enter the final stages of the day.

Liv Boeree
Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree

In the €10,300 No-Limit Hold'em 8 max, 12 players are left, and Timothy Adams just created some distance to solidify his position on top of the counts. In a blind on blind confrontation with Juan Pardo, Adams four-bet to 68,000 and Pardo called in position. On the {J-Diamonds}{J-Spades}{6-Clubs} flop, Adams continued with 30,000, Pardo raised to 66,000 and Adams called. Both players checked the {2-Spades} on the turn and {A-Spades} on the river that followed.

Adams tabled {A-Clubs}{K-Spades} for aces and jacks and Pardo mucked, shaking his head. The sizable pot drove Adams up to 660,000, while Pardo slipped to 200,000.

Further update from the €10K: the players are on their final break of the night and are on the money bubble with 10 left. Michael Dix was eliminated when his pocket sevens fell to {k-}{q-}. Rainer Kempe moved into the chip lead with about 850,000 after eliminating Adrian Mateos with queens against {a-Hearts}{k-Diamonds} but he has since lost some chips jamming fives over Pardo's tens and failing to catch up.

Timothy Adams
Timothy Adams remains top dog in the €10K

515 Players Enter €1,100 EPT National Day 1a, 159 Remain

Andreas Ioakimides
Andreas Ioakimides

After ten levels of play, Day 1a of the €1,100 EPT National has been wrapped up with 159 out of 515 entrants surviving. Although they bagged up for the night, play has simply been suspended as Day 1a will continue on Thursday. At noon local time, cards will be back in the air until 73 players are remaining. Each of them will then be in the money and Day 1a will subsequently be concluded.

Topping the chipcounts throughout the day, as well as at the end, was Andreas Iaokimedes, a recreational player from the United States. Iaokimedes usually prefers the lower buyins on the American circuit events, most notably the Heartland Poker Tour, but is here in Monaco on holiday and to play some poker. Asking Iaokimedes about his poker plans in Monte Carlo, the American responded he's playing the earlier €10K (since busted), the €1,100 EPT National and the Main Event before flying back home. Iaokimedes finished the day with 409,400 in chips, way ahead of his nearest challengers.

Among those that bagged chips for the night was Maria Konnikova, Friend of PokerStars and PCA $1,650 National winner. The writer finished the day with 82,300, after being up to 160,000 at one point. Konnikova appeared to have a ton of fun at the table today and had a good number of laughs with her fellow tablemates, especially with Joao Vieira.

Maria Konnikova, all smiles on Day 1a
Maria Konnikova

"She's super, super nice," the Portuguese pro pointed out, who was in good spirits himself as well. After busting the €10K earlier today, one would think Vieira being all smiles after bagging a €1K wasn't expected. However, Vieira doesn't let an unfortunate result in a bigger event dictate his focus for smaller events.

"You have to get into the habit of always trying your best, always focus 100%," Vieira said, "otherwise you won't make it. I needed a few minutes after a 10K, but after that I get into the habit again. The 1K was a bit more chill but my focus stays the same." The focus surely was there, as Vieira brings a healthy stack of 213,800 forward.

Day 1a won't be the only starting day that wraps up on Thursday, as Day 1b and Day 1c will kick off and finish on the same day as well. While Day 1a sports 60-minute levels throughout, Day 1b will feature shorter levels of 30 minutes and Day 1c will speed it up even more with just 20 minutes per level. Each day plays until the money has been reached, before all surviving players will come back on Friday, April 27. The winner of this big event will be crowned on Saturday evening in Le Sporting Casino in the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, and will receive a Platinum Pass on top of the first place prize.

Tags: Andreas IoakimidesJoao VieiraMaria Konnikova

Opening Event Reaches Official Final Table After Ahadpour Bubbles

Timothy Adams
Timothy Adams

After a seemingly interminable bubble, the €10,300 Eight-Handed Shot Clock Single Reentry at the 2018 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo©Casino EPT has reached a final table, with Timothy Adams doubling down on his status as Day 1 chip leader to pace the field into the final day.

Behzad Ahadpour was the unfortunate player leaving empty-handed after a long day.

Adams finished Day 2 with 1,006,000 heading to 6,000/12,000/12,000. He's looking at a tough final table with the likes of Stephen Chidwick, Ryan Riess and Rainer Kempe among those looking to topple him from his strong run here in Monaco.

"It was a good day," Adams said. "Things went my away in a lot of spots. The bubble was long, but I was able to get some chips."

Here's the way everything will look when the eight-handed final table gets rolling on Thursday:

SeatPlayerCountryChip Count
1Timothy AdamsCanada1,006,000
2Juan PardoSpain220,000
3Ryan RiessUnited States702,000
4Vladimir TroyanovskiyRussia158,000
5Stephen ChidwickUnited Kingdom357,000
6Orpen KisacikogluTurkey231,000
7Paul NeweyUnited Kingdom93,000
8Rainer KempeGermany771,000

"There's more poker to be played tomorrow," Adams said. "I'm familiar with everybody here. It's the same old faces."

The field grew from 47 Day 1 entrants up to 71 by the time registration closed after the first two levels of the day. It didn't take long for the field to get whittled down to a few tables, but that's when things slowed down considerably.

When the field reached 10, it meant dual bubbles of both the final table and the money. What ensued was essentially a 10-way stalemate as the bubble lasted more than two hours.

Kempe and Adams were the most active players at one table, butting heads repeatedly and tangling in three-bet pots. Adams bested Kempe in a key pot late when he check-raised and called a three-bet with second pair and a gutter on the flop and hit two pair on the river. No more bets went in but it was still a hefty pot.

At the other table, it appeared Riess got the best of the bubble play as he was able to chip up from being short to the third-place stack at the close of the day.

Short stacks doubled up the few times they were put at risk as hand-for-hand play continued to drag on slowly and laboriously. Finally, Kempe set the stage for the knockout by doubling with aces through Ahadpour's nines. Left with 11 big blinds, Ahadpour shoved over Adams' open and got called instantly as Adams held ace-king. Dominated with ace-seven, Ahadpour binked a seven on the flop but a king hit in no time on the turn to end the grueling bubble grind.

Behzad Ahadpour bubbles.

Tournament staff gave instructions to bag with 10 minutes left, but some players protested that they wanted to finish out the day fully. The last 10 minutes wound, and Jan Schwippert wound up going bust when Juan Prado prevailed over him in a battle of short stacks with live cards in the blinds, six-five over queen-ten.

Everyone else is guaranteed at least €26,000 when play resumes at 12:30 p.m. local time here in Monaco, with the winner set to walk away with €201,500. Adams said the players joked that it was a two-bullet satellite to the €100K later in festival.

Come on back to PokerNews' continuing coverage of EPT Monte Carlo to see who will stake claim to the trophy and those two bullets.

Tags: Behzad AhadpourTimothy Adams

Feature Coverage

Jour 2 terminé