Reigning €100,000 EPT Monte Carlo SHR Champion Alex Kulev Bags Big on Day 1
The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo continued today with the biggest buy-in tournament on the schedule; the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller. The Sporting Monte-Carlo opened its doors to high rollers from across the globe, all willing to compete at some of the highest stakes here in Monaco.
Over the eight levels of play, a total of 58 entrants tried their luck on the felt contributing to a prize pool that already stands at a massive €5,627,160. But with registration still open until the start of Day 2 tomorrow, this figure is only expected to grow.
As the dust settled, 29 players found a bag for tomorrow, with Jacob Amsellem capturing the title of the chip leader as he takes through a total of 1,094,000 for the Day 2 restart. Amsellem only took his seat on Level 8 of the day but seemingly used his time wisely to convert his late start into the largest stack in the room.
End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob Amsellem | France | 1,094,000 | 182 |
| 2 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | 1,092,000 | 182 |
| 3 | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | 1,091,000 | 182 |
| 4 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 851,000 | 142 |
| 5 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | 848,000 | 141 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | United States | 818,000 | 136 |
| 7 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | 692,000 | 115 |
| 8 | Shyngis Satubayev | Kazakhstan | 599,000 | 100 |
| 9 | Masashi Oya | Japan | 590,000 | 98 |
| 10 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 555,000 | 93 |
The Fall and Rise of Heath and Kulev
With players starting with 250 big blinds, it was going to take a real cooler to see these confrontations ending in an all-in and a call, but that’s exactly what happened to Ben Heath on the second level of the day. Heath picked up pocket kings, but was unfortunate enough to run into the pocket aces of Dan Smith, resulting in one of the day's first casualties.
Heath was quickly onto his second bullet and virtue of a flopped nut flush against Juan Pardo on the last level of the day, managed to bag big for the Day 2 restart.
Heath wasn’t the only one to experience a swingy session on the felt as the reigning champion of the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller, Alex Kulev, saw off his first bullet when a hero call against opponent Masashi Oya went wrong.
However, Kulev gained a lot of traction on his second attempt, and managed to bag the third largest stack of the remaining players, meaning all eyes will be on Kulev as he navigates his 1,091,000 into back-to-back titles here in Monaco.
Day 2 is set to commence tomorrow, Sunday, April 28 at 12:30 p.m. local time which is when registration will end. Players will be returning to blinds of 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow to bring you more coverage of the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller, so stay tuned.