The day two chip leaderboard features 138 survivors and has the names Marc Naalden, Annette Obrestad, Johannes Strassmann and Joe Ebanks in its top bundle, jockeying for the ultimate chip lead. The Dutchman, Naalden, edged it at the very end with 777,000. But they will all sleep soundly in Monaco tonight.
Scroll down the page for the very latest, complete count
Naalden made a final table in Copenhagen on season two of the EPT, finishing third for the Danish equivalent of $116,281. And since then, the former tournament chess player has put together a string of major poker results, including four World Series cashes (and one final table), victory in a side event at the Amsterdam Master Classics, and just last month another first place in a $1,500 buy-in tournament in Austria.
As for Obrestad, we may not have heard much from her on the EPT this season, but form is temporary and class permanent, and the Norwegian sensation is among the classiest of all acts. How she got there was simply owing to that spectacular tournament nous. Whenever a reporter passed her table, she was in a pot. Moments later she had won it, usually without showing her hand. This pattern changed towards the end when a pot did go to showdown. Obrestad had a mere royal flush – her first in live play – and she bagged up about 670,000.
For the final levels of the day, Obrestad shared a table with Strassmann, the PokerStars.de ShootingStar, who is now shining the brightest among a continuing constellation of German talent. He won a monster pot late on – turning a straight with his mighty 7-8 – and kept his stack at the half-million mark until the bagging and tagging process began.
Ebanks, or ender555 as he is known in cyberspace, has been working in recent months on translating his devastating online tournament game to the live arena. He made a final table on the LAPT in Costa Rica last year, cashed in a side event at the PCA in January, and took down the €1,000 supplementary tournament in San Remo only last week. Ebanks bagged up around 500,000 too – and is on form, online or off.
This man, Vadim Shlez, from New York, also hasn’t finished having his say.
Shlez finished off the serial EPT casher, Joao Barbosa, at around about the mid-point of today’s action – and went on an amazing run since then. He also has more than 500,000 and is hotly in the mix.
For Team PokerStars Pro, it was a day of consolidation. Lee Nelson began the day as chip leader and although he no longer wears that crown, he still has plenty of chips – 305,000 to be precise, which translates as a very sold day’s work. Luca Pagano is unlikely to hand over his title as the most solid, however, and he seems on course for another record-breaking cash on the EPT, finishing today with 400,000 and change.
They are joined in tomorrow’s redraw by Joe Hachem, Andre Akkari, Isabelle Mercier and Alex Kravchenko – their presence more than compensating for the loss of many of the others searching for glory. They’ll line up alongside others such as Michael Tureniec, Phil Laak and Sami Kelopuro in a glittering field.
And it’s some glory: tournament officials announced today that the total prize pool was €9,350,000, with the champion set to take €2,300,000 of that.
The money bubble will burst sometime tomorrow. We reconvene at noon, and need to lose 60 players before we enter the slowdown preceding the elimination of our last non-casher. That, as ever, will be described in all its anxious majesty here, accompanied – as ever – by photography by Neil Stoddart and video blogs and player interviews courtesy of our friends at PokerStars.tv.
And we have friends overseas as well, equipped with funny tongues. They can tell you all about today in French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, German and Swedish. Enjoy.
And remember to follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter for more updates and breaking news.
That, then, is that. We leave you with Paul Testud on a bicycle.
Goodnight!
Full, official chip count at the end of day two/start day three at EPT Monte Carlo
Player | Country | Status | Chip Count |
---|---|---|---|
Marcus Naalden | Holland | 777000 | |
Annette Obrestad | Norway | 671500 | |
Joseph Ebanks | USA | 601500 | |
Vadim Shlez | USA | 540000 | |
Peter Traply | Hungary | PokerStars Qualifier | 534500 |
Johannes Strassmann | Germany | ShootingStar | 495000 |
Matthew Woodward | USA | 444500 | |
Stephen Haughey | UK | PokerStars Qualifier | 431500 |
Adrian Schaap | Holland | 430000 | |
Luca Pagano | Italy | Team PokerStars Pro | 411000 |
Jaime Vilela | South Africa | 407000 | |
Diaz Gilbar | France | 393500 | |
Amicha Barer | Canada | 389000 | |
Dag Palovic | Slovakia | 367000 | |
Jean Paul Pasqualini | France | 366000 | |
Eric Mutrie | Canada | PokerStars player | 352500 |
Julien Maugenest | Holland | 349500 | |
Lacay Ludovic | France | 348000 | |
Stephen Chow | UK | PokerStars Qualifier | 347000 |
Carter Phillips | USA | 340500 | |
Nicolas Chouity | Lebanon | 320000 | |
Roland Lee | USA | 319000 | |
Alexander Morozov | Russia | PokerStars player | 315500 |
Niccolo Caramatti | Italy | 312000 | |
George Danzer | Germany | ShootingStar | 309000 |
Leonardo Patacconi | Italy | PokerStars Qualifier | 308000 |
Olivier Douce | France | 306000 | |
Faraz Jaka | USA | PokerStars player | 300500 |
Sandra Naujoks | Germany | ShootingStar | 296000 |
Daniel Zink | Germany | 287500 | |
Suk Min Sung | USA | 279000 | |
Shawn Busse | USA | 273000 | |
Sven Leu | Germany | 266000 | |
Eric Qu | France | 260000 | |
Pierre Sakr | Lebanon | 256000 | |
Fabrice Soulier | France | 245500 | |
Grayson Physioc | USA | PokerStars player | 245000 |
Rod Grierson | Canada | PokerStars player | 242000 |
Derek Lerner | Canada | PokerStars sponsored player | 241000 |
Alexander Kravchenko | Russia | Team PokerStars Pro | 241000 |
Andreas Hoivold | Norway | 239000 | |
Ismael Bojang | Germany | 237000 | |
Sorel Mizzi | Canada | PokerStars Qualifier | 230500 |
Mark Micula | USA | PokerStars player | 230500 |
Sebastian Ruthenberg | Germany | ShootingStar | 229500 |
Roger Hairabedian | Morrocco | PokerStars player | 226500 |
Marcel Luske | Holland | 226500 | |
Antonin Teisseire | France | 221500 | |
Alem Shah | Germany | PokerStars Qualifier | 221000 |
Xavier Detournel | France | 217500 | |
Ilari Sahamies | Finland | 214000 | |
Tristan Clemencon | France | 213000 | |
Isaac Schachtel | Venezuela | 211500 | |
Samuel Chartier | Canada | 204000 | |
Michael Friedrich | Switzerland | 202500 | |
Vitaly Lunkin | Russia | 196000 | |
Liya Gerasimova | Russia | 194500 | |
Dag Martin Mikkelsen | Norway | 194000 | |
Julien Saille | Switzerland | 193000 | |
Daniel Drescher | Germany | PokerStars player | 186500 |
Garrett Beckmann | USA | 184500 | |
Farzad Bonyadi | Iran | 184000 | |
Jason Somerville | USA | PokerStars Qualifier | 182500 |
David Atrubin | USA | 177500 | |
Norman Gautron | Canada | 176500 | |
Gregory Zima | Belarus | 174500 | |
Patrick Sacrispeyre | French | 174000 | |
Mikael Norinder | Sweden | 172000 | |
Benjamin Spindler | German | PokerStars player | 169000 |
Mikhail Tulchinskiy | Russia | 169000 | |
Steve Berdah | France | 168500 | |
Jerzy Slaby | USA | PokerStars player | 167500 |
Maxwell Greenwood | Canada | PokerStars Qualifier | 161500 |
Pieter De Korver | Holland | PokerStars sponsored player | 161500 |
Gijsbertus Spijkers | Holland | 161000 | |
Jan Joris Hlobil | Holland | 159500 | |
Joanne Liu | USA | 153500 | |
Jean Jacques Berger | France | 149500 | |
Gaetano Mazzitelli | Italy | 149000 | |
Michael Greco | UK | 147500 | |
Ilan Rouah | France | 146000 | |
Michael Watson | Canada | PokerStars player | 133000 |
Lee Nelson | New Zealand | Team PokerStars Pro | 133000 |
Anthony Donald Venturini | USA | PokerStars player | 133000 |
Clyde Tjauw Foe | Holland | 132500 | |
Sergio Castelluccio | Italy | 132500 | |
Phil Laak | USA | 132000 | |
Georges Yazbeck | Lebanon | 131500 | |
Patryk Robert Slusarek | UK | PokerStars Qualifier | 131500 |
Bruce Yamron | USA | 131500 | |
Carl Olson | USA | PokerStars Qualifier | 129500 |
Andreas Flury | Switzerland | 126000 | |
Daniel Penz | Germany | 124000 | |
Daniel Wach | USA | PokerStars sponsored player | 124000 |
Henri Kasper | Estonia | 124000 | |
Joe Hachem | Australia | Team PokerStars Pro | 120000 |
Jan Bjoersland | Norway | 119000 | |
Cort Kibler-Melby | Germany | 119000 | |
Dmitry Stelmak | Russia | 117500 | |
Sami Kelopuro | Finland | 117000 | |
Kalman Csaba Racz | Hungary | 115500 | |
Ilan Boubli | France | 113000 | |
Jack Gergi Tarabay | Lebanon | 110000 | |
Marc Uzan | France | 109500 | |
Vlado Sevo | Croatia | 106500 | |
Frank Robin Poulsen | Denmark | PokerStars Qualifier | 106000 |
Daniel Gallardo | Spain | PokerStars sponsored player | 105000 |
Toni Ojala | Finish | 104500 | |
Alain Roy | France | 102000 | |
Gregory Smith | UK | 102000 | |
Patrick Wymann | Switzerland | PokerStars Qualifier | 101500 |
Martin Hansen | Denmark | 101000 | |
Tom Chambers | USA | PokerStars Qualifier | 100500 |
Christopher Rossiter | UK | PokerStars player | 100500 |
Jean Luc Benguigui | France | 98000 | |
Marcos Rojo Alonso | Spain | PokerStars Qualifier | 98000 |
Walid Bou Habib | Lebanon | 95000 | |
Mohamad Kowssarie | Sweden | 93500 | |
Isabelle Mercier | Canada | Team PokerStars Pro | 91500 |
Sindre Lunberg | Norway | 91500 | |
Ilan Boubli | France | 90500 | |
Robert Firestone | USA | PokerStars Qualifier | 87500 |
Andrey Danilyuk | Russia | 82000 | |
Alessandro De Michele | Italy | 79500 | |
Kim Wooka | Japan | 76500 | |
John Cernuto | USA | 73500 | |
Theodore Park | USA | 72000 | |
Souhail Joseph Nassar | Lebanon | 67500 | |
Brice Cournut | France | 66000 | |
Oleksander Vaserfirer | Ukraine | 65000 | |
Ivan Lehoczky | Hungary | 60000 | |
Nenad Medic | Canada | PokerStars player | 60000 |
Brent Wheeler | USA | PokerStars player | 59500 |
Dan Dyke | USA | PokerStars player | 59000 |
Steven Silverman | USA | PokerStars player | 58000 |
William Austin Reynolds | USA | PokerStars player | 52500 |
Andre Akkari | Brazil | Team PokerStars Pro | 48500 |
Sylvain Taddei | France | 37000 |