€2,200 French National Championship High Roller Day 1 | 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT

€2,200 French National Championship High Roller

Day 1 Completed

04-29-2019 02:47 UTC+1

Paez Claims Day 1 Chip Lead; 81 Players Will Return for Day 2 of the French National High Roller

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

With 18 minutes and 8 seconds of Level 17 left on the clock, the bubble burst in the €2,200 French National High Roller when Alan Lau eliminated Roland Chassing to reduce the field down to 81 players who will return on Monday, April 30 at 12:30 PM in the Americas Room in the Monte Carlo Bay Resort & Hotel. Claiming the chip lead on Day 1 of the Event #11 of the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT here in Monaco is Raul Paez with 578,000 in chips.

Paez collected most of those chips when he clashed with Haoxiang Wang and Osman Aksu. In a pot that contained almost 430,000, Paez shoved on a big bet of Aksu on which Aksu ended folding. The crowd that swarmed the table all looked on the action with amazement as this huge pot was being played out close to the bubble. Paez had some competition from Borge Sandsgaard, Julien Mariani, and Marius Kudzmanas during the last hour or so but he still finished at the top of the chip counts.

Following him in the chip counts are Sandsgaard with 503,000, Julien Mariani with 480,000, Nariman Yaghmai with 472,000, and Lau with 462,000 after bursting the bubble. Kudzmanas had won the €1,100 Freezeout two nights ago and is looking for another deep run in this event. Even though he was chip leading the tournament at one point, two penalties and some hands later, he lost a lot of those chips again and finished the tournament with 443,000 in his bag.

Marius Kudzmanas is looking for another win here in Monaco

Other players who have made it through to Day 2 with an above average stack include David Peters (409,000), Sonny Franco (382,000), Julien Martini (303,000), Dietrich Fast (268,000), Harry Lodge (226,000), and Anson Tsang (221,000). Kristen Bicknell, Dario Sammartino, Gaelle Baumann, Royston Drenthe, Paul Newey, Leo Margets, Maria Ho, Chin Wei Lim, Christopher Frank, and Erwann Pecheux have also made it through but have some work to do to get their stack to above average.

Unfortunately, not everyone was lucky enough to win their all-ins, the already star-studded field lost players like the PokerStars Ambassadors Maria Konnikova, Fatima Moreira De Melo, Kalidou Sow, and Celina Lin all left the stage without cashing. Other notable players failing to cash in this event include Orpen Kisacikoglu, Alexandru Papazian, Nicolas Chouity, Martins Adeniya, Mustapha Kanit, Ben Heath, Joey Weissman, Florian Duta, Maria Lampropulos, Manig Loeser, Dominik Nitsche, and many others. The defending champion, Dimitry Shchepkin was doing well at the start of the day but couldn’t be found at the tables any more during the latter part of the day.

There were 538 entries collected in total with 110 reentries creating a total prize pool of €1,076,000. The winner will walk away with €200,400 and when the 81 remaining players return at 12:30 PM local time, they are all guaranteed to cash for at least €3,450. Make sure to return as the tournament will play down to a winner and the PokerNews live reporting team will be there to tell who it will be!

Tags: Alan Lau Alexandru Papazian Anson Tsang Ben Heath Borge Sandsgaard Celina Lin Chin Wei Lim Christopher Frank Dario Sammartino David Peters Dietrich Fast Dimitry Shchepkin Dominik Nitsche Erwann Pecheux Fatima Moreira De Melo Gaelle Baumann Haoxiang Wang Harry Lodge Joey Weissman Julien Martini Kalidou Sow Kristen Bicknell Leo Margets Manig Loeser Maria Ho Maria Konnikova Maria Lampropulos Marius Kudzmanas Martins Adeniya Mustapha Kanit Nariman Yaghmai Nicolas Chouity Orpen Kisacikoglu Osman Aksu Paul Newey Raul Paez Roland Chassing Royston Drenthe Sonny Franco

04-29-2019 02:28 UTC+1

Day 2 Seat Draw

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

Table	Seat	Name	Country	Chips	Big Blinds
1	1	Loic Dobrigna	France	77,000	13
1	2	Dario Sammartino	Italy	119,000	20
1	3	Marinus van der Walle	Netherlands	295,000	49
1	4	Christian Van Dollen	Germany	70,000	12
1	5	Kisohkumar Ramachandran	Switzerland	119,000	20
1	6	Xavier Mouysset	France	193,000	32
1	7	Jean-Rene Fontaine	France	70,000	12
1	8	Borge Sandsgaard	Norway	503,000	84

2	1	Gaelle Baumann	France	117,000	20
2	2	Denis Timofeev	Russia	60,000	10
2	4	David Peters	USA	409,000	68
2	5	Joaquin Carmona	Spain	209,000	35
2	6	Marcello Miniucchi	Italy	70,000	12
2	7	Itai Levy	Israel	447,000	75
2	8	Alexandre Amiel	France	326,000	54

3	1	Jorge Cantos	Argentina	241,000	40
3	2	Wei Huang	China	46,000	8
3	3	Julien Martini	France	303,000	51
3	5	Osman Aksu	Turkey	204,000	34
3	6	Miguel Capriles	Venezuela	100,000	17
3	7	Julien Mariani	France	480,000	80
3	8	Alberto Bari	Argentina	235,000	39

4	1	Marius Kudzmanas	Lithuania	443,000	74
4	2	Jacques Der Megreditchian	France	24,000	4
4	3	Nariman Yaghmai	Iran	472,000	79
4	4	Pablo Brito Silva	Brazil	324,000	54
4	5	Muhyedine Fares	Senegal	125,000	21
4	6	Moshe Refaelowitz	Israel	175,000	29
4	7	Ladislao Batlle	Spain	89,000	15
4	8	Huijie Zhou	Hong Kong	273,000	46

5	1	Gurgen Arsenyan	Armenia	117,000	20
5	2	Ramon Munoz	Spain	110,000	18
5	3	Gil Morgensztern	Brazil	90,000	15
5	4	Anatoly Korochenskiy	Russia	420,000	70
5	5	Maria Ho	USA	70,000	12
5	7	Andreas Freund	Austria	276,000	46
5	8	Basil Yaiche	France	181,000	30

6	2	Romain Matteoli	France	210,000	35
6	3	Chin Wei Lim	Malaysia	61,000	10
6	4	Erwann Pecheux	France	58,000	10
6	5	Alexandru Alman	Italy	352,000	59
6	6	Haoxiang Wang	China	338,000	56
6	7	Paul Newey	UK	113,000	19
6	8	Bruno Soutavong	France	279,000	47

7	1	Lukasz Grossmann	Poland	140,000	23
7	2	Leo Margets	Spain	85,000	14
7	4	Dietrich Fast	Germany	268,000	45
7	5	Aladin Reskallah	France	150,000	25
7	6	Mark Wiegerinck	Netherlands	331,000	55
7	7	Imed Ben Mahmoud	Tunisia	115,000	19
7	8	Jorge Galino Lopez	Spain	88,000	15

8	1	Stefan Aerts	Belgium	74,000	12
8	2	Kaspars Renga	Latvia	93,000	16
8	3	Masatoshi Tanaka	Japan	82,000	14
8	4	Alexandre Fradin	France	325,000	54
8	6	Julien Bolimowski	France	171,000	29
8	7	Lukas Parednis	Lithuania	150,000	25
8	8	Ankit Ahuja	India	131,000	22

9	1	Hadi Saleh	Canada	84,000	14
9	2	Royston Drenthe	Netherlands	115,000	19
9	4	Claudio Di Giacomo	Italy	167,000	28
9	5	Alan Lau	Hong Kong	462,000	77
9	6	Harry Lodge	UK	226,000	38
9	7	Kristen Bicknell	Canada	189,000	32
9	8	Giorgio Donzelli	Italy	71,000	12

10	1	Hassan Fares	France	222,000	37
10	2	Raul Paez	Spain	578,000	96
10	3	Deividas Daubaris	Lithuania	282,000	47
10	4	Abedel Douair	France	180,000	30
10	5	Anson Tsang	Hong Kong	221,000	37
10	6	Antonio Scalzi	Italy	132,000	22
10	7	Antoine Goutard	France	346,000	58
10	8	Christopher Frank	Germany	60,000	10

11	1	Slimane Mameche	France	88,000	15
11	2	Sonny Franco	France	382,000	64
11	3	Refael Jean	Israel	54,000	9
11	4	Jean Chicheportiche	France	94,000	16
11	5	Frederic Majid	France	42,000	7
11	6	Tiziano Di Romualdo	Italy	88,000	15
11	7	Leonardo Patacconi	Italy	312,000	52
11	8	Eros Calderone	Italy	241,000	40

04-29-2019 02:26 UTC+1

End-Of-Day Chip Counts (full)

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Raul Paez	578,000 -32,000	-32,000

Borge Sandsgaard	503,000 63,000	63,000
Julien Mariani	480,000 -10,000	-10,000
Nariman Yaghmai	472,000
Alan Lau	462,000
Itai Levy	447,000 227,000	227,000
Marius Kudzmanas	443,000 -12,000	-12,000
Anatoly Korochenskiy	420,000 -50,000	-50,000
David Peters	409,000 -41,000	-41,000
Sonny Franco	382,000 252,000	252,000
Alexandru Alman	352,000 2,000	2,000
Antoine Goutard	346,000 80,000	80,000
Haoxiang Wang	338,000 1,000	1,000
Mark Wiegerinck	331,000 31,000	31,000
Alexandre Amiel	326,000
Alexandre Fradin	325,000
Pablo Brito Silva	324,000
Leonardo Patacconi	312,000
Julien Martini	303,000 -42,000	-42,000
Marinus van der Walle	295,000
Deividas Daubaris	282,000 22,000	22,000
Bruno Soutavong	279,000
Andreas Freund	276,000
Huijie Zhou	273,000
Dietrich Fast	268,000 -204,000	-204,000

Read full

04-29-2019 01:54 UTC+1

Prize Pool Details Confirmed

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

The prize pool details have been confirmed: There were 538 entries in total which includes 110 reentries creating a total prize pool of €1,076,000. All 81 players who have made it through to Day 2 will cash for at least €3,450. The winner will not only walk away with the PokerStars Spade but also with the first-place prize of €200,400.

This is what they are all playing for:

Place	Prize (EUR)	Prize (USD)	Place	Prize (EUR)	Prize (USD)	Place	Prize (EUR)	Prize (USD)
1	200,400	223,133	9	17,530	19,519	24-27	6,370	7,093
2	125,500	139,737	10-11	14,510	16,156	28-31	5,530	6,157
3	89,900	100,098	12-13	12,320	13,718	32-39	4,870	5,422
4	70,100	78,052	14-15	10,750	11,969	40-55	4,100	4,565
5	55,000	61,239	16-17	9,500	10,578	56-71	3,700	4,120
6	43,100	47,989	18-20	8,450	9,409	72-81	3,450	3,841
7	32,250	35,908	21-23	7,410	8,251
8	22,340	24,874

04-29-2019 01:24 UTC+1

Lau Burst the Bubble; Chassing Becomes the Bubble Boy

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

Alan Lau raised to 15,000 from the early position and Roland Chassing called from mid-position for his last 7,000. Action folded to Andreas Freund in the big blind who called. Lau and Freund would be playing for the side-pot which now contained 16,000.

They both checked through the whole board and had to wait for all activity on the other tables to complete. Once the other tables were done, all three players were instructed to open their cards.

Chassing flipped over for ace high with the pair of fours on the board. Freund tabled and Chassing happily slammed the table but didn't see Lau's hand who held for the flopped pair of nines. When Chassing realized what had happened and when the dealer announced that everyone else was in the money, Chassing got up from his chair while the rest of the field applauded and quickly bagged up their chips.

The full chip counts and recap of today are to follow.

Player	Chips	Progress
Alan Lau	462,000 385,000	385,000
Roland Chassing	Busted

Tags: Alan Lau Andreas Freund Roland Chassing

04-29-2019 01:06 UTC+1

Kudzmanas Loses Chip Lead

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

Marius Kudzmanas was sent away from the table for another round for disruptive behavior and it seems that David Peters managed to take some of Kudzmanas' chips away from him in the meantime.

With 84 players left, three more players need to bust before play ends for today.

Player	Chips	Progress
Marius Kudzmanas	455,000 -185,000	-185,000
David Peters	450,000 189,000	189,000
Mark Wiegerinck	300,000 -166,000	-166,000

Tags: David Peters Marius Kudzmanas

04-29-2019 01:00 UTC+1

Some Big Stacks

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Julien Mariani	490,000
Dietrich Fast	472,000 95,000	95,000
Anatoly Korochenskiy	470,000
Borge Sandsgaard	440,000 -26,000	-26,000
Anson Tsang	425,000 125,000	125,000
Alexandru Alman	350,000
Julien Martini	345,000 45,000	45,000
Royston Drenthe	300,000 20,000	20,000
Deividas Daubaris	260,000 30,000	30,000

04-29-2019 00:58 UTC+1

Paez Wins A Monster Pot

Shirley Ang

Level 17 : 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

The board read with around 80,000 in the middle already.

Osman Aksu checked in the big blind and so did Raul Paez in the hijack. Haoxiang Wang bet 37,000 and Aksu took a few seconds before raising by putting a big stack of 5,000-value chips over the line. Paez asked for a count and the dealer confirmed the raise was to 100,000. Paez called and then it was Wang's turn to tank. After a while, Wang decided to fold.

The river completed the board with the , Aksu put in another big stack of 5,000-value chips and the dealer confirmed the bet was for 110,000. Paez responded by shoving for 179,000. Aksu folded.