The €1,100 France Poker Series (FPS) Main Event as part of the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino?? continued today at Sporting Monte-Carlo on the French Riviera and after eight hours of play on Day 2, the returning field of 321 was whittled down to only 55 remaining contenders.
All players who returned today were automatically in the money and received a piece of the enormous €2,052,480 prize pool. Each player received a minimum of €1,650, although the big payouts are yet to come and will be decided over the next two days of play.
Germany's Frederik Thiemer bagged the chip lead with 2,760,000 heading into Day 3 and will look to continue his run as he eyes the €307,160 top prize. He’s followed by Stefan Dimitrov (2,675,000) and Ewen Trevidy (2,345,000) to round out the top three.
€1,100 France Poker Series Main Event Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frederik Thiemer | Germany | 2,760,000 | 69 |
| 2 | Stefan Dimitrov | Bulgaria | 2,675,000 | 67 |
| 3 | Ewen Trevidy | France | 2,345,000 | 59 |
| 4 | Rubens Sellam | France | 2,325,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Daisuke Ogita | Japan | 2,260,000 | 57 |
| 6 | Jason Wheeler | USA | 2,250,000 | 56 |
| 7 | Matthias Roth | Switzerland | 1,950,000 | 49 |
| 8 | Renat Bohdanov | Ukraine | 1,900,000 | 48 |
| 9 | Djamel Ouaret | France | 1,800,000 | 45 |
| 10 | Alessio Di Cesare | Italy | 1,765,000 | 44 |
Day 2 Action
The action got off to a hot start with more than 100 players being eliminated in the first level of play. UK’s Andrew Hulme was one of the early casualties as his pocket nines fell short to the kings of Ignacio Puebla Alija.
Soon after, Michal Mrakes found the exit when he flopped top pair with jack-ten but was up against the better kicker of Abedel Douair, who held ace-ten, and couldn’t find improvement.
Julien Sitbon was the story of the day when he was down to a single T-1,000 chip and managed to climb his way back to more than ten big blinds. Unfortunately, he couldn’t continue the comeback and was sent to the payout desk in 237th place.
Still in contention at the end of the day was PokerStars ambassador Benjamin Spragg who bagged an impressive stack of 1,580,000, good for 40 big blinds. "Spraggy," who is generally an online Twitch streamer on PokerStars will have his eyes set on the top prize to add to his over $200,000 in live tournament earnings.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize (EUR) | Place | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €307,160 | 10-11 | €21,860 |
| 2 | €191,940 | 12-13 | €18,210 |
| 3 | €137,100 | 14-15 | €15,180 |
| 4 | €105,460 | 16-17 | €12,640 |
| 5 | €81,130 | 18-20 | €10,520 |
| 6 | €62,410 | 21-23 | €8,850 |
| 7 | €48,010 | 24-27 | €7,700 |
| 8 | €36,940 | 28-31 | €6,680 |
| 9 | €28,420 | 32-39 | €5,820 |
| 40-55 | €5,050 |
The 55 remaining players will return for Day 3 tomorrow, Saturday, April 29th at noon local time. Play will resume in Level 25 with blinds at 20,000/40,000 and a 40,000 big blind ante and continue until the field has shrunk down to the final table.
A champion will be crowned on Sunday, and final table action will be streamed on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews team continues to bring you updates throughout the tournament, along with updates from other events at EPT Monte Carlo.
