Action was picked up with all in and call announced. Dumitru Pora was at risk in the big blind versus the covering stack of Henri Kasper.
Dumitru Pora: A?3?
Henri Kasper: 8?9?
Both players hit the 3?7?6? flop. Pora's pair held across the 2? but the river 10? gave Kasper a straight flush. "Diamonds are my friend" said Kasper as Pora left the table. He apologised to his opponent and gave him a fist bump before he departed.
Hossein Ensan opened to 13,000 from the hijack. Georgi Sandev reraised all in for 53,500. Dominykas Karmazinas quickly moved all in and had both players covered. Ensan made the call.
Hossein Ensan: A?K?
Georgi Sandev: A?10?
Dominykas Karmazinas: A?Q?
"Good start" start Karmazinas said as the Q?Q?2? flop rolled off. The turn 7? left Ensan drawing slim but gave Sandev a flush draw. He hit it on the 4? turn to eliminate Hossein and triple up.
Mallory Frere opened with a raise to 7,500 from the hijack, which was called by Igor Pihela in the cutoff. Bartolomeo Tato then made a three-bet to 23,000, which both players called.
On the 3?K?3? flop, Tato seized the initiative and bet 30,000. Frere and Pihela both opted to call.
Tato checked when the A? turn came, but Frere confidently bet 24,000. Pihela promptly called, as did Tato.
With no further action on the J? river, all players checked.
Tato, sitting in the big blind position, needed to reveal his cards first and proudly showed A?A? for an full house. Tato also expressed disappointment that none of his opponents placed a bet on the river. The other players mucked their hands, and Tato scooped the sizable 235,000 pot, much to his delight.
Sonny Franco moved all in from the cutoff and was at risk once Romain Lewis shoved on the button. Andrija Robovic also committed his stack in the big blind, with all three hands turned up.
The 9?10?J? flop saw Franco remain ahead, while the K? turn saw him improve to a straight. The 8? river changed nothing, as Franco tripled up while Lewis claimed the side pot.
At the beginning of the event, Adi Rajkovic lamented, "I could have started with 2,000 more if I had just registered late," given that he began with 28,000 chips while the starting stack was 30,000 because he was playing on day 1.
However, Rajkovic quickly turned his luck around by winning two consecutive hands, boosting his chip count to 100,000.
In the first hand, he faced off against Ramon Colillas, and his K?K? held strong on a 3?9?A?5?2? board.
In the second hand, Rajkovic found success from the small blind with Q?5?, hitting two pair against Cristiano Guerra in the big blind. Guerra folded after Rajkovic revealed his hand on the 10?Q?8?5?A? board.
Day 2 of the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €3,000 Mystery Bounty kicks off today at Sporting Monte-Carlo, here in the glamourous principality of Monaco.
This three-day event, starting at 12:30 p.m. local time, is sure to see plenty of action and bounties galore, with players battling it out for chips and tokens to reveal a selection of mystery bounties. The bounty tokens come into play today at the start of Level 15.
The chip leader is Alan Ferraro with 429,000. Sylwester Fortuna is the current runner-up in second place with 392,500 and is closely followed by Igor Pihela in third with 380,000. They are looking to replicate last years winner Jeremie Zouari who scooped a grand total of €202,310 inclusive of bounties.
€3,000 Mystery Bounty Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
Alan Ferraro
Italy
429,000
2
Sylwester Fortuna
Poland
392,500
3
Igor Pihela
Estonia
380,000
4
Nir Sharon
USA
338,000
5
Kamal Bejjani
Lebanon
315,000
6
Mengshi Tian
Hong Kong
315,000
7
Alfonso Simone
Italy
300,000
8
Sergi Reixach
Spain
275,000
9
Umberto Zaffagnini
Italy
261,000
10
Andrija Robovic
Croatia
255,000
Jeremie Zouari
Other notable players that made it through to Day 2 include 2017 PokerStars Championship Prague Main Event champion Kalidou Sow with 240,000 and this year's €50,000 EPT Paris Super High Roller winner Thomas Santerne with 85,000.
PokerStars AmbassadorsParker Talbot (216,000), Ramon Colillas (105,000), Benjamin Spragg (98,000) and Maria Konnikova (50,000) also found a bag.
Action commences with blinds at 1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante. Fifteen 40-minute levels will be played today. There will be two 20-minute breaks at the end of Level 15 and 18 in addition to a 75-minute dinner break at the end of Level 21. The final 20-minute break will take place after Level 24. Late registration remains open until the start of Day 2.
Stay tuned as PokerNews will be bringing you all the action and updates from here on the French Riviera at EPT Monte Carlo.
