Monte Carlo Dinner Break News

Well, just before the dinner break I had a massive post full of news, but, sadly, my computer got a jump start on supper and ate my work. So, now I set out to offer the computer dessert. Perhaps it will consider this something in the way of a chocolate mousse (which, incidentally, I just ate at the buffet and it was very good).

First off, the people in the money room have come up with a final number of entrants. Two hundred and eleven players put up the €10,000 buy-in. Oddly, 206 sat down to play. No word of a search party for the other five players.

With 211 buy-ins, the EPT and Pokerstars.com find themselves quite proud to report they have built the largest poker prize pool in European history.

TOP SIX RECENT POKER TOURNAMENTS IN EUROPE
1. EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo €2,110,000
2. WPT Grand Prix de Paris €2,050,000
3. MasterClassics, Amsterdam, Holland €980,000
4. Prima Millions, Monte Carlo €835,135.31
5. EPT European Classic, London, €754,088
6. Ladbrokes Poker Millions, London €516,898

With €2.11 million in prize money, Tournament Director Thomas Kremser announced the payouts. Twenty-seven players will walk away with prize money. The final eight are in for a big year.

Final Table Prize Money

1) €635,000
2) €350,000
3) €178,000
4) €139,000
5) €118,000
6) €99,500
7) €79,500
8) €59,900

Players, we hardly knew thee

Players here are enjoying a fine, comfortable structure. They began with 10,000 in chips at 25/50 blinds. The levels have each been 90 minutes long and it has allowed players to surive and play their game. Nonetheless, we've lost 35 of the players who started the day. The notable departures include:

Hendon Mobster Ram Vaswani

Mikael Westerlund, the rampaging Swede who made final tables at both the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and the EPT Scandinavian Open

Pascal Perrault, EPT Vienna champion

2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker reportedly went out in the second level after flopping the dummy end of a straight on an all-spade flop. Moneymaker had the eight of spades and got in a raising and re-raising battle with another player which eventually ended with all of Moneymaker's chips in the middle. The WSOP champ found out quickly that he was drawing nearly dead. His opponent had flopped the ace-high flush. Moneymaker departed quickly thereafter.


No Money today

Bloggers and friends of bloggers

If this is your first opportunity to read a poker blog, you may not be aware there is a thriving community of poker players and writers who are keeping the internet full of poker content (just Google "poker blog" and you'll see what I mean). One of those bloggers is not doing too badly at the dinner break. Ben "Milky Bar Kid" Grundy has just about doubled his stack in the first three levels.


Ben Grundy

Many readers likely know that 2004 WSOP champion Greg Raymer has been a frequent poster of the 2+2 forum. He's spent the first half of the day at the featured table with Tony G. and Russian tennis star Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Also at the table is PokerStars.com Frequent Player Point qualifier John Withers who has been having an up and down day. One of his up moments came at Raymer's expense. Withers got in pre-flop with Ramyer. Raymer held aces. Withers held jacks and a jack came on the flop. As a result, Raymer's stack has dwindled a bit. Fortunately, the blinds are still manageable and are giving the shorter stacks an opportunity to play a bit.

There are also a few FOBs (Friends of Bloggers) out there, as well.


Scott Bush


Patrick "curzdog" Curzio

Of course, many notable names remain in contention. Since they are far too many to name and be fair about it, I'll refrain from naming the notables who are still running.

We will play two more levels tonight before breaking for the evening. Tomorrow, we will play either five levels or down to 27 players, whichever comes first (my money is on the five levels, but whatta I know).

The players return from dinner in 16 minutes. I'll have another report in a while.