Nick Schulman is the proud owner of the chip lead at the end of the second day’s poker in Monte Carlo, scene of the sixth PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final. The 25 year old from Manhattan is a clear leader with 742,500 in tournament chips, exactly 100,000 ahead of second placed David Sesso.
The action got underway at the Bay Hotel & Resort on Sunday, with 351 players turning up for Day 1A of the €10,000 + €600 buy-in EPT Grand Final. As ever, there were plenty of star names present for the event, with former World Series of Poker Main Event champions Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker both surviving the day’s poker, joined by the likes of Liam Flood and Aaron Gustavson. Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius were not so fortunate however and Simon Munz was the man who came out on top of the pile, with a stack of chips 175,200 deep.
Day 1B saw three players better Munz’s tally, with Thiago Nishijima of Brazil taking a clear chip lead into the second day, his 264,200 towering over the 195,500 of closest rival Paul Berende, a PokerStars qualifier. A total of 497 Day 1B entrants, including Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Joe Hachem and Humberto Brenes, swelled the European Poker Tour Grand Final prize pool to €8,480,000 – 848 players, all vying for a €1,700,000 first prize.
The EPT Grand Final has drawn plenty of big names from other sporting arenas too, with tennis stars Gael Monfils and Boris Becker in attendance, as well as Teddy Sheringham, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Petter Northug and Mats Sundin.
Day 2 got off to a flyer, with the 413 players who started the day being reduced by a hundred in around two hours, but the day’s poker came to a grinding halt, with plenty of stalling and calls for the clock as the first payout spots, worth €15,000, drew nearer. Play went hand for hand with 37 minutes left and Ake Olsson was the poor unfortunate to burst the bubble, just two hands in.
So Day 3 of the EPT Grand Final will begin with Nick Schulman at the head of a 117 strong field, but there is still a wealth of poker talent involved, including EPT Berlin champion Kevin MacPhee, EPT Copenhagen winner Anton Wigg, PokerStars Pros Victoria Coren, Lex Veldhuis and Juan Manuel Pastor and of course Chris Moneymaker, who sits tenth in chips.
Moneymaker has been working had to improve his game, stating, “I want to prove to myself that I can win tournaments again”, before adding, “now it’s time hopefully to get one and I’m in great position”.
Don’t count him out.
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