The survivors from both Day 1 flights came together on Wednesday at the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino European Poker Tour Main Event to play five more hour-and-a-half levels. After Day 2, just 107 players remain and the money bubble has burst. It is a two-way race at the top of the leaderboard, with Wiktor Malinowski leading with 769,000 chips and Julien Martini just behind with 735,000.
Overall, it’s quite the competitive race at the highest reaches of said leaderboard. Six more players have more than 600,000 chips and the entire top ten has at least half a million. With blinds starting at just 2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 chip ante on Thursday, stacks are very deep.
After the two starting flights, there were 903 entries in the tournament, which permitted a single re-entry per player. I mentioned in my last EPT Monte Carlo article that because registration was open until the start of Day 2, there was a slight chance that this could become the second largest iteration of this tournament, as the 2009 event had a field of 935. I doubted it would happen, though, as late registrations prior to the beginning of a tournament day are typically very low. And I NAILED IT! There were 19 more entries before cards were in the air, bringing the total field to 922. Actually, I was surprised that there were even that many late entries. We often see just a handful.
Malinowski jumped into the chip right at the end of the night, busting two players in a row. On the first hand, he had Queens versus Diego Zeiter, who was all-in with Eights. The board ended up Seven-high, which would normally be really good for Zeiter, but he didn’t hit a set and just missed a straight.
On the next hand, the very last one of Day 2, Mike Watson shoved with Q-9 and Malinowski called with pocket Tens. Again, the board was low and Malinowski’s pair stayed true.
A total of 135 players will make the money; the min-cash is €8,800 for the €5,300 tournament. The next payout is €9,660 and will remain so until after the 96th place player busts out. Six-digit payouts will not be seen until seventh place. The top prize is €827,700 so, yes, there are some significant pay jumps.
This will only be Malinowski’s third recorded live tournament cash. One of the two, though, was a seventh place finish in the Super High Roller event of this same EPT Monte Carlo for €264,860 ($295,217), so if there was a time to start collecting money finishes, this is it.
Day 3 will pick up at noon local time and is slated to go at least another five levels.
2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino European Poker Tour Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
- Wiktor Malinowski – 769,000
- Julien Martini – 735,000
- Seth Davies – 684,000
- James Romero – 630,000
- Jean-René Fontaine – 628,000
- Pablo Melogno – 607,000
- Ludovic Geilich – 606,000
- Ami Barer – 604,000
- Paul Michaelis – 573,000
- Fionn Macnamara – 542,000