Home / Poker News May 2009 / EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final – Day 2 report
EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final – Day 2 report
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-05-01 14:32
Approximately 500 Day 1a and Day 1b survivors took their seats at the tables of the EPT’s Monte Carlo Grand Final.
Day 2 saw the emergence of two European players to dominate the top of the provisional chip leader board. As the field whittled down to 138, it was Marc Naalden from Holland who took the chip lead, having amassed a stack of 777,000 chips.
Annette Obrestad from Norway finished the day in second with 671,500 chips.
Many of the name players who managed to survive the first two days, busted out early on Day 2. The slew of eliminations was opened by Andy Bloch, who shoved all-in on his K,K against Jarred Solomon’s pocket 10s. The board failed to improve either hand and thus Bloch was eliminated.
Raymond Rahme was part of the initial flurry of eliminations too, unfortunately for him, he ended up on the wrong end of it. His Q,Q was outrun by Steve Berdah’s A,K who managed to flop a pair of Ks. Boris Becker, who had maneuvered his way through Day 1b was also eliminated. Ivan Demidov, Chris Ferguson, Arnaud Mattern, Dario Minieri, James Obst and Rolf Slotboom also failed to advance to Day 3.
Joe Ebanks on the other hand had an excellent Day 2. He started climbing up the leader board early on and eventually he finished the day in 3rd place, behind Naalden and Obrestad.
Lee Nelson, the combined chip leader of Day 1a and Day 1b had a much tougher session. He did manage to make it to Day 3 though, but he finished Day 2 with fewer chips than he’d started it with.
Jason Mercier also had a rough day. Having been seated at a tough table, he struggled all day long against Phil Laak. He eventually got crippled by Laak, on a bluff which blew up in his face, and was forced to shove all-in on A,9 against an opponent’s Q,Q. He busted out near the day’s end.
Annette Obrestad managed to keep things going despite a few early setbacks. She hovered close to the chip lead all through the day and managed to take down a huge pot near the end of the action to secure 2nd place on the provisional leader board.
