Friday, 29th March 2024 06:45
Home / Uncategorized / EPT11 Grand Final: No stack higher than Steve O’Dwyer’s in €25K, end Day 1

The €25,000 High Roller Event #61 is shaping up to provide an exciting finish to the EPT season Friday to go alongside the end of the concurrently-running Main Event. We’ve seen the best players in poker in nearly every event throughout the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final festival, and it seems nearly all of them wanted to be here for this last big one before saying goodbye to Season 11.

Speaking of exciting finishes, the last level of the €25K provided plenty of excitement just prior to the final bagging, with EPT9 Grand Final Main Event champion Steve O’Dwyer winning a big one near the end to nudge ahead of a remaining field full of top talent and snare the overnight chip lead.

Event 61 EPT 11 Grand Final chip leader Steve O Dwyer Tomas Stacha DSC_8377-2.jpg

Steve O’Dwyer
David Dayan had enjoyed the lead for most of the evening as play wound down, then near night’s end he and O’Dwyer tangled before and after a ten-high flop, at the conclusion of which O’Dwyer was all in with ace-queen versus Dayan’s pair of jacks. A river queen gave O’Dwyer the better pair and the big pot, and a few hands later he was sealing up a leading 330,200.

Just a few big blinds back of O’Dwyer is Tony Gregg (325,800), with Max Altergott (311,100), Pablo Melogno (290,000), and Matt Waxman (248,500) forming a formidable chase pack.

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu arrived late, scored an immediate double-up, then accumulated steadily thereafter to end well with 182,000.

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Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu
Team PokerStars Online Pro Ike Haxton is nearly equal to Negreanu (181,700), with four more red-spade sporting Team PokerStars Pros — Jason Mercier (71,900), Eugene Katchalov (50,000), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (47,200), and Liv Boeree (31,200) — also still with chips.

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Team PokerStars Online Pro Ike Haxton
There were 202 total entries for the High Roller on Day 1, including 42 re-entries. That means 160 unique players taking part — one more than the 159 uniques from a year ago.

A total of 89 made it through to tomorrow’s Day 2, with Mayu Roca, Scott Seiver, Dani Stern, Andrew Chen, and Sorel Mizzi, Martin Finger, and Erik Seidel among the many big names with big stacks.

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Moving around the room, right around the time the €25K was crossing the Day 1 finish line, two other events saw their last hands dealt and winners emerging.

The €1,000 NL Single Re-Entry — Event #54 — at last wrapped up after Luciana Manolea busted in third, a two-way deal was struck, then Jonas Lauck outlasted Mikal Blomlie to take the title.

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Jonas Lauck
Here’s how the final table paid in that one:

Event #54, €1,000 NL Hold’em – Single Re-Entry
Entries: 198
Prize pool: €192,060
Places paid: 27
1. Jonas Lauck (Germany) — €37,312*
2. Mikal Blomlie (Norway) — €33,958*
3. Luciana Manolea (Romania) — €19,770
4. Raffaele Sorrentino (Italy) — €16,110
5. Joao Brito (Portugal) — €12,850
6. Atanas Kavrakov (Bulgaria) — €9,880
7. Diogo Cardoso (Portugal) — €7,180
8. Mikhail Nikolaev (Latvia) — €5,210
9. Marc Bebawi (USA) — €4,300
*denotes two-way deal

And in the tournament room’s other corner it was the British player George Rankin managing to come away with the Event #62 €500 Pot-Limit H.O.R.S.E. title, worth €3,870. That makes a second title this series for Rankin who also just won Event #53, the €500 H.O.R.S.E. of the fixed-limit variety.

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George Rankin (again!)
Event #62, €500 Pot Limit H.O.R.S.E. – Superstack
Entries: 19
Prize pool: €9,215
Places paid: 4
1. George Rankin (UK) — €3,870
2. Giuseppe Zarbo (Italy) — €2,580
3. Adam Owen (UK) — €1,660
4. Pierre-Olivier Jandaud (France) — €1,105

Other events are still playing out, with some close to finishing and others still a ways away, including the last one of the night, a €500+€500+€100 NL Midnight Turbo Bounty “Win the Button” tournament (Event #66). We’ll be back tomorrow to recap all of those before starting what will be the busiest day yet of the festival with no less than twelve events in action.

That’s a lot to follow. Let’s all get go some rest and start it up again here around midday tomorrow, shall we?

Click here for a continually updated list of all side event results from the EPT11 Grand Final.

Follow all the action from the €10,000 Main Event is on the Main Event page. Also watch on EPT Live. It’s also about time you downloaded the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS.

Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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