Bonjour and welcome to the beginning of the end… the start of the finish… le début de la fin. The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final series is here, the final destination of Season 11 of the European Poker Tour!
It’s a packed festival, with no less than 78 events scheduled over the next couple of weeks with buy-ins ranging from a few €110 “flipout” tournaments up to the €100,000 Super High Roller.
Our coverage begins this afternoon with the focus on the France Poker Series Monaco Main Event, which also marks the start of FPS Season 5. It’s a €1,100 buy-in event with two Day 1 flights, the first of which kicks off at noon local time. A year ago Ukraine’s Yury Nesterenko topped a big 837-entry field in the FPS Monaco Main Event to earn the trophy and a €150,000 first prize, the largest share of a €811,890 prize pool.
A glimpse at the list of players registered for Day 1A reveals a number of familiar names, including that of Team PokerStars Pro Online’s Gabriel Nassif who final tabled this event a year ago, finishing seventh. Rocco Palumbo, Thiago Nishijima, Govert Metaal, Ivan Luca, and Alex Bilokur are among those listed as coming out today as well.
There will be plenty of other action at the tables surrounding the FPS Monaco Main Event as that hefty schedule gets cranked up here at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino. Among the other tournaments scheduled there will be a €330 pot-limit Omaha event, a €550 limit hold’em event, a €220 pot-limit Courcheval high/low turbo later tonight, plus satellites to both the FPS Main Event and the €100K Super High Roller that gets started tomorrow. The popular €330 FPS Monaco Cup gets started tonight as well.
Stick close as we’ll be providing updates and images all day long from today’s first day of action as we carry you from the first shuffle to the final showdown from Monaco.
Key FPS Monaco Main Event Facts:
– Players begin with 25,000 in chips
– Blinds start at 50/100
– Levels are 45 minutes for the Day 1 flights, becoming an hour long on Day 2
– The tournament is scheduled to play 12 levels today
– Registration is open until the start of Level 5
– There will be a 75-minute dinner break after Level 9
To get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts, don’t forget to download the EPT App on both Android or IOS.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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