Thursday, 28th March 2024 17:26
Home / Uncategorized / FPS Monaco: Dean-Henri Taibi takes over, leads to end Day 2

Much like the night’s penultimate level, the last hour of Day 2 of the France Poker Series Main Event at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final festival was fast-paced. Many more cashed, others held steady, and a few built their stacks upwards and upwards like the mountains reaching up into the Monte Carlo sky at night.

At the close of play, the most mountainous pile of chips belonged to Dean-Henri Taibi, who after grabbing the chip lead following the bursting of the bubble continued to climb steadily to end with 1,325,000.

EPT_GrandFinal_FPS-341_Dean-Henri Taibi-2.jpg

Dean-Henri Taibi

Jose Besalduch also did well for himself today, ending with 1,218,000.

EPT_GrandFinal_FPS-348_Jose Besalduch.jpg

Jose Besalduch

Romain Bier won a big three-way all in during the last level to earn a couple of knockouts and a huge pot, helping him end with 1,198,000.

EPT_GrandFinal_FPS-344_Romain Bier.jpg

Romain Bier

And Sergio Braga likewise managed to join the seven-figure club, ending with 1,183,000.

EPT_GrandFinal_FPS-345_Sergio Braga.jpg

Sergio Braga

The day began with 314 players, with Frederik Treusch returning as the chip leader to start the day. Soon others began to challenge him, however, as the action moved quickly early on, with Simon Deadman winning a big one to jump up near the top of the counts.

Andre Akkari was one of a handful of Team PokerStars Pros returning on Day 2, and in fact he would be one of two to last into the money despite spending much of the afternoon well away from his stack participating in a shoot of a new Shark Cage episode. Akkari would ultimately finish 69th.

EPT_GrandFinal_FPS-324_Andre Akkari.jpg

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari

Soon the bubble drew near, and as Akkari was being blinded down the field was carved to 144. Then following a protracted hand-for-hand period the bubble finally burst, even though we didn’t quite describe it in those terms at the time.

Once Cedric Demore unfortunately fell a spot shy of the cash, the knockouts came rapidly with the final 143 working all of the way down to just 57 by night’s end. The cashers included Simon Deadman (59th), Valeriu Coca (73rd), Alexander Kuzmin (74th), Timo Pfutzenreuter (94th), Ben Warrington (101st), Dimitar Danchev (105th), Amos Ben (117th), Kevin MacPhee (128th), Team PokerStars Pro Julien Brecard (131st), Heinz Kamutzki (132nd), Abdullatif Attia (140th), and Jack Salter (142nd). Click here for an up-to-date list of payouts.

Meanwhile EPT4 Prague winner Arnaud Mattern (270,000) and La Maison Du Bluff star Abou Sy (213,000) were among those surviving the night. Click here for a look at the chip counts for all of those who survived Day 2.

They’ll reconvene tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. for Day 3, with the plan being to play down to the eight-handed final table. Let’s plan to get back together then as well to see who emerges from those remaining to scale to the tournament’s mountaintop and claim the €177,000 first prize on Sunday.

Meanwhile, continue to enjoy coverage of other events including the €100,000 Super High Roller via those links on the right. Bon soir!

EPT Monte Carlo_Tomas_Stacha_STA_3941.jpg

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.

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app