Nick Petrangelo Leads Remaining 143, Bubble Bursts at End of Play

Day 2 of the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo Main Event opened with 340 players for a prize pool of €3,525,950 after picking up 11 new entrants. Players learned that 143 spots would pay and it took all day for the bubble to burst, leaving Nick Petrangelo holding a sizable lead with 562,000 in the bag.

The surviving field may be the strongest yet in the PokerStars Championship Tour’s short history with Patrik Antonius, Faraz Jaka and Fabrice Soulier in the top ten counts. Daniel Negreanu, Dan Smith and Maing Loeser all return in the top 20% of stacks.

Celina Lin, Bertrand Grospellier and Liv Boeree join Negreanu as the only remaining Team Pros for PokerStars. Poker Central ambassador Maria Ho, Daniel Dvoress, Jack Saler, Christoph Vogelsang, Martin Jacobson and former EPT Grand Final winner Jan Bendik all remain in contention.

In the money #PSCMonteCarlo with a healthy stack of chips. This event is quite juicy.

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) May 1, 2017

The min-cash came in at €7,580 and nine players collected a payout as the day ended with four hands remaining. Vicky Coren Mitchell, Jason Mercier and Byron Kaverman were among those that busted while the remaining field bagged chips.

Mercier busted holding pocket tens against Douglas Souza’s ace king when an ace hit the flop. Prior to that, Ho doubled holding Broadway against an opponent’s set of jacks that continued the bubble.

Davidi Kitai assured all returning players to Day 3 were in the money after he eliminated Salvatore Candido Graziano on the money bubble. Graziano was short-stacked holding pocket queens, Kitai rolled over ace king of spades and spiked an ace on the flop to send Graziano out the door without a payout.

Five-figure payouts of €12,080 begin at 71st place, a trip to the final table locks up €58,740 and the final six players all earn six-figure prizes – the winner with €500,800.

Play resumes for Day 3 on Tuesday at noon where the schedule calls for five, 90-minute levels before ending for the night.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Nick Petrangelo – 562,000
2. Michael Kolkowicz – 470,500
3. Patrik Antonius – 452,500
4. Faraz Jaka – 416,500
5. Mark Teltscher – 408,000
6. Stefan Shillhabel – 402,000
7. Sebastian Malec – 382,500
8. Andreas Klatt – 375,000
9. Fabrice Soulier – 364,500
10. Dmytro Shuvanov – 353,000