Day 1 of High Roller Shortened by Request, Khoroshenin Leads

The three-day €25,750 High Roller at the PokerStars Championship Monte Carlo kicked off Wednesday with an abbreviated schedule due to the request of players to attend the Champions League Semifinal match of AS Monaco vs. Juventus. After seven levels of play 143 entrants were cut to 95 remaining players with Oleksii Khoroshenin leading the field.

The usual suspects like Byron Kaverman, Dan Colman, Dominik Nitsche and Mustapha Kanit all bagged up six-figure counts to advance. PokerStars Team Pros Felipe Ramos, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier and Igor Kurganov return for Day 2 with above average stacks. Boeree had an extended period of sitting side-by-side with her boyfriend and newest Team Pro Kurganov.

Dvoress is on an incredible run in Monte Carlo – so far racking up $1.7 million across three high roller events: third place for $908,595 in the €100,000 SHR, runner-up in the €50,000 HR for $710,108 and seventh for $108,998 in Tuesday’s €25,500 event.

Keven Stammen is one of the shorter returning stacks and has an interesting situation brewing – he’s already qualified for Day 2 (Sunday, May 7) of the partypoker Million North America at Playground Poker through an online Day 1 flight. With CAD$1 million guaranteed to the winner in Montreal and $1 million guaranteed to winner in this event, Stammen has to decide which tournament is more profitable.

Day 2 has ten, 60-minute levels scheduled for a long day for advancing players. Cards hit the air at 12:30 pm local time and late registration is open through the first three levels in the single re-entry event.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Oleksii Khoroshenin – 208,000
2. Daniel Dvoress – 207,100
3. Max Silver – 202,400
4. Josip Simunic – 195,500
5. Justin Bonomo – 183,300
6. Julian Stuer – 176,000
7. Erik Seidel – 165,500
8. Daniel Negreanu – 150,800
9. Vlado Banicevic – 147,000
10. Charlie Carrel – 143,000