April 24 2012, Lee Davy

After 10 hours of pulsating poker of the highest quality, the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Super High Roller field was whittled down to a final table of eight players. The lucky and skilful octet will be returning on Wednesday at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) vying for their share of a staggering “4,432,500 prize pool. First place will walk away with “1,640,000, and currently occupying the top spot in chips is Justin Bonomo with a stack of 4,393,000.

Bonomo is a shining example of how fickle the game of poker can be. He goes into the final table with a commanding chip lead, but it could have been very different for the man who has $2,902,638 in live tournament winnings to his name.

With blinds at 3,000/6,000 Tony G opened the action with a raise to 14,000, and Patrik Antonius made the call before Bonomo three-bet to 46,000. Tony G came right back at him with a three-bet to 114,000, Antonius folded, and Bonomo moved all in for 400,000. The players were expecting something big, the media was expecting something big, but nobody expected what happened next!

Tony G folded , face up, and the whole tournament floor seemed to stop in time! A shocked Bonomo dragged in his pot, and as you know, went on to become chip leader. Did Bonomo have aces? Did Bonomo get a Christmas and birthday present rolled into one? Only Bonomo knows the answer, but from that moment on, he dominated proceedings and is in great shape when the final table begins on Wednesday.

Joining Bonomo on that final table are Tobias Reinkemeier (1,682,000), Masa Kagawa (1,076,000) and Patrik Antonius (338,000). Those three will be joined by four Team PokerStars Pros: Daniel Negreanu (1,581,000), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (1,265,00), Jonathan Duhamel (654,000) and Eugene Katchalov (262,000).

PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final Super High Roller Final Table Lineup

Please make sure you keep it locked on PokerNews at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) on Wednesday to find out who is going to be a millionaire for the day. There’s a share of “4,432,500 up for grabs and all of the action will come to you from the pages of PokerNews.

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April 23 2012, Donnie Peters

The PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final “100,000 Super High Roller wrapped up Day 1 on Monday. A total of 38 players came out and plopped down the massive six-figure buy-in, with a few of them tossing in a second bullet for re-entry. At the end of the day, there were five re-entries.

After the first eight levels of play, 29 players remained when the chips were bagged and tagged, and Talal Shakerchi from the United Kingdom topped the pack. He bagged up a whopping 1.165 million in chips, thanks large in part to busting Team PokerStars Pro Viktor Blom on one of the last hands of the night.

With the blinds at 2,500/5,000/500 in the last level of the night, Blom raised to 10,000 under the gun and Shakerchi called. Tom Marchese also called and the flop came down . Blom checked, Shakerchi bet 17,000 and Marchese folded. Then, Blom check-raised to 68,000 and Shakerchi called.

The turn was the and Blom fired 108,000 into the pot. Shakerchi stood his ground and made the call to see the fall on the river. Blom bet 140,000 and Shakerchi moved all in. Blom went to insta-call and reached for his chips, but then thought for a bit before finally making the call. Shakerchi turned over for the nut flush and beat Blom’s . Blom was eliminated, but still has until the start of Day 2 to re-enter if he so pleases.

Coming in behind Shakerchi is 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, and Dan Shak and Tobias Reinkemeier. Other notables remaining include Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Daniel Negreanu.

Negreanu was short on chips towards the end of the day, but battled hard to the end. On one hand following the dinner break, a short-stacked Negreanu doubled through Masa Kagawa to get back to over 100,000 in chips. Kagawa raised to 10,500 and Negreanu reraised all in for 59,000. Kagawa called and tabled and Negreanu showed . The flop, turn and river ran out and Negreanu doubled up.

Of the few who were eliminated on Day 1, only Leon Tsoukernik re-entered and then was eliminated again. Still, he claimed he’ll be back on Tuesday for Day 2. The others who hit the rail on Monday were Sam Trickett, Govert Metaal, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Artem Litvinov, Gus Hansen, Jason Mercier and Daniel Cates. All of them still have the option to re-enter up until the start of the event on Tuesday. Justin Bonomo, Isaac Haxton, Bill Perkins and Dieter Albrecht all busted once on Day 1, re-entered and then made it through to Day 2.

“100,000 Super High Roller Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Day 2 kicks off at 1300 CEST (0400 PDT). It’s already been made known that both Gus Hansen and Tsoukernik will be firing another bullet into play, so that should account for two more chunks of cash added to the prize pool. Stay tuned to the PokerNews Live Reporting Team for all the action from the felt.

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