April 25 2012, Donnie Peters

The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Super High Roller played down to a champion on Wednesday. The man walking away with the title and “1.64 million first-place prize was start-of-the-day chip leader Justin Bonomo.

Bonomo was one of the seven players to re-enter this event, firing in two bullets worth “100,000 each. He was the only one of the seven to cash, and his move to re-enter ultimately proved to be correct. At the start of the day, Bonomo held over 40 percent of the chips in play at the final table. He never lost the lead, eliminating five players en route to victory.

The first player eliminated on the day was the short-stacked Eugene Katchalov, one of four Team PokerStars Pros to make the final table. He fell in eighth place to set the tournament on the official money bubble.

The bubble was a very large one, with the difference between cashing and not a whopping “310,000. Falling in seventh place was 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel after he ran into the pocket aces of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.

With the blinds at 15,000/30,000/4,000, Grospellier raised to 60,000 from the hijack seat. Duhamel reraised all in from the small blind and Grospellier quickly called after Daniel Negreanu folded from the big blind. Grospellier rolled over the and Duhamel’s was in bad shape. Duhamel was drawing dead on the turn and headed out the door empty-handed.

Shortly after Duhamel’s exit burst the bubble, Negreanu was all in preflop with against Bonomo’s pocket tens. The dealer flopped Bonomo a set of tens, and he held from there to send Negreanu out the door in sixth place.

Fifth place belonged to Japan’s Masa Kagawa as he fell at the hands of both Bonomo and Tobias Reinkemeier. In a three-way all-in pot, Reinkemeier held , Bonomo and Kagawa . The board ran out to chop Kagawa out of the tournament.

Patrik Antonius was eliminated in fourth place after he stuck the last of his chips in on a board with . His hand was second best to Bonomo’s , giving Bonomo a massive chip lead with only Reinkemeier and Grospellier in his way.

Grospellier was the third-place finisher when he jammed a combo draw against Bonomo’s top pair and failed to get there, setting up the heads-up battle between Reinkemeier and Bonomo. When the match began, Bonomo had a massive advantage with 9.58 million chips to Reinkemeier’s 1.675 million. From there, things didn’t last too long.

On the final hand, Reinkemeier opened the button to 125,000 with the blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000. Bonomo three-bet to 350,000, and Reinkemeier moved all in for around 1.5 million. Bonomo called and tabled the . Reinkemeier held the .
The flop came down and Bonomo took the lead with top pair. The turn left Reinkemeier needing a four on the river to double up and stay alive. The dealer burned one final time and then dealt the on the river. Reinkemeier had missed and was eliminated in second place.

Before this win, Bonomo’s largest score came in 2009 when he took fifth in the WSOP’s $40,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $413,165. When we wrote Bonomo’s bio, we said that if he cashed, he’d eclipse the $3 million mark for live tournament cashes. Not only has he done that, but he has surpassed the $5 million mark, as well, and scored the second major title of his career.

Final Table Payouts

Our very own Lynn Gilmartin spoke with Bonomo table side after his victory.

PokerNews is not done here from the EPT Grand Final, so be sure to follow along with our coverage of the Main Event over the next several days.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Donnie Peters on

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!

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.

If you love poker, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for all the latest updates on the World Poker Tour.

Follow Donnie Peters on