Andreev Leads Final 12 Players; Jacobson & O'Dwyer Still in Contention
The 2015 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo? Casino EPT Grand Final �10,600 Main Event is down to a final table, while just a dozen players remain in the �25,000 High Roller, a single-reentry tournament that attracted 215 entries �� 162 unique (159 on Day 1 + three on Day 2) and 53 reentries (42 on Day 1 + 11 on Day 2) �C and created a prize pool of �5,267,500. Of that, �1.114 million is reserved for the eventual winner.
After 10 levels of play, just 12 players remain with Russian amateur businessman Andrey Andreev and his stack of 2.27 million best positioned to make a run at the title. Others still in contention include Charlie Carrel (1.534 million), Jeremy Ausmus (1.126 million), Martin Jacobson (628,000), and Steve O'Dwyer (356,000).
The day started off with some players jumping in at the last minute, but Phil Ivey, Vanessa Selbst, and Gus Hansen �C who've all been spotted in Monaco �C were not among them. Of the hundred or so players in action, only 31 of them would earn a payday.
Among the dozens to leave with nothing to show were Daniel Colman, Mustapha Kanit, Erik Seidel, Faraz Jaka, Mike "Timex" McDonald, and defending champ Philipp Gruissem. Likewise, Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Liv Boeree, and Daniel Negreanu were all eliminated short of the money.
The high roller's bubble boy ended up being a familiar face in Poland's Piotr Franczak, who suffered a particularly bad beat to bubble the �100,000 Super High Roller earlier this week. This time, he dwindled down to nothing and failed to spin it up.
High Roller events continue to grow. PokerNews examines the EPT11 Grand Final �25K and its place in the grand scheme of things. Check it out here.
From there, the in-the-money eliminations came at a rapid pace and included Christoph "Tight-Man1" Vogelsang (29th - �46,400), Sorel Mizzi (26th - �51,600), Matt Waxman (24th - �51,600), Igor Kurganov (22nd - �56,800), and Scott Seiver (20th - �62,100).
Seiver, who finished runner-up in the same event last year, made history in Monaco by completing a high roller hat trick, cashing in the �100,000 Super High Roller (8th - �261,800), �50,000 Super High Roller (9th - �92,860), and �25,000 High Roller (20th - �62,100). While other players like Selbst and Ole Schemion have completed a Super High Roller/High Roller/Main Event hat trick at other EPT stops, the EPT11 Grand Final was the first time there's ever been three high rollers of this caliber.
Seiver, who also won Event #43 �5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha for �75,900 while in town, fell when he shoved his last 124,000 from the cutoff and Andreev called from the button.
Seiver: 
Andreev: 
The 
flop gave Andreev a set, but Seiver was drawing live to an eight. The 
gave Seiver some chop options to a flush, but it was not meant to be as the 
blanked on the river.
Before the end of the night, several other players would hit the rail including Team Online's Isaac Haxton (17th - �70,000), $111,111 One Drop High Roller champ Tony Gregg (16th - �70,000); and Azerbaijan's Ramin Hajiyev (14th - �77,900).
The plan tomorrow is to play down to a winner, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting will there every step of the way to capture all the action. Until then, check out this video of Bryn Kenney, who finished in 13th place for �86,800, talking about million-dollar swings: