EPT Grand Final Day 1
April 14, 2008
Day 1a and 1b of the European Poker Tour grand final in Monte Carlo have been played and there's still over 400 of the 842 starters still alive in the tournament.
PokerStars pro and 2005 WSOP champ, Joe Hachem, lasted through day 1 and will start day two with 45,000 in chips.
Former tennis star Boris Becker wasn't so lucky and neither was last years winner, Gavin Griffin, both bowing out during todays play.
Every qualifer has either paid the €10,000 +€600 ($15,764+$946 USD) buyin or won their way to the tournament via a PokerStars online satellite.
The brazen Daniel Negreanu, another PokerStars pro, declared that he was ready to 'Eat Brains' when predicting his success in this tournament.
He said 'I'm in that killer mindset, like I literally want to eat people's brains. Just literally rip their brains to shreds after an appetizer of ripping their hearts out of their chests, taking a big bite out of them, and then spitting the blood back in their faces.'
We're not sure if the usually vegan Negreanu ate any brains, but he survived the day's play and will look to wreak some zombie style havoc Monday.
Young Frenchman, Cyril Bensoussan, kept his brains intact as well. He skyrocketed up the leaderboard in the waning hours of play today, finishing with around 130,000 chips - good for the lead going into day 2.
The total prize pool hasn't been announced yet, but it is likely it will be one of the biggest ever tournaments to be held in Europe. Now in it's fourth season, the European Poker Tour has experienced spectacular growth, and is starting to rival the more established World Poker Tour in size of fields and prizemoney.
The Monte Carlo event has a little ways to go before it matches the excitement of the $25,000 WPT finals at the Bellagio, but if poker continues to grow in Europe and the Euro continues to outmarch the greenback it won't be long before we have a new premier poker tour on the world stage.
