Morten Hvam Leads Final Six Players in the 2022 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo �5,300 Main Event
Six players out of a 1,073 entry strong field remain in the EPT Monte Carlo �5,300 Main Event and the conclusion of the 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino?? is just around the corner. The biggest slice of the �5,204,050 prize pool is still up for grabs when a winner will be crowned at the Salle des Etoiles in Le Sporting Monte Carlo on Saturday, May 6, 2022.
Best-positioned to claim the top prize of �939,840 is Morten Hvam with 7,350,000 in chips, which is good enough for 92 big blinds. It is already certain that a new first-time EPT Main Event champion will be crowned in the second-biggest tour stop at the French Riviera. The last former champion was Niall Farrell, who became the first casualty on the penultimate day and missed out on becoming the third two-time winner of the popular live poker series.
Hvam was the chip leader after Day 1b and Day 3, then spent the majority of Day 4 at the top of the leaderboard and was only temporarily surpassed by Marcelo Simoes Mesqueu. The Brazilian follows in second place with 6,890,000 and there is a small gap to the nearest contenders.
Hugo Pingray sits in third place with a stack of 5,525,000 and will aim to add an EPT Main Event title to his WSOP gold bracelet from back in 2014. PokerStars qualifier Erkan Soenmez (4,850,000) and Jaime Cervantes (4,735,000) are separated by two big blinds only and Dragos Trofimov rounds up the line-up with 3,085,000.
2022 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo �5,300 Main Event Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcelo Simoes | Brazil | 6,890,000 | 86 |
| 2 | Morten Hvam | Denmark | 7,350,000 | 92 |
| 3 | Jaime Cervantes | United States | 4,735,000 | 59 |
| 4 | Erkan Soenmez | Germany | 4,850,000 | 61 |
| 5 | Hugo Pingray | France | 5,525,000 | 69 |
| 6 | Dragos Trofimov | Moldova | 3,085,000 | 39 |
The last player to bust was 2019 PokerStars Players NL Hold'em Championship winner Ramon Colillas, who became an ambassador for the brand after the marquee victory and had to settle for consolation prize of �125,420.
Among the Day 4 casualties was also multiple SCOOP and WCOOP title winner Jussi Nevanlinna, Zhong Chen, Nariman Yaghmai and WSOP bracelet winner Justin Saliba.
The penultimate day kicked off in remarkable fashion when former champion Farrell was flushed away by chip leader Hvam after his pocket queens for an overpair to a nine-high flop were cracked by the jack-eight suited of the Dane. Only a few minutes later, Saliba lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket sevens of Soenmez, who flopped top set and turned a full house to leave Saliba drawing dead.
Another premium pocket pair sealed the fate of Yaghmai when Simoes flopped two pair with queen-nine to crack pocket aces and soar to a big stack in the process. Ferenc Deak then fell victim to the hot run of Hvam when both flopped two pair and the field was whittled down further soon after with the eliminations of Francky Magliocco and Zhong Chen.
On the bubble for the unofficial final table, Simoes struck again when he looked up the shove by Nevanlinna on a seven-high flop with pocket jacks. The Finn had a ton of outs with a gutshot straight flush draw but found no help to reduce the field to the final nine contenders.
Colillas never got much going in the early stages of the day but scored a fortunate double with ace-queen against the pocket queens of Yannick Cardot. Fellow Spaniard Alejandro Romero started well into Day 4 but was chipped down prior to the final table, then lost most of his chips against Cardot and bowed out soon after.
A costly clash with Trofimov sent Colillas to the bottom of the leaderboard once more and what followed was agony for Cardot when his pocket aces were cracked by the pocket kings of Simoes. Trofimov then finished the job he had started prior to the dinner break and sent Colillas to the rail in a flip to end the poker action for the night.
The final six players will return to the feature table set in the Salle des Etoiles at 12.30 pm local time on Saturday, May 7, 2022. There are 76:13 minutes remaining in level 28 at blinds of 40,000/80,000 and a big blind ante of 80,000.
As usual, the conclusion of the tournament will be broadcasted on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels with commentary and cards-up coverage on a security delay of 30 minutes. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the final day to provide all the key hands according to the delay of the live stream action en route to crowning a new EPT champion.
Day 4 Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | �939,840 | ||
| 2 | �564,640 | ||
| 3 | �397,590 | ||
| 4 | �298,710 | ||
| 5 | �228,460 | ||
| 6 | �167,050 | ||
| 7 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | �125,420 |
| 8 | Yannick Cardot | France | �89,770 |
| 9 | Alejandro Romero | Spain | �69,990 |
| 10 | Jussi Nevanlinna | Finland | �58,130 |
| 11 | Zhong Chen | Netherlands | �58,130 |
| 12 | Francky Magliocco | France | �52,090 |
| 13 | Ferenc Deak | Hungary | �52,090 |
| 14 | Nariman Yaghmai | Iran | �46,890 |
| 15 | Justin Saliba | United States | �46,890 |
| 16 | Niall Farrell | Scotland | �41,680 |