Former Champ Eychenne Leads Final 48 in EPT Monte Carlo Main Event

Lower than a 12 months after his iconic victory within the 2025 EPT Barcelona Important Occasion, Thomas Eychenne is gearing up for an additional deep run.

He leads the sector on the hunt for the distinguished EPT trophy and the €825,000 high prize after Day 3 of the 2026 EPT Monte-Carlo €5,300 Important Occasion.

Finish of Day 3 Prime Ten Chip Counts

Eychenne was one of many 48 gamers nonetheless standing from the sector of 1,011 entries at Sporting Monte-Carlo on the finish of the evening and shoveled the large quantity of 1,846,000 into his bag, good for over 150 huge blinds when play resumes.

Moroccan all-time cash chief Mehdi Chaoui additionally had a stellar day and sits in second with 1,686,000, intently adopted by 2015 EPT Deauville champion Ognyan Dimov (1,634,000) and Staff PokerStars’ Raul Mestre, the latter of which made a splendid hero-call on his strategy to a stack of 1,627,000.

The 2023 EPT Monte-Carlo runner-up Leonard Maue and 2024 winner Derk van Luijk each ended Day 3 with high ten stacks as nicely, searching for repeat success at this legendary venue as they eye one of many greater shares of the €4,903,350 prize pool.

The remainder of the sector isn’t any much less stacked than the highest ten. Dimitar Danchev and Jason Wheeler recorded their twenty first and twentieth cashes in an EPT Important Occasion, respectively. They each made Day 4, with Danchev sitting on 340,000 chips and Wheeler having bagged 508,000. Excessive-stakes prodigy Bernhard Binder completed the evening with 740,000, whereas start-of-day chipleader Rodrigo Selouan ended up with 547,000 after a tough day. In the meantime, Benny Glaser and Joao Vieira are among the many shorter stacks, bringing stacks of 278,000 and 105,000 into Day 4.

On the opposite aspect of the coin, 2009 EPT Warsaw winner Christophe Benzimra (151st – €9,200) was the primary casualty of Day 3, with fellow champion Hossein Ensan and PokerStars ambassador Maria Konnikova receiving the identical quantity not a lot later. David Lappin performed his first EPT Important Occasion underneath the Purple Spade flag, however fell in 74th for €12,150, whereas Finnish poker legend Juha Helppi was among the many closing eliminations of the evening after a deadly encounter with Eychenne, cashing €16,100 for his Fifty fifth-place end.

The remaining 48 gamers have secured the identical quantity, with a pay soar to €18,500 occurring when 39 stay. Six-figure prizes are ready for the highest seven finishers, whereas making the ultimate desk will assure a payout of €99,450.

Remaining Payouts