Befitting an end-of-season "Grand Final," the final eight might be the toughest in EPT history.
Leading the way is Steve O'Dwyer, again proving few have played/run better in Europe over the last two years. With a string of big final tables across the continent, O'Dywer will enter his biggest yet with 4,452,000 in chips.
Right behind O'Dwyer, and also with a bit of distance on the rest of the field, is Matchbook CEO Andrew Pantling who we featured on PokerListings back on Day 4. Pantling had yet another strong day in Monaco, where he says he feels very comfortable, bagging up 4,180,000.
Cody, Negreanu, Lodden and Mercier Make Four
While the two leaders have some breathing room at the top the six players joining them on the final table while be plenty difficult to finish off.
Four of them, in fact, are Team PokerStars pros lead by newest signee Jake Cody.
Coming into play today as the short stack with just 266,000 in chips, Cody picked his spots wisely and managed to leapfrog all the way up to third overall with 1,633,000.
Cody could become the first two-time EPT champ tomorrow, as could Jason Mercier, who finished the day in seventh overall with 824,000.
Sandwiched between them are two more PokerStars pros in Daniel Negreanu (1,581,000) and Johnny Lodden (1,402,000).
Negreanu is coming off a win at the WSOP APAC main event along with several other deep cashes and might have the most momentum he's had in poker since 2004.
Rounding out the final eight are highly respected pros Noah Schwartz (1,068,000) and Aussie Grant Levy (786,000). Chip counts and seating assignments for tomorrow's final:
Seat 1 Jake Cody UK 1,633,000 Seat 2 Jason Mercier USA 824,000 Seat 3 Andrew Pantling Canada 4,180,000 Seat 4 Grant Levy Australia 786,000 Seat 6 Daniel Negreanu Canada 1,581,000 Seat 7 Noah Schwartz USA 1,068,000 Seat 8 Johnny Lodden Norway 1,402,000Busting out just shy of the final table were Freddy Deeb (9th - €76,000), John Juanda (11th - €60,000), Victor Ramdin (13th - €47,000) and Andrew Lichtenberger (14th - €47,000).
Watch the final table streaming live with hole cards (on a 1-hour delay) right here on PokerListings starting tomorrow at 2 pm CET (8 am ET).
A massive €1,224,000 awaits the winner and €842,000 the runner-up. All are at least assured of €103,000.
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