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11:55am: Season 6 of the FPS about to begin

Whilst the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final series marks the end of Season 12 of the European Poker Tour, the FPS Monaco event is the start of Season 6 of the French Poker Series.

So, what can we expect over the next five days? Well if history has taught us anything the answer is players and lots of them. Given the queue of players snaking out the door to buy into yesterday's satellite to this €1,100 event it shouldn't come as a shock if this event breaks some records.

Last year Sebastian Supper topped a field of 993 to claim the trophy and €177,000. He defeated a final table that included the like of Pablo Gordillo, Joseph Mouawad and Luca Moschitta to seal the deal.

On that occasion 265 came out for the first of two Day 1 flights so today's final total of players will be a good barometer of the likelihood of this event reaching the 1,000 player mark.

As we did last season we'll see the champion crowned under the bright lights of EPT Live, with the final taking place on Sunday. There's a lot of poker to be played before then though. Cards are in the air at noon.

Key FPS Monaco Facts:

- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 50/100 for 250 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be 12 of them. From Day 2 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes. 
- Day 1A is today, Day 1B takes place tomorrow, the field will then combine for the first time on Friday. We'll reach the money during the 10 levels of play on Day 2 (approximately 15% of the field will be paid) and then play down to a final table on Saturday. On Sunday the final table will play out on the TV table on EPTLive with cards-up coverage. Cue mad celebrations and swigging of champagne from the trophy (possibly). 
- Full FPS Monaco schedule here.
- There's a boat load of other events today including a €100+€20 satellite to this event. That tournament starts at 16.00 CET.
- It's not all about the poker here in Moncao. There are plenty of #StarsFun activities including the player party at Jimmy'z Nightclub on April 29 a Sports Simulator Challenge and Live Spin and Gos. Full details on that available here.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at FPS Monaco: Martin Harris and Nick Wright. Photos by Jules Pochy. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

With so many skilled players turning up to play week after week, Super Tuesday final tables almost always have a compelling storyline. Sometimes it's a past champion attempting to repeat, or a massive comeback, or even repeated showdowns between the same two players. Almost never, though, does a single final table involve all three of those things. Tonight's final table was an outlier, though, and an entertaining one at that, leading to a new career-best PokerStars score for Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen, already winner of more than $1 million in PokerStars tournaments.

Things started, as they do every week, 2:00 p.m. ET. This week's tournament drew 436 entries for a $436,000 prize pool and $82,840 scheduled for the winner. As the tournament went to break just before its fifth hour of play began, the money bubble was near. With 66 players in and 63 paid, the United Kingdom's Wallyayay led the way with 600K in chips, approaching four times the 165K average. At the other end of the ladder were 10 players in the danger zone with 12 big blinds or less. Within 15 minutes three of them lost their grip on the tournament, with Israel's DEdgge bursting the bubble in 64th place and guaranteeing a minimum of $1,918.40 to everyone else who managed to hold on.

After almost seven and a half hours of play the final table bubble finally arrived, and when it did, it didn't look like it would last too long. Sweden's Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen was holding less than three big blinds and in need of a miracle just to stay alive. He caught one on his big blind, making three of a kind with [9h] [4d] when a pair of fours landed on the board to beat 2014 WCOOP finalist huiiiiiiiiii's [Ah] [Kc].

That hand wasn't the last time those two players would meet heads-up, and it sparked more than 20 minutes of tense hand-for-hand play as both tables that finally came to an end when dadowiec's [Jh] [Jd] faced down Festivuss's [As] [Qs]. A jack on the flop made a set for dadowiec, knocking Festivuss out in 10th place ($5,232) to set up this final table with blinds and antes at 15K/30K/4.5K:

Seat 1: Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen (426,598 in chips)
Seat 2: AATheLeach (332,904 in chips)
Seat 3: dadowiec (1,409,303 in chips)
Seat 4: orange6 (2,175,582 in chips)
Seat 5: pulbier (1,497,682 in chips)
Seat 6: huiiiiiiiiii (834,145 in chips)
Seat 7: Jonathan "OMGjonyctt" Concepcion (3,249,555 in chips)
Seat 8: XstepBYstepX (690,038 in chips)
Seat 9: marlin5555 (284,193 in chips)

Just as a coin flip decided the final table lineup, another one determined the first player to depart from it. marlin5555, who took 9th in the Super Tuesday last spring, re-raised all-in with a pair of sevens after orange6, a 2010 SCOOP & 2012 Sunday Warm-Up winner, opened with a small raise in early position. orange6 called with [Ah] [Jd], caught a jack on the turn, and marlin5555 might just have experienced déjà vu exiting in 9th place ($7,237.60)

Orange roll

orange6 won a million-chip pot on the next hand after flopping a set of jacks and getting 2013 WCOOP winner dadowiec to call down on all three streets before mucking on the river. Aside from that, though, the trend was for pots to be taken down on the flop or turn with a bet or raise. AATheLeach held on with less than 10 big blinds through that stretch before making a final stand, shoving for 148K under the gun with [9c] [7c]. That raise nearly stole the pot, but Perrymejsen only had to call 108K more in the big blind with [Ts] [3s]. That would have been enough to win unimproved, but the trey on the flop of the [Jd] [6s] [3d] [4h] [Qs] cinched the 364K-chip pot and AATheLeach left in 8th place ($9,810).

A few hands later orange6 won another significant pot. It came in a blind-versus-blind showdown, with orange6 holding [As] [Ks] in the small and pulbier in the big with [Ac] [Qs]. The action went raise-shove-call, with pulbier at risk for 1.02M. Neither player paired their kicker, but the three spades on the [Tc] [9s] [6s] [5s] [7c] board made a flush for orange6. That won the 2.1M-chip pot, and pulbier bowed out in 7th place ($14,170). It's the second solid performance on the big stage in April for pulbier, who was part of a five-way chop in Sunday Warm-Up last week.

dadowiec, down to just nine big blinds, picked up pocket aces on the next hand and doubled to 827K when original raiser XstepBYstepX called dadowiec's all-in with [8h] [8s]. The board didn't make a set, leaving XstepBYstepX the new short stack with 638K. Four hands later XstepBYstepX had the misfortune to run into another overpair, this time with [Td] [Tc] against huiiiiiiiiii's [Qd] [Qs]. Just like before, there was no set in the cards, and XstepBYstepX finished in 6th place ($18,530).

Four hands later orange6 struck again. This time the past SCOOP winner opened for a small raise under the gun with [As] [Ks], getting a call from dadowiec in the big blind. The action after the [8s] [9s] [Ad] flop went check-bet-shove, and orange6 called to see dadowiec shown down [Ac] [Tc]. The [9h] turn changed nothing and the [Qs] river made a flush to seal the 1.48M-chip win for orange6. With that, dadowiec departed in 5th place ($23,980).

Four for the score

It was now 10:17 p.m. ET and these four players were still in the hunt for this week's Super Tuesday title:

Seat 1: Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen (827,501 in chips)
Seat 4: orange6 (4,207,984 in chips)
Seat 6: huiiiiiiiiii (2,447,814 in chips)
Seat 7: Jonathan "OMGjonyctt" Concepcion (3,416,701 in chips)

With only Perrymejsen's 20-big-blind stack feeling much pressure from the slow structure, the pace of play would be pegged to the Swede's performance. And on the first hand of four-handed play, he evened things out enough to make sure that performance wasn't dictated by the whims of the deck. Perrymejsen picked up [Ac] [9d] and opened for 85K on the button, which orange6 dipped into the time bank to consider before re-raising to 225K. Perrymejsen then shoved for 821K and orange6 called with [As] [7h], losing out on the [8c] [Td] [Kd] [Ah] [7h] board and boosting Perrymejsen's stack to 1.7M chips.

Another 43 hands took the foursome to the tournament's tenth and final hour, which boosted the blinds and antes to 30K/60K/9K. Even that jump couldn't force anybody into an error, though, and they continued four-handed for another level. huiiiiiiiiii and Perrymejsen drove the action for the bulk of that time, with orange6 and 2013 WCOOP winner/two-time Super Tuesday champ Jonathan "OMGjonyctt" Concepcion both getting involved from time to time. The largest pots all went to Perrymejsen until, with blinds and antes at 40K/80K/12K, orange6 took a stand and called with [Ad] [Qh] after limping in the small blind only to see huiiiiiiiiii move all-in for 1.64M. huiiiiiiiiii's [2d] [2s] was a slim favorite and stayed in danger the whole way, but emerged a 3.33M-chip winner after the board came down [8h] [Tc] [6h] [6c] [7s].

That left orange6 with five big blinds, all of which ended up going in from the big blind three hands later with [As] [4s]. But huiiiiiiiiii was ahead again, this time with [Ad] [Kh]. Neither player improved on the [3d] [Qh] [Th] [7c] [9d] board, eliminating orange6 in 4th place ($34,008).

To the end of the road

After 71 minutes of four-handed play the blinds and antes had already advanced twice, so when they went up again the pressure was turned up on the shortest stack. In the end it took just 11 minutes to reduce the field a final time. Concepcion, who had been sitting back for most of the final table and had only recently been reduced to 1.2M chips by the shorthanded action, had to make a move - and quickly. Sitting in the small blind with [Kc] [8h], he moved all-in - and Perrymejsen called, also holding [Ks] [8s].

That pot was split, and Concepcion still needed a boost. Two hands later he picked up [Ks] [8d] again, this time in the big blind, and he chose to call with it when huiiiiiiiiii jammed from the small blind. Unfortunately huiiiiiiiiii had [Ad] [Kh], and when the board ran out [3d] [6c] [3s] [5d] [Qs] Concepcion was denied a third Super Tuesday win in 3rd place ($44,690).

It was now 11:39 p.m. ET and two players who had squared off on the final table bubble two hours earlier were facing each other heads-up for a Super Tuesday title. They immediately agreed to talk about a deal with their stacks looking like so:

Seat 1: Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen (4,779,622 in chips)
Seat 6: huiiiiiiiiii (6,120,378 in chips)

They settled on a deal giving huiiiiiiiiii $73,710 and Perrymejsen $65,169, with $5,000 on the table for the winner. With that done, they played out the last 14 hands of the tournament.

Ten of those went Perrymejsen, including all three of the key pots. The first, won with a raise on the river after huiiiiiiiiii made a probing bet, was worth 1.8M and put Perrymejsen in front by 10 big blinds. The second was still small after huiiiiiiiiii semi-bluffed on a royal flush draw with the [Qs] in the hole and [8d] [As] [Ts] [Ks] on the board, but ballooned to 2.9M after huiiiiiiiiii fired one more time for 888K once the blank [3c] hit the river. Perrymejsen called with [Ad] [6h] for top pair, moving up to 7.65M chips and dropping huiiiiiiiiii's stack to 3.2M.

Five hands later huiiiiiiiiii picked up pocket nines in the big blind and re-raised to 550K after Perrymejsen min-raised on the button. The action went shove-call from there, and Perrymejsen showed down [Qc] [Qd]. No nines showed up, and the chip-and-a-chair comeback was complete.

huiiiiiiiiii took home the biggest share at $73,710.76, with the extra money on the table giving winner Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen a new career PokerStars-best score of $70,169.24. Not bad for a guy who already had more than $1 million in earnings here. Congratulations to both players for their strong performances!
4/26/16 Super Tuesday ($1,050 NL Hold'em) results
Entrants: 436
Total prize pool: $436,000
Places paid: 63

1. Jerry "Perrymejsen" Ödeen (Sweden) $70,169.24
2. huiiiiiiiiii (Austria) $73,710.76*
3. Jonathan "OMGjonyctt" Concepcion (United Kingdom) $44,690
4. orange6 (Israel) $34,008
5. dadowiec (Poland) $23,980
6. XstepBYstepX (United Kingdom) $18,530
7. pulbier (Netherlands) $14,170
8. AATheLeach (Netherlands) $9,810
9. marlin5555 (Canada) $7,237.50
*Reflects the results of a two-way deal that left $5,000 in play for the winner

With the EPT Grand Final festival underway and the Main Event set to begin this weekend, we played around with a few figures, adding up the career earnings of every one of the 110 EPT Main Event winners (from 111 events) and comparing them to what they won in that moment of triumph. 

* Who are the most successful EPT winners?
* Which winners took their money never to be seen again?
* Who are the most successful "first cash" EPT Main Event winners?

Well now you can find out. 

The numbers might be out by a few dollars, mainly because we rounded up (and down) in some case. Also because the figures were compiled last month, so it does not include any cashes in the past four weeks. But they give a general picture. 

These aren't definitive statistics, others statistics are available, only as part of a calorie controlled diet, may cause hyper-tension, etc. etc.

Does being an EPT winner guarantee even more success?

Winning an EPT Main Event is likely to do wonders for your bank roll, and then more. The combined career earnings of all EPT winners is $324,217,000, that from nearly $118 million in EPT first place prize money so far. 

That means the average earnings of an EPT winner is $2,920,874 (for 110 different winners in 111 events). So does that apply to every winner? Well, not exactly. Only the top 18 EPT champions have earned that figure or more. 

Who are the biggest EPT Main Event winners?

Biggest EPT Main Event prizes:

1. Glen Chorny (EPT Grand Final) $3,190,000
2. Pieter de Korver (EPT Grand Final) $3,020,000
3. Poorya Nazari (PCA) $3,000,000
4. Gavin Griffin (EPT Grand Final) $2,400,000
5. Galen Hall (PCA) $2,300,000

And the biggest when the PCA and Grand Final are excluded?

1. Constant Rijkenberg (EPT Sanremo) $1,970,000
2. Sebastian Ruthenberg (EPT Barcelona)  $1,940,000
3. Michael Martin (EPT London) $1,830,000
4. Liv Boeree (EPT Sanremo)  $1,690,000
5. Sander Lylloff (EPT Barcelona) $1,600,000

And the smallest (all, unsurprisingly in Season 1)?

1. Alex Stevic (EPT Barcelona) $98,000
2. Ram Vaswani (EPT Dublin) $117,000
3. Brandon Schaefer (EPT Deauville) $186,000
4. Noah Boeken (EPT Copenhagen) $191,000
5. Pascal Perrault (EPT Vienna) $244,000

Who needs an EPT Main Event win anyway?

Highest earners among EPT winners, not including their EPT Main Event win:

1. John Juanda ($1,160,000 -- Barcelona) $16,940,000 in total
2. Jason Mercier ($1,300,000 -- Sanremo) $15,100,000
3. Steve O'Dwyer ($1,600,000 -- Grand Final) $13,370,000
4. Mike McDonald ($1,300,000 -- Dortmund) $11,680,000
5. ElkY ($2,000,000 -- PCA) $8,900,000
6. Mike Watson ($728,000 -- PCA) $8,342,000
7. Patrick Antonius ($343,000 -- Baden) $6,437,000
8. Davidi Kitai ($931,000 -- Berlin) $5,979,000
9. Martin Finger ($964,000 -- Prague) $5,636,000
10. Roland de Wolfe ($697,000 -- Dublin) $4,633,000

EPT Main Event win as a share of their career tournament earnings:

Ram Vaswani ($117,000 - EPT Dublin) $3,490,000 (3%)
Patrick Antonius ($343,000 - EPT Baden) $6,780,000 (5%)
John Juanda ($1,160,000 - EPT Barcelona) $18,100,000 (6%)
Jason Mercier ($1,300,000 - EPT Sanremo) $16,400,000 (8%)
Mike Watson ($728,000 - PCA) $9,070,000 (8%)
Mike McDonald ($1,300,000 - EPT Dortmund) $12,980,000 (10%)
Steve O'Dwyer ($1,600,000 - EPT Grand Final) $14,970,000 (11%)
Noah Boeken ($191,000 - EPT Copenhagen) $1,780,000 (11%)
Mark Teltscher ($495,000 - EPT London) $4,160,000 (12%)
Roland de Wolfe ($697,000 - EPT Dublin) $5,330,000 (13%)

One hit wonders

Which EPT Main Event winners credit their win for most of their career earnings?

Number of EPT winners who have earned more other than their first prize money?

57 of 110 players (51.8 per cent) have gone on to win more than the amount they won for their EPT Main Event win. 

Where are they now (longest time elapsed since last cash)

Michael Schulz - June 2010
Allan Baekke - June 2010
Jan Boubli - November 2010
Roland de Wolfe - December 2010
Will Fry - April 2011
Jan Skampa - December 2011
Mats Gavatin - March 2012
Carter Phillips - July 2012
Mads Andersen - July 2012
Peter Jepsen - November 2012

First time's a charm

For 11 players their EPT Main Event win was their first ever live cash: 

Jason Mercier won $1,300,000 at EPT Sanremo (has since added $15,100,000 in live earnings).
Mark Teltscher won $495,000 at EPT London ($3,665,000 since).
Jeff Williams won $1,080,000 at EPT Grand Final ($1,040,000 since).
Brandon Schaefer won $186,000 at EPT Deuville ($974,000 since)
Mats Iremark won $586,000 at EPT Deauville ($674,000 since).
Ben Wilinofsky won $1,170,000 at EPT Berlin ($220,000 since).
Antonio Matias won $603,000 at EPT Vilamoura ($115,000 since). 
Joseph Mouawad won $1,200,000 at EPT London ($110,000 since).
Andre Lettau won $1,040,000 at EPT Barcelona ($100,000 since).
Julian Track won $994,000 at EPT Prague ($36,000 since) 
Michael Schulz won $684,910 at EPT Warsaw ($18,000 since).

Second time's a charm

For eight players their EPT Main Event win was their second live cash:

David Vamplew won $1,400,000 at EPT London (has since won $2,240,000).
Harrison Gimbel won $2,200,000 at the PCA ($1,260,000 since)
Lucien Cohen won $1,190,000 at EPT Deauville ($350,000 since)
Michael Eiler won $976,000 at EPT Vienna ($194,000 since)
Peter Jepsen won $415,000 at EPT Warsaw ($189,000 since)
Sander Lylloff won $1,600,000 at EPT Barcelona ($100,000 since)
Mikalai Pobal won $1,230,000 at EPT Barcelona ($90,000 since)
Constant Rijkenberg won$1,970,000 at EPT Sanremo ($50,000 since)

Third time's a charm

For five players their EPT Main Event win was their third career cash:

Jake Cody won $1,200,000 at EPT Deauville ($2,930,000 since)
Galen Hall won $2,300,000 at the PCA ($1,810,000 since)
Carter Phillips won $1,200,000 at EPT Barcelona ($1,480,000 since)
Pieter de Korver won $3,020,000 at the EPT Grand Final ($1,050,000 since)
Aaron Gustavsson won $1,350,000 at EPT London ($260,000 since)

That means for 24 players their EPT Main Event win was one of their first three live cashes (or 21.6 per cent of winners)

Click here to follow updates from the EPT12 Grand Final festival. By the time it concludes at the end of next week all of the above will be out of date.