The largest buy-in in the history of PokerStars live events jumped off on Monday in Monte Carlo, where a showdown between all-time money leaders Bryn Kenney and Stephen Chidwick is shaping up for Tuesday's Day 2.
The EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller is only the second '250K' that PokerStars has offered and it is now the largest buy-in in the their history of live events. The first was at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with a $250K entry fee, but that was in USD.
Monte Carlo's 2026 edition is €250K, which amounts to around $292K on the foreign exchanges. The rest was relatively similar. A field of 39 entries turned out to The Bahamas in 2023, while 38 showed up to the French Riviera for this one.
Chidwick fires second bullet
From those 38 entries a group of 14 players now remain, with German Christopher Nguyen leading a trip of million-chip stacks into Day 2. He's followed by Artur Martirosian and Alex Kulev, both EPT veterans and both with seven-figure bags.
But a lot of drama lurks down the card, where everyone who is anyone on the high roller circuit still has a seat. Biao Ding leads the rest of the group, but Mikita Badziakouski, Isaac Haxton, Enrico Camosci, and fan favorite Jean-Noel Thorel still have chips.
Not to mention Kenney and Chidwick, who are fixed in the middle of the pack for a run at another final table clash after they faced off in Sunday's One Drop final table. Kenney, who is in for one quarter-million bullet, leads the all-time money list by about $3.3 million over Chidwick, who is in for two entries after an unlucky first shot that ended against Orpen Kisacikoglu.
Chidwick had one chip left after a disastrous opening run but it was fully committed against Orpen and Kulev on a board of 
. Both players checked and Opren turned over 
to take everything and send Chidwick to the rebuy window with a dusty deuce-three.
The British pro would chip up to around 370K from the 250K starting stack, while Kenney more than doubled his resources on Day 1 with a bag of 540K chips.
All 14 players will return to play for the top prize of €3,212,000, a win that could move Chidwick to the top of the all-time money list. The top six players will wrap up at least €651K and second place will pocket just over €2M. Play kicks off again for the Day 2 finale at 12:30pm local time with a plan to play down to the winner.
Catch everything live on the PokerStars YouTube channel, where you can find replay coverage of the late stages of Day 1.
2026 EPT Monte Carlo €250K Day 2 chip counts (Blinds: 10K/15K/15K)
- Christopher Nguyen - 1,505,000
- Artur Martirosian - 1,485,000
- Alex Kulev - 1,335,000
- Aleksejs Ponakovs - 885,000
- Biao Ding - 775,000
- Mikita Badziakouski - 620,000
- Bryn Kenney - 540,000
- Isaac Haxton - 460,000
- Enrico Camosci - 420,000
- Stephen Chidwick - 370,000
- Bernhard Binder - 330,000
- Jean-Noel Thorel - 330,000
- Leon Strum - 245,000
- Orpen Kisacikoglu - 200,000
Images courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings, Ltd.
