"The largest poker tournament to ever take place in Europe"

One of the poker calendar’s biggest events, the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour €10,000 Grand Final began over the weekend with an enormous total of 842 runners making it the largest poker tournament to ever take place in Europe.

Set in the sumptuous locale of Monte Carlo’s Bay and Hotel Casino Resort, the players are competing for a first prize of a staggering €2,020,000.

PokerStars brought their full team of pros out en masse, including Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, and defending champion Gavin Griffin. The huge prize pool also saw an influx of superstars from around the globe with Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Roland De Wolfe, Marcel Luske, Patrik Antonius and even tennis icon Boris Becker putting their chips across the line.

There were a slew of high-profile eliminations at the weekend but Hansen remains with a commanding chipstack and Negreanu is also hanging in there, a popular addition to any tournament.

Online legends Johnny Lodden and Shaun Deeb are battling for the chip lead at the moment, but there is a long, long way to go yet with 382 players remaining and play scheduled to run until Thursday 17th April.