The European Poker Tour Season 10 Player of the Year race is on, and as you know players will be able to accumulate points in all events throughout Season 10, regardless of the buy-in level. In addition, all of the Festival Events (Estrellas, UKIPT, Eureka, FPS, IPT) that combine with an EPT tour stop will be eligible for Player of the Year points. The winner of this season’s award will walk away with €50,000 in Main Event buy-ins, good for any PokerStars or Full Tilt sponsored event.
The Global Poker Index (GPI) points formula, which will be used to determine the EPT10 POY, is a bit complicated, but you can read about all the details here. Best French player? Erwann Pecheux in the number 92 spot.
Here are the current top ten on the EPT10 POY Leaderboard (last updated Jan. 23, 2014):
Place
Player
Points
1
Ole Schemion
781.39
2
Vanessa Selbst
736.22
3
Thomas Muhlocker
594.30
4
Georgios Karakousis
512.31
5
Mike McDonald
490.74
6
Jonathan Little
480.01
7
Kenny Hallaert
416.40
8
Andrew Chen
414.18
9
Max Silver
412.50
10
Jeff Rossiter
408.43
We'll be bringing you daily updates on the Player of the Year race, so be sure to keep an eye out for those.
Just dropping in for an update on the first Day 1 flight from EPT10 Deauville? Scroll down through the hand reports for play-by-play of happenings thus far, then pop over to the PokerStars blog for more from the floor.
This afternoon the PokerStars bloggers have talked with Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov about his "lifestyle change" that has created a new and improved self as told in "Before and after Eugene." Then Laura Cornelius of PokerStars.tv spoke with Katchalov about a perplexing hand from today in "How to bamboozle Eugene Katchalov."
EPT8 Loutraki champion Zimnan Ziyard just took down a multi-way pot but he had to fire more than one shell to get over the line. On the flop Ziyard checked, Denisov Aleksandr fired out a bet of 1,000, Jorge Ufano flat called, Ziyard check-raised to 3,350 and Ufano was the only caller.
The hit the turn, Ziyard bet 6,800 and Ufano slid his cards towards the dealer and mucked.
Fergal Nealon, a PokerStars player from Ireland opened for 800 and got raised by Dominik Nitsche to 2,100. On the button, live satellite qualifier Rony Halimi four-bet to 6,000. Nealon folded and Nitsche, looking none too impressed, tossed his cards in.
Omar Idder from France opened for 1,000 on the button and Dominik Nitsche called in the small blind. They went heads-up to a flop of . Nitsche check / called a bet of 2,000 and did the same on a turn card , this time for 2,500. The river was the and they both checked. Idder showed for middle pair and the missed flush draw and gave a grimace when Nitsche with a shrug turned over to tie for the pot.
On a flop Keith Johnson fired out a bet of 2,000. Shyam Srinivasan - who finished fourth at this years PCA - raised to 4,600, Tatu Maenpaa made the call and Johnson did likewise. The fell on the turn, it checked to Maenpaa, he bet 8,400 and Johnson (painfully) and Srinvasan (reluctantly) both folded.
Maenpaa is one of if not the chip leader as he has an impressive stack of 106,000.
On a flop we saw Oleksii Khoroshenin bet out 1,700. Right next to him EPT London 2013 third place finisher Olof Haglund made the call. Chakib Bennani on the button bumped it up to 3,500. Both players made the call and all three of them checked the on the turn. The hit the river and Khoroshenin checked to Haglund. The Swedish player made it 7,200 and Bennani made a rather quick call. Khoroshenin folded and Haglund said "I have kings" before turning over his . That hand bested Bennani's which he gracefully mucked seconds later.
Kenny Hallaert had doubled down to about 14,000 but doubled up moments later when he busted Philippe Lima who had a 13,000 stack. Lima, who doubled Hallaert earlier on as well with , now had . Hallaert had pocket eights in the preflop all in confrontation and won the important flip.
Pre-flop Jerome Huge (small blind), Eric Theissen (middle position) and Maksim Semisoshenko (button) all put in 2,100 with Huge having the betting lead. He kept that distinction by betting 1,800 on the flop, both players called though and the fell on the turn.
First to act Huge fired a bet of 2,400 and one by one his opponent's folded, the Frenchman showed as he claimed the pot.