At noon the tournament will start its second starting day. Yesterday was a rather easy going day with just 234 players in action. Exactly a hundred wouldn't make it through the eight 75-minute levels and had to forfeit their chips early.
Today should be a lot busier. Last year Remi Castaignon triumphed over a 782 other players, if this years PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Main Event wants to beat those numbers we'll need at least 548 players today. The tournament room can handle those numbers, but will the players be here?
A lot of familiar names are in attendance here in Deauville today. Team PokerStars Pro's Jake Cody and Luca Pagano will play today, last years runner up Walid Bou Habib (2nd for €475,000) will start with 30,000 in chips and Niels Van Leeuwen, yesterdays French Poker Series winner, will start. And then there's Patrick Bruel, the accomplished French singer, actor, and professional poker player will make his appearance today. Not to sing a nice little intro song, but to gather all of the chips in the room.
PokerNews' live reporting starts in just under half an hour. Follow the action right here, from start to finish - what should be around midnight.
It’s Day 1B of the EPT10 Deauville Main Event, so it’s a case of "once more, just like before" today, just with a lot more players. Check out last night’s wrap, the overnight chip counts, and how to best follow today’s coverage (all in a bite-sized chunk) by clicking through to the PokerStars Blog.
After the usual amount of fidgeting and waiting and pacing and chatting and coffee-drinking and cigarette-smoking and nervousness, Day 1B is under way in Deauville. There are rappers, former champions and men dressed in tweed (and shark suits), as described on the PokerStars blog.
JP Kelly started out so good today, but after losing two big pots his once oh so big stack is reduced to a mere 12,500.
In the first of the two big hands Tobias Peters raised it up to 450 under the gun. Peters received five callers, including Kelly in position. On a rainbow board Peters continued for 1,150. The player in seat five made the call and Kelly bumped it up to 3,800. Both Peters and seat five made the call.
On the on the turn Peters checked to seat five. That gentleman all of the sudden bet out 7,000 and Kelly made the call. Peters now shoved all in for 18,000 total and seat five reluctantly folded. Kelly made the call and showed a set of eights, but he was drawing to a single out against Peters set of nines. The river spelled doom for Kelly who lost that big pot.
Not much later Kelly squeezed to 2,000 from the small blind after a cutoff open and button call for 500 each. The cutoff folded but Uladzimir Zakharau made the call on the button. and Kelly continued with a 1,600 bet. Zakharau made the call and the man from Belarus also snap called the 4,800 turn bet Kelly made after the had hit. The fell on the river and with four hearts out there Kelly now checked. Zakharau bet 10,000 and Kelly quickly released.
While raking in the chips Zakharau showed the , and later the for the rivered nuts. Kelly wasn't bluffed, but that knowledge doesn't get him his chips back for now.
November 2011 David Boyaciya out of nowhere won the biggest tournament in Holland; the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam for €382,200. Not even a month later he travelled to Prague for the European Poker Tour. He finished runner up to Martin Finger for another €535,000.
Boyaciyan had found his calling and continued to crush tournaments all over the world. He travelled to the PCA where he cashed in a side event, made two cashes at the World Series that year and made the final table in a Partouche Poker Tour side event. Not much later it was time for Prague again and once more he made the final table. This time he ended up third for €310,000.
Boyaciyan is playing good and running well. He's playing today and so far enjoying himself. So far so good as Boyaciyan is playing 48,000 at the moment. Boyaciyan isn't splashing his chips just yet, small pots are what he's playing. The only slightly bigger pot was one where his opponent tried to bluff him. Boyaciyan called the raise on the turn and bet on the river with pocket aces. His opponent had complete air and had to forfeit his chips to the Dutch pro.
German players' recent run of success both on the EPT and elsewhere — especially in High Roller and Super High Roller events — has everyone on notice. It also has everyone curious about what might be the reasons behind their winning ways, too. Team PokerStars Pro Jan Heitmann of Munich has some ideas to share on the subject — read them on the PokerStars blog.
If somebody has won a live poker Triple Crown it means that they've won a WSOP Bracelet, a WPT Main Event and an EPT Main Event. Currently only five players hold that distinction Gavin Griffin was the first to achieve this feat and Roland De Wolfe the second. They weren't playing today but the other three were:
Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier: PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (Jan, 2008), WPT Festa Al Lago (October, 2008) and $10,000 7-Card Stud WSOP Bracelet (June, 2011).
Jake Cody: EPT Deauville (Jan, 2010), WPT London (August, 2010) and WSOP $25,000 no-limit Hold'em Heads-Up bracelet (May, 2011)
Davidi Kitai: WSOP $2,000 pot-limit Hold'em bracelet (June, 2008), WPT Celebrity Invitational (February, 2011) and EPT Berlin (April, 2012)
Whilst there are plenty of players who need an EPT title to complete the set - which is the toughest way to to do it as there are less EPT's per year than WSOP or WPT - there are only two players in the field here in Deauville who can crash the party. They both played yesterday and Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov (74,000) and Dominik Nitcsche (54,400) are both in with a shot or doing just that.
As for those already in the 'club' it wasn't a great day for Kitai as he's already out but Cody (41,800) and Grospellier (23,100) are still in.
Govert Metaal started the day with a nice hand where his aces beat someones queens on a low board. That made for a good start but the rest of the day wouldn't be so prosperous.
Metaal told us he had limped in under the gun with . Someone had isolated to 550 and two player called before action was back on Metaal again. He limp squeezed to 1,900 and just the player who had isolated him made the call.
Metaal flopped gin on rainbow and made a 2,000 continuation bet. His opponent made the call and the popped up on the turn. Metaal bet 4,100 and called the raise to 8,400 that followed. The river was a complete blank and Metaal check called a 12,000 bet.
Metaal's opponent had for the nuts and Metaal had to forfeit his cards. That left the Dutch regular with just 6,600 in chips. Not much later we saw him heading for the exit. No comeback for Metaal is seems.
We may be live reporting the Main Event, but we also wanted to bring you results from the France Poker Series (FPS) £1,000 Main Event, which attracted 1,095 players.
Given it was a French series, it was no surprise to see the tournament dominated by Frenchman; in fact, seven of the eight finalists were playing in their home country with the two chip leaders. Christophe Leroux and Jean-Paul Vasseur from nearby towns Trouville and Louviers respectively. The one anomaly was the Netherlands’ Niels van Leeuwen.
As final table action wore on, Leroux ended up busting in fifth for €45,000, while Vasseur and Van Leeuwen made it all the way to heads-up play. Vasseur had homefield advantage and a massive rail to boot, but it wasn’t enough as Van Leeuwen emerged victorious to capture the €175,000 first-place prize.
Here’s a look at the latest FPS results:
FPS €1,100 Main Event Results
Place
Player
Prize
1st
Niels van Leeuwen
€175,000
2nd
Jean-Paul Vasseur
€115,000
3rd
Yehoram Houri
€82,100
4th
Corentin Ropert
€60,100
5th
Christophe Leroux
€45,000
6th
Erwann pecheux
€33,000
7th
Mathieu Mariani
€25,000
8th
Fahd Kaabat
€21,580
The FPS isn’t quite over yet though as the €2,000 FPS High Roller is still playing out. The tournament attracted 303 people, and it’s likely an impromptu third day will be added to accommodate the players. PokerNews will bring you a recap of that tournament upon its completion.
Word has reached us that the EPT9 Deauville champion Remi Castaignon is out. A French blogger caught up with Castaignon after the event and got some details which he then passed on to us. On his exit hand Castaignon four-bet to 3,500 from a stack of 9,600 with pocket sevens out of the small blind. The original raiser folded, but the three-better made the call. The flop was Q-J-5 with two diamonds, Castaignon committed the rest of his chips and was actually in good shape against however his opponent made a flush to send him to the rail.
Other exits include: Clement Genon-Catalot, [Removed:2], Antonio Buonanno, Maxime Broyer, Govert Metaal, Robert Volker, Tarek Bouchama, Sylvain Loosli, Radu Lungu and Fare Bdiri.
Just 364 of the 425 paid up members of Day 1b remain.
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rainbow board Peters continued for 1,150. The player in seat five made the call and Kelly bumped it up to 3,800. Both Peters and seat five made the call.
on the turn Peters checked to seat five. That gentleman all of the sudden bet out 7,000 and Kelly made the call. Peters now shoved all in for 18,000 total and seat five reluctantly folded. Kelly made the call and showed a set of eights, but he was drawing to a single out against Peters set of nines. The river 
spelled doom for Kelly who lost that big pot.
and Kelly continued with a 1,600 bet. Zakharau made the call and the man from Belarus also snap called the 4,800 turn bet Kelly made after the 
had hit. The 
fell on the river and with four hearts out there Kelly now checked. Zakharau bet 10,000 and Kelly quickly released.
, and later the 
for the rivered nuts. Kelly wasn't bluffed, but that knowledge doesn't get him his chips back for now.
. Someone had isolated to 550 and two player called before action was back on Metaal again. He limp squeezed to 1,900 and just the player who had isolated him made the call.
popped up on the turn. Metaal bet 4,100 and called the raise to 8,400 that followed. The river was a complete blank and Metaal check called a 12,000 bet.
for the nuts and Metaal had to forfeit his cards. That left the Dutch regular with just 6,600 in chips. Not much later we saw him heading for the exit. No comeback for Metaal is seems.
however his opponent made a flush to send him to the rail.