Day Leads After Day 1A of the PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville
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This week the European Poker Tour has returned to French shores for the PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville event. The tournament, which was won last year by Frenchman Remi Castaignon, saw 234 players try their luck on Day 1A with eight levels of action being the order of the day.
Chris Day was the chip leader at the end of the day after finishing with 154,100 – precisely a single chip more than Jorma Nuutinen who is in second place with 154,000. Day had tweeted during the early parts of the tournament that he was on a crazy table which seemed to feature six-bet pots and players winning big hands with things like third pair. The British player nearly reached the 200,000 mark having won a 100,000 chip race with queens against ace-king. Although he lost some chips towards the end, so did some of the other big stacks, ensuring Day would be in pole position for Day 2.
With many players arriving during Day 1A, choosing to play online or still in the French Poker Series Main Event or High Roller, the names involved were slightly rarer than those expected for Day 1B. Team PokerStars Pro was represented by Eugene Katchalov and Marcin Horecki, both of whom successfully navigated the stormy, qualifier-filled waters of the first starting day. Team Online was also involved but the French pair of Ronan Monfort and Gabriel Nassif were both knocked out fairly early on in the day.
Fairing slightly better was former EPT winner Anton Wigg, the Swede finished the day with 105,000 after winning some crucial pots including a set over set hand at one point. Wigg was one of the ever-growing community of former EPT winners, all still striving to be the first two-time champion. Those who joined Wigg on Day 2 included EPT Loutraki champion Zimnan Ziyard (88,800) – who found that life was pretty easy when you raise with 
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Jannick Wrang (74,200), the winner of the sole EPT Campione event, was an early chip leader before dropping back into the pack. He still managed to make Day 2 however. He will be joined by EPT Barcelona winner Kent Lundmark (37,300) Dominik Nitsche, Barny Boatman, Friend of PokerStars Pierre Neuville and finalist here last year Jeffrey Hakim.
Lots of former EPT champions failed to even make this first hurdle, the first French winner of EPT Deauville, Lucien Cohen was one of the earliest players to be eliminated this year. He was met on the rail by David Vamplew, Arnaud Mattern as well as the latest EPT Champion, Dominik Panka who won the PokerStars Carribean Adventure for over $1.4 million less than two weeks ago.
Other players who were eliminated and sent home with a spanked bottom included Fabrice Soulier, Michel Abecassis, John Eames, Niall Farrell, WSOPE Main Event winner Adrian Mateos Diaz and Vitaly Lunkin.
Tomorrow, the field is expected to be much bigger with nearly 200 seats already sold. Numerous Team PokerStars Pros are involved including the home hope Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and the winner here from EPT Season 6, Jake Cody.
The Pokernews Live Reporting Team will be back here once again at 12pm local time for another for the second exciting start day to Season 10's EPT Deauville!