On a board of Nikolaus Teichert from Germany had a bet of 3,500 in front of him. Teichert, seated in middle position, was facing a raise to 13,500 from EPT Grand Final winner Antonio Buonanno in the hijack.
The clock ticked away slowly, but Teichert wasn't moving. Eventually a player at the table called the clock. The floor came over and gave Teichert one minute of time to think. At the 30 second mark, Teichert tossed in two 5,000 chips to call.
Buonanno rolled over for not much of anything. Teichert didn't quite grasped he had won yet, but after a couple of seconds tabled for the winner. Buonanno frowned and counted his own stack. The Italian EPT champion has about 26,000.
Ruben Visser, champion of the Master Classics of Poker this past November, and Christopher Frank have both entered the competition. While Visser is still around starting stack, Frank just paid off a 2,000-value bet of an opponent on the river of a board.
The German was still all smiles when he joked "that was a pretty good turn card for you", mucking to the of his opponent. It may be a strange coincidence though, but Frank was also on the final table when Visser took down the EPT 10 London Main Event for £595,000.
The clock indicates there are 365 players who started today on Day 1b. Registration will be open the entire day. In fact, players are able to register up till the start of Day 2 for this tournament.
Here's a look at the number of entrants. PokerNews has been covering this event since 2010 and so we know the entrants per starting days for these editions of the Deauville stop.
* In some years Day 1a and 1b don't add up to the number under total, as players were able to register before Day 2 without having played one of the two starting days.
Ben Warrington is feeling quite comfy right now, but that isn't based on his chip stack but rather the jacket he is wearing. Alexander Reard must feel even better as he stormed off his seat after knocking out Bruno Fitoussi with pocket aces versus pocket kings. There were three spades on the flop and Fitoussi had the , but the best starting hand in No Limit Hold'em didn't get cracked.
Vicky Coren-Mitchell opened for 425 from early position and picked up three callers including Andrius Bielskis in the big blind.
The flop was and it was checked to Coren-Mitchell who continued for 700 and it was just Bielskis who made the call. The turn card saw Bielskis check-call another bet of 1,200 from Coren-Mitchell.
The river was the and they both checked. “I win.” Bielskis said and turned over his rivered straight.
“Yes you do, yes you do.” Coren-Mitchell said and mucked her hand.
Team PokerStars Online Pro Gabriel Nassif raised to 600 from under the gun and the player to his direct left tossed out a call. Action folded around to the player in the hijack and he cut out a three-bet to 1,725. The button and small blind folded and Stephane Benadiba flatted in the big blind. It was back on Nassif and he went into the tank for about 90 seconds. Ultimately, Nassif opted to four-bet the action to 5,325. The player to his direct left folded while both the hijack and Benadiba called.
The flop came down and action checked to Nassif. He dropped out a bet of 3,000 and the hijack instantly called. Benadiba got out of the way, leaving the two heads up.
The fell on the turn and Nassif continued out for 6,000. His opponent thought for a bit before throwing his hand into the muck. Nassif pulled in the sizable pot and now has about 55,500 in chips.
Swedish pro Anton Wigg previously won EPT Copenhagen, but his results at EPT Deauville have been overwhelming as well. Seven out of Wigg's last 14 live tournament results have been in Deauville, and today we asked him for some strategy advice on what to do when facing inexperienced players.
Paul "padjes" Berende is down a little for the day, most of it credit to this hand against Ihar "OMGitshunt" Soika we wrote about earlier.
Berende told us about a different hand he played earlier though, again with Soika. In that hand the player opened under the gun/the cutoff to 200 on the still four-handed table. Berende called from the small blind and Soika in the big blind squeezed to 850. The initial raiser called and now Berende resqueezed to 3,050. Both Soika and the player under the gun made the call to grow the pot to a whopping 9,000 plus already.
The flop came rainbow and Berende bet 3,550. Soika called, the other player folded. A hit the turn and Berende check called a bet of 5,650. The river came an and Berende checked again. Soika, who played Berende online many times, checked behind eventually.
Berende showed and chopped the pot as Soika also had .