2015 PokerStars.fr EPT Season 11 Deauville

Day 2 of the PokerStars.fr EPT 11 Deauville Main Event started with 335 players remaining and Frenchman Guillaume Darcourt leading the way. With the late registration still open until the action restarted at noon, another three players exchanged €5,300 for 30,000 chips to boost the overall attendance to 592 entries in total and 338 remaining. Tournament staff announced that the top 87 spots will get paid with the eventual winner receiving €543,700 as well as the EPT trophy and Slyde watch on Feb. 7.

The action kicked off with a bang Tuesday as Michal Mrakes lost his top 10 stack to Andrius Bielskis within the first half an hour of play. Mrakes and 64 others were eliminated in the first two levels, including Gaelle Baumann, Vojtech Ruzicka, former EPT champion David Vamplew, Christophe Benzimra, Ihar Soika and Philippe Ktorza.

Vicky Coren-Mitchell, the first and only two-time EPT champion, will have to wait for another chance to win her third. She failed to improve with against the of 2013 PCA champion Dimitar Danchev. Michael Tureniec busted to Rube Visser in a battle of former EPT winners when the Dutchman improved with to better the Swede's . PokerStars Team Online Pros Vicente Delgado and Gabriel Nassif were equally unfortunate, as was PokerStars Team Pro Julien Brecard.

Three former EPT Deauville Main Event winners returned to the tables but only one would make it through. Both Lucien Cohen and Jake Cody were eliminated on the feature table: Cody was trying to bluff Clement Genon-Catalot on a board of but the Frenchman called his river shove with and the Brit's was no good. Cohen then lost with pocket sixes against pocket jacks to only leave Remi Castaignon behind. The Frenchman turned a full house early on with and Damien Lhommeau got his stack in drawing dead with for a gutshot and flush draw. Castaignon would end the day with 175,600 chips.

In the very last hand of the day Fabrice Soulier lost a coin flip with against the of Simon Ravnsbaek, who had bought in just before Day 2 kicked off and ran up the stack to 197,600. Once everyone bagged and tagged their chips, only 138 players remained and Alex Tikhoniouk claimed the lead with 312,600 chips. The Irishman is playing his first ever EPT event and was even down to only four big blinds early today before spinning it up.

Tikhoniuk is closely followed by former EPT champion and EPT 11 London runner-up Kevin MacPhee (308,300) and Robert Schulz with 296,900. Other big stacks include PokerStars Team Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (281,500), Carlo Savinelli (275,400), Benjamin Pollak (275,000), Nicolau Villa-Lobos (230,600), PokerStars Team Pro Jan Heitmann (199,000) and start-of-the-day chip leader Guillaume Darcourt (172,600). Eugene Katchalov started as one of the shortest stacks and doubled up several times to claim 137,000 whereas fellow Team Pro Marcin Horecki (112,000), PokerStars sponsored player Dominik Panka (45,800) and Team PokerStars Pro Online (37,500) also advanced.

The action will resume at 12 p.m. local time with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a running ante of 400. The level duration increases from 75 to 90 minutes on Day 3, and the money is expected to be reached during the five levels of play. Stay tuned to the PokerNews live coverage to see who lands on the bubble!

Day 3 Redraw:

More to follow.

Micha Hoedemaker had just 40,000 when the last three hands of the day started. He first doubled without a showdown in a three way pot where both his opponents folded to his push after already committing chips on a flop of .

In the last hand an active player opened to 5,100 and Hoedemaker just raised to 70,000 with 10,000 behind. Hoedemaker's opponent made the call and saw a king-high flop. The player put 10,000 in and Hoedemaker called all in with his . The player had and failed to improve on the turn and river.

Fabrice Soulier got his stack of 48,400 all in the very last hand of the day with   and had a coin flip against the   of Simon Ravnsbaek over on the feature table. The board ran out      and the EPT 10 Vienna High Roller champion won't be returning for Day 3 tomorrow.

We’re not going to name him, because every time we do he crashes out of the tournament. Suffice to say “Bert” is doing well, and is on course for day 3, as the PokerStars Blog reports.

And then the day is done for. Check back here soon for chip counts and a recap of todays action.

Matthieu Lamagnere opened before the flop and Owain Carey three bet in position. Lamagnere made the call and both players checked the flop.

The fell on the turn and Lamagnere checked again. Carey now bet 14,500 and Lamagnere check raised all in for about 56,000. Carey wasn't happy about it, and tanked for a bit before making the call.

Lamagnere showed and Carey needed a seven to knock his opponent out as the Brit showed .

No seven on the river but the and Lamagnere doubled.

Owain Carey was in the small blind and made it 4,800 before asking the dealer if he could change his raise with a smile on his face. Carlo Savinelli in the big blind raised to 14,000 and Carey gave it some thought before making the call.

The flop was . Carey checked and when Savinelli bet 9,000 Carey quickly announced all in for a huge effective bet of 120,000 which was Savinelli’s stack.

Savinelli snap called and tabled with Carey on the draw holding .

The turn and river saw Carey handing over a ton of chips to double Savinelli up.

“I played that badly. Too high variance.” Carey told himself.