Albert Daher from Lebanon ended the day as the chip leader of the final eight players with a 1,300,000. That is nearly twice as much as his nearest rival Martin Schleich from Germany, who is in second place with 762,000, while Ondrej Vinklarek from the Czech Republic lies in third with 737,000.
After final entrants and re-buys were completed the prize pools was announced and 17 places would be payed. The winner will be taking home a whopping €272,000 with €189,000 for second and €122,000 for third.
The action was fairly frenetic throughout the first few levels of play with players regularly falling by the wayside, including Toby Lewis who busted with a badly timed bluff , Sergio Aido and Dominik Nitsche.
The action slowed down when they reached 18 players and the money bubble. It took an hour and fifty minutes before a huge three-way all-in on the feature table saw one player having a monster stack and another almost being felted. It folded to Dominik Panka on the button who raised to 16,000, Ramin Hajiyev three-bet to 41,000 from the small blind and Michael Tureniec then moved all-in for 301,000 total. Back on Panka he moved all-in for 264,000 and Hajiev called all-in behind for 245,000. Panka had Hajiyev the Tureniec . The cards ran out and Ramin Hajiyev was the one left empty-handed.
The chip leader at the start of the day, Marton Czuczor, was crippled when he got involved in another a three way all in pot and he was eliminated soon after in 12th place.
The only Team PokerStars Pro to make it through to Day 2 was Alex Kravchenko who fell in 10th place when he shoved from the small blind only to run in to the of Daher. The cards ran out and he went away with €22,800 for his two days of work.
Martin Staszko was unlucky to bubble the final table. He got his chips in with against the of Kent Lundmark. The cards ran out making a flush for Lundmark who barely covered the stack of the Czech player; Staszko could only end up walking away from the table in a daze.
Play resumes at noon tomorrow CET and it is guaranteed to be a fascinating day. Eight different countries are represented at the final table and they all have impressive track records. Follow the blow by blow reports as your PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you the action as they fight it out for a prize worth over a quarter of a million Euros and the title of PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville High Roller Champion.
Martin Staszko opened to 26,000 preflop from early position and the action was passed around to Kent Lundmark on the button. He put in a three-bet to 51,000 and it was folded back to Staszko.
The Czech player thought briefly and then moved all in, Lundmark made a fairly quick call.
Staszko:
Lundmark:
The flop came and there was no help for the Dane but the on the turn gave him a flush draw. Staszko just needed to avoid a jack or a heart and he'd be the recipient of a huge double up. The river was the - Lundmark completed his flush and left Staszko thoroughly depressed.
After a countdown, Staszko was clearly shown to have less chips and as a result he bubbled the final table.
It was folded around to Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko in the small blind who quickly moved all in against Albert Daher but the Lebanese player instantly called.
Kravchenko:
Daher:
It was bad misfortune for the Russian to run into such a monster and he couldn't find the bullet he needed on the board.
Ondrej Vinklarek moved all in and was call by Marcin Wydrowski who had almost exactly the same amount of chips. Vinklarek had against the pair of Wydrowski. The cards fell and with Vinklarek covering Wydrowski by 2,000 he was out.
From the cut-off Michael Tureniec moved all in for his last 83,000 with and got looked up by Alex Kravchenko in the big blind holding . The board ran out . Tureniec couldn’t hit and he was out.
Ramin Hajiyev bubbles the EPT Deauville High Roller 2014
After one hour and fifty minutes on the bubble a huge three-way all-in just occurred on the feature table, leading to the bubble bursting, one player having a monster stack and another being almost felted.
It folded to Dominik Panka on the button he raised to 16,000, Ramin Hajiyev three-bet to 41,000 from the small blind and Michael Tureniec then moved all-in for 301,000 total. Back on Panka he moved all-in for 264,000 and Hajiev called all-in behind for 245,000.
Panka:
Hajiev:
Tureniec:
It was a massive cooler and the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion looked set for a massive triple up and the board kept the Pole in front, boosted him to 779,000, left Tureniec with just 37,000 and burst the bubble as it eliminated Hajiyev. Everyone left in is now guaranteed €18,000.
Analiză mâini
Michael Tureneic found himself in a difficult position in this hand in part because he unluckily ran up against two opponents holding monsters. But he also made a choice to try to apply pressure on a couple of players with stacks nearly equal to his rather than wait to challenge a shorter-stacked opponent. Read more about this hand and the strategy involved on Learn.PokerNews in "Lessons from EPT10 Deauville: Picking Targets to Pressure."
They are now on the money bubble in the EPT10 Deauville High Roller where only the top 17 spots pay out. Nikolay Losev has been leading for much of the afternoon, having more than twice the chips of his nearest challenger until Davidi Kitai's recent chip boost. Meanwhile Losev's fellow Russian Alex Kravchenko is also still battling as the lone Team PokerStars Pro remaining. Read more on the PokerStars blog.
Davidi Kitai opened to 12,000 from the button before Michel Dattani made it 25,000 in the big blind. Kitai then four-bet, making it 88,000 and Dattani thought for about a minute before moving all in. Kitai quickly called.
Kitai:
Dattani:
Twice in the space of a few minutes, it was tens vs queens on this table. This time the queens would win as the board came making Kitai a full house. Dattani had about 15,000 remaining and was eliminated just a couple of hands later.