PokerStars European Poker Tour Deauville -- Day 1AGuillaume de la Gorce Leads French-Heavy Troop on Day 1A |
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Deauville is one of the stops of the PokerStars European Poker Tour which sees more unknown players than usual. Hopefuls come from all over France to dominate the field which is usually housed in the Casino Barrière de Deauville. This time however, for a field that is ever-expanding, the EPT is being held in the Deauville International Centre for its earlier stages.
A total of 419 players turned out for day 1A of the €5,300 buy-in main event and although there were more unfamiliar faces than familiar, one known Frenchman managed to top the leader board by end of play – Guillaume de la Gorce with 196,800 in chips. The young man is closely followed by another French player who regularly makes appearances on European felt – Bruno Launais with 185,900.
Doing well and waiting for day 2 are Tristan Clemencon, Antoine Saout, Christopher Brammer, Nikolai Losev, Leo Margets, Kenny Hallaert, Christophe Benzimra, Praz Bansi, and Remy Biechel. These well-known names are scattered throughout the top half of the leader board, while those who ended the day with less than 50,000 but are still hanging in there include Pierre Neuville, James Mitchell, Fabrizio Baldassari, Ludovic Lacay, Chris Bjorin, Marc Inizan, Paul Testud, Fernando Brito, Konstantin Puchkov, Mihai Manole, and Matt Perrins.
Team PokerStars pros Julien Brecard, Christophe and Matthias De Meulder, Marcin Horecki, and Thomas Bichon are also among the 250 survivors and will live to see another day.
Here is the day 1A’s top 10:
Guillaume De La Gorce 196,800
Bruno Launais 185,900
Julien Muel 183,100
Gerome Guitteau 168,600
Pedro Mendes Muller 166,300
Nicolas Babel 164,100
Pierre Calamusa 154,300
Jose Furtado 143,600
Rafal Arendt 142,900
Ancil Faiwel Dickstein 128,300
Nine out of the top 10 are French, with Pedro Mendes Muller the only player representing another country, Brazil.
A highlight of the day for many was getting to spend time in the same room, or indeed on the same table, as former manager of the French national football team Raymond Domenech. Domenech has made it to day 2 but he has a lot of work to do with only 12,100 in chips.
Those who won’t be returning on day 2 include EPT Prague runner-up Emiliano Bono, Michel Abecassis, Anthony Lellouche, Alexia Portal, Joao Barbosa, Manuel Bevand, last year’s champion Jake Cody, and Team PokerStars Pro members John Duthie, Vicky Coren, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Theo Jorgensen, and Thomas Bichon.
Team PokerStars Pro will be out in force on day 1B with players such as Vanessa Rousso, Jonathan Duhamel, Viktor Blom, Liv Boeree, Bertrand Grospellier, Arnaud Mattern, and Daniel Negreanu taking their seats at the felt in the beautiful, French, seaside town of Deauville.
Check CardPlayer.com tomorrow for a full recap of day 1B.
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