Thursday, 28th March 2024 19:56
Home / Uncategorized / EPT11 Deauville: Mid-day update – former champions dominate Main Event

The opening day of the EPT Main Event is usually the calm before the storm, Day 1A always, well almost always, has the smaller field and with the blinds being low, in comparison to the stacks, it can be hard to find compelling action.

We’re almost six levels through the first day’s play of eight levels and almost 200 players have parted with €5,000 to play – or qualified online for less of course. The big blind is currently a less than chunky 400 but a few familiar faces have already more than doubled their starting stack of 30,000.

Leading the way currently is Anton Wigg, the Swede who won EPT6 Copenhagen, is up to 76,000 and sits just a few big blinds ahead of PCA9 winner Dimitar Danchev who’s on 75,000 after getting paid when he made a full house. The man who succeeded Danchev as PCA champion – Dominik Panka – is nicely nestled inside the top five in the chip counts as he’s chipped up to 63,000.

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Danchev – chipped up

Other big names who’ve elected to choose Day 1A as their start day of choice include: Team PokerStars Pros Marcin Horecki and Eugnene Katchalov. The Ukranian finished second here last year, just falling short of the Triple Crown. Horecki’s decision to play Day 1A was a last minute one it seems, let’s hope it was the right one!

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Eugene Katchalov – can he go one better this year?

They’ve been joined by the likes of: Joao Vieira (39,000), Jorma Nuutinen (39,000), Mat Frankland (32,000), Jan Bobuli (26,000) and Dominik Nitsche (9,275)

However, Arnaud Mattern and Ian Simpson’s stacks have gone in the other direction as they’re two of the notable names who’ve busted. In fact Simpson’s demise is what’s led to Wigg holding the chip lead. The two of them played a big pot in which Wigg three-bet pre-flop with pocket jacks. The Swede then bet-bet-bet on the A♦ Q♥ J♥ Aâ™  4♥ board. Simpson called all-in on the river and mucked when Wigg showed his cards. Given it was an all-in situation Simpson should’ve showed his cards but the weren’t turned over. “Surely he had an ace,” said a player at the table after Simpson had gone.

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Mattern – endured a miserable day

As for Mattern, his was one of those days where nothing goes right, a day of making good, but ultimately second best hands. He had a flush lose against a higher flush, A-10 was shot down in flames on a queen high board by pocket jacks, He saw pocket queens shrink in value on a J♥ 10♦ 6♥ 4♦ 2♦ board and was finally put out of his misery when he shoved with pocket eights only to run into aces. One to forget then for Mattern.

A reminder that the FPS Main Event plays to a conclusion today, if you want to see how this one plays out keep your eye on the blog coverage here, or your eyes and ears on the live stream (in French) here.

Coverage from the Main Event of EPT Deauville is on the Main Event page. The FPS will wrap up today. Coverage from that is on the FPS Page. And you can follow the action from Australia on the Aussie Millions page.

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