PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville High Roller: Daher Holds Commanding Lead at Final Table
A final table was reached at the 2014 PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville High Roller late Friday night. Lebanon's Albert Daher will enter the eight-handed finale as the chip leader with 1,300,000. That amounts to nearly double the stack his nearest competitor Martin Schleich (762,000). Ondrej Vinklarek from the Czech Republic sits in third with 737,000.
FINAL TABLE SEAT DRAW
| Seat | Name | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Schleich | 762,000 |
| 2 | Nikolay Losev | 523,000 |
| 3 | Davidi Kitai | 733,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos Diaz | 363,000 |
| 5 | Kent Lundmark | 665,000 |
| 6 | Dominik Panka | 672,000 |
| 7 | Albert Daher | 1,300,000 |
| 8 | Ondrej Vinklarek | 737,000 |
After final entries and re-buys were counted on Friday, the tournament staff revealed that the top 17 positions would be paid out of the record-breaking field of 115. The eventual winner will take home a whopping €272,000, with €189,000 going to second and €122,000 to third.
Daher went from the risk of elimination to winning a massive pot from Losev early on, and after that he never looked back.
The action was fairly frenetic throughout the first few levels with players quickly falling by the wayside, including Toby Lewis who busted with a badly timed bluff, as well as Sergio Aido and Dominik Nitsche.
The action slowed down with 18 players left on 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. Action folded to Dominik Panka who raised to 16,000 from the button; 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 the A♠A♥, Hajiyev the K♣K♥, Tureniec the A♦Q♣. The board ran out 7♠J♥J♣7♣4♦ and Hajiyev was the one left empty-handed.
Marton Czuczor, the chip leader at the start of the day, was crippled when he got involved in another three-way all in 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 A♠7♣ from the small blind only to run in to the K♦K♠ of Daher. The cards ran out 6♣4♥9♦Q♥2♠ and he walked 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 A♠A♣ against the J♥J♣ of Kent Lundmark. The cards ran out K♣8♥9♥4♥10♥, making a flush for Lundmark who barely covered the stack of the Czech player. Staszko quietly walked away from the table in a daze.
Play resumes at noon CET on Saturday 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 the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you the action as the players 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.
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