2015 PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville High Roller Day 1: Another Record Broken; Sfez Leads
The PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville €10,300 High Roller attracted 128 entries at Casino Barrière, to beat last year’s record-breaking field of 115 entrants.
France's Eric Sfez finished the day as chip leader after 10 one-hour levels of play gathering 315,300 in chips. Not far behind him was Jonathan Little from the US with 283,100 and in third place was Ivan Luca from Argentina who bagged up 244,300.
Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Sfez | 315,300 |
| 2 | Jonathan Little | 283,100 |
| 3 | Ivan Luca | 244,300 |
| 4 | Gilbert Diaz | 232,600 |
| 5 | Garret Gruener | 220,400 |
| 6 | Thomas Butzhammer | 182,000 |
| 7 | Joao Vieira | 174,100 |
| 8 | Josip Simunic | 169,000 |
| 9 | Andrei Ivashkin | 161,200 |
| 10 | Andrey Andreev | 157,800 |
Sfez grabbed the lead in one of the last hands of the day when he held the A♠A♦ and led the flop and turn before eventually calling a big river shove on a final board of K♦2♣5♦10♠9♣. Sfez took his time to make the call but celebrated in relief when Nikolaus Teichert showed him just the 4♠4♥.
There was plenty of action at every table all day long with three- and four-bets before the flop a common occurrence, as the high rollers engaged in a succession of levelling wars with seemingly nobody wanting to get bluffed. One man who was bluffed was Davidi Kitai after he bet the river of a 5♥6♦K♠J♠3♠ board and faced a shove from the shorter-stacked Amir Mozaffarian. Kitai sensed something was up and took several minutes to fold before being shown the 9♣8♣ for air. Kitai said he was very close to calling with queen high, something he has done in the past.
At the other end of the spectrum, Vladimir Troyanovskiy check-raise shoved the turn on a board of 8♥7♦8♠8♦ holding the K♥J♥ only to be shown the 7♠7♥ of Piotr Franczak. Troyanovsky was on the verge of his second and final elimination until the case 8♣ hit the river to save him.
"I thought you were bluffing," Troyanovskiy giggled.
Defending champion Dominik Panka fired two bullets on Day 1, but he couldn’t make it to the end. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier fired one bullet and has the chance to reenter before play starts on Day 2, and other notables who failed to make it through included Dario Sammartino, Rhys Jones, and Leonid Markin.
Some of the notables who did make it through to Day 2, however, included Joao Vieira (174,100), Ivan Soshnikov (137,900), Robin Ylitalo (127,300), and Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov (124,700).
Action resumed Friday at 12 p.m. local time, and the winner is set to receive €309,170 after 128 entries were tallied for a prize pool of €1,228,800. The top 17 spots will be paid, and you can follow the grind to the money by clicking here.
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