Ramon Colillas Bags Chip Lead on Day 1c of the €1,100 French National Championship
The one and only $25,000 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship winner Ramon Colillas is the chip leader of Day 1c of the €1,100 French National Championship at the 2019 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour. Colillas bagged 606,000 and sits in sixth overall. Switzerland's Emil Bise sits in second place after Day 1c as he bagged 512,000.
The day started with plenty of entries and the number kept steadily rising until there were 393 entrants at the end of registration. That brings the total field size up to 1,425. Plenty of players gave it a shot and some even more as they were allowed to reenter following flights. Day 1c was the last flight and thus played as a freeze-out tournament. The last of three flights featured 30-minute levels instead of 40-minute levels in the earlier flights.
Multiple notable names joined the field throughout the day and most of them didn't make it through to Day 2. Maria Ho, Dietrich Fast, Manig Loeser, and Romain Lewis all gave it a shot but they didn't find a bag at the end of the day and they walk away from the tournament without any money made.
Another player that gave it a shot was Dutch football player Royston Drenthe. The Dutchman played for teams like Real Madrid and Everton. Drenthe has been dabbling in the poker streets for quite some time now and has a little under $30,000 in lifetime tournament earnings. In this tournament, he didn't add to that as he also couldn't find a bag at the end of Day 1c.
There might be a Red Spade at the top of the leaderboard with Day 1c chip leader Colillas, but the other PokerStars ambassadors that gave it a shot weren't as fortunate. Celina Lin, Maria Konnikova, and Kalidou Sow all entered Day 1c and Colillas was the only PokerStars ambassador with a bag on Day 1c.
Other familiar names that made Day 2 of the tournament through the last starting flight are Gianluca Speranza (494,000), Jack Salter (321,000), Giuliano Bendinelli (177,000), Jan Bendik (126,000), and Alan Lau (26,000).
Another familiar face that bagged is Arsenii Karmatckii. The 2018 EPT Open Sochi champion bagged 145,000. He won the Main Event in Sochi for $478,000. He isn't going to win that much in this tournament but he could add a nice chunk to his already impressive $1,3 million in tournament earnings.
Day 2 will start on Sunday, April 28, at noon local time. They will start the tournament in level 16 (2,500/5,000 - big blind ante 5,000) since Day 1a ended in that level.
PokerNews will be on site to give you all the ins and outs of the tournament until a winner is crowned.