Karim Kaladjou on Top Entering Final Day of Aix-les-Bains Main Event
A long, hard-fought week of poker inside Casino Grand Cercle has nearly come to an end, as just 15 players remain in the France Poker Series Aix-les-Bains Main Event (hosted by Pokerstars). Today, they will all be competing for the coveted PokerStars trophy and €122,150 first-place prize, which represents the lion's share of the €633,600 prize pool.
Leading the pack is France's own Karim Kaladjou, who enters Day 3 with 2,940,000. His next-closest competitor heading into the finale is Zine-Din Brenebai, who bagged up 2,420,000 and was the only other player to end with over two million.
Start-of-Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip count | Big blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karim Kaladjou | France | 2,940,000 | 49 |
| 2 | Zine-Din Benrebai | France | 2,420,000 | 40 |
| 3 | Quentin Girardet | France | 1,755,000 | 29 |
| 4 | Robin Engelmann | France | 1,490,000 | 25 |
| 5 | Damien Noraz | France | 1,485,000 | 25 |
| 6 | Andrey Golubev | Kazakhstan | 1,460,000 | 24 |
| 7 | Alain Crettenand | Switzerland | 1,460,000 | 24 |
| 8 | Angel Insua | France | 1,250,000 | 21 |
| 9 | Tung Nguyen | Switzerland | 1,095,000 | 18 |
| 10 | Cyril Peralez | Switzerland | 1,010,000 | 17 |
Also in the hunt is Erich Tedeschi, who is a regular in FPS and other European poker events and will be looking to add to his over $500,000 in live-tournament earnings. Tedeschi will have some work to do, as he enters Day 3 with just 11 big blinds; however, should Tedeschi run up his stack — he will have an opportunity surpass his previous best cash of $41,326 which resulted from a WPT Prime event last year.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €122,150 | 9 | €11,280 |
| 2 | €76,270 | 10-11 | €8,720 |
| 3 | €54,480 | 12-13 | €7,270 |
| 4 | €41,910 | 14-15 | €6,060 |
| 5 | €32,240 | ||
| 6 | €24,810 | ||
| 7 | €19,080 | ||
| 8 | €14,670 |
Play is set to get underway at noon local time. The tournament will resume on Level 26, which features 25,000/50,000 blinds with a 50,000 big-blind ante. Levels will continue to last 50-minutes each until the final table, at which point levels will increase to 60-minutes each. All break lengths will be contingent on tournament staff.
PokerNews will report on a delay to accommodate the live stream, which can be found at the PokerStars en Français YouTube channel.
Be sure to keep a PokerNews tab open, however, as we continue bring you all the action leading to the thrilling conclusion of this year's Aix-les-Bains Main Event!