Thursday marked the start of the €10,300 PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour High Roller, a tournament that some regard as the festival’s flagship event. For their €10,300, players received 50,000 tournament chips, a superb blind structure that increased every 60 minutes and the chance to pit their wits against some of the best poker players in the business.
By the time play came to an end there were 83 unique entries and a total of 14 reloads in the pot, and with registration open until the end of the first level of Day 2, which will be at around 13:00CET, there could well be a €1,000,000 prize pool created. Fifty-one players survived Day 1.
The man who is in the best position to win the lion’s share of this huge prize pool is Vladimir Troyanovski who managed to turn his starting stack into 266,200.
Some of the other big stacks include Kevin Vandersmissen (262,000) and JC Alvarado (246,700). Team PokerStars Pros Vicky Coren (52,900) and Eugene Katchalov (90,800) also managed to navigate their way through to Day 2.
Although players were permitted to make one reload of their stack if they lost their initial stack, we will not be seeing a whole host of big names on Day 2. The likes of Roberto Romanello, PCA champion Dimitar Danchev, Dominik Nitsche and Kent Lundmark all used a single bullet and decided not to reload. Michael Tureniec, Steve O’Dwyer and Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier each busted out, reloaded and busted out again – an expensive day’s poker for that talented trio.
As mentioned, Day 2 starts at 12:00CET and the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on the tournament floor bringing you all of the action from this stellar event. Until then it is goodnight from Deauville!
Mikhail Korotkikh was warned over his celebrations earlier and now he's received a one orbit penalty for an extreme celebration. To be fair though it was a crazy suck out.
Korotkikh opened to 7,500 and called when Imad Derwiche three-bet him to 15,000.
Both players checked the flop before Korotkikh open shipped the turn for around 65,000!
Derwiche was sat with pocket aces and obviously was very quick to call. Amazingly Korotkikh had a monster too as he opened for a smaller set.
The best was yet to come as the river fell as to make the Russian quads! The two player's reactions were very polarised at this point as Korotkikh went crazy and shouted his lungs off in Russian. Derwiche just place his head on the table and covered himself with his arms.
Korotkikh was given severe telling offf and a one orbit penalty.
What a hand! We couldn't believe it, JC Alvarado couldn't believe it, we doubt you will believe it either!
Martin Jacobson was under the gun and he raised to 2,000. Ghassan El Hoss was to Jacobson's direct left and he flat-called. The action then passed around to Alvarado in the cutoff and the Mexican raised to 6,800. This raise forced Jacobson out of the pot and he folded — all standard so far.
El Hoss then raised to 16,000, which gave Alvarado something to think about. He did think, for about 45 seconds, before five-betting to 34,800. A few moments later El Hoss moved all in and Alvarado called off his 76,300 chips that he had behind.
Alvarado:
El Hoss:
As you can see, El Hoss was not exactly holding a premium hand! The perfect ending to this hand would be a crazy board but it ran out , Alvarado's jacks held and he is now the High Roller's chip leader.
We've had four stacks bust but they were all refreshed; Aydi Faith has become the first player to bust and not re-buy.
He was heads-up to a flop with Roberto Romanello. The Welshman checked to him and then shoved after he bet 2,225. Faith had around 11,000 chips and called them off after some thought.
He was in deep trouble though as Romanello opened for a set. Faith held and was confirmed out after the board ran out .
Vladimir Troyanovski's great start to this tournament has gotten even better after he made a big call to bust Christophe Benzimra.
The two had accumulated a pot of around 38,000 by the river of a board. Benzimra shoved for 35,000 to put all the pressure on his Russian opponent who, after tanking for five minutes, made the call.
Benzimra announced that he had ace-high. Troyanovski opened and scooped the pot to move way clear at the top of the counts.
Benzimra ordered a new stack and is the first to re-buy.
Day 1 of the PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville High Roller event kicks off today and we're expecting it to attract a large number of players. The formula is the same as normal: it's a €10,300 entry event and each player is allowed one re-buy when/if they bust their stack, and it will be played eight-handed throughout.
Play is due to kick off at 1pm CET and ten one-hour levels is the schedule for today, plus a dinner break, which will take us to beyond a 1am finish.
At the moment the plan is to play this down over two days but there is room to add an extra day if the field grows to a substantial enough size.
flop before Korotkikh open shipped the turn for around 65,000!
for a smaller set.
to make the Russian quads! The two player's reactions were very polarised at this point as Korotkikh went crazy and shouted his lungs off in Russian. Derwiche just place his head on the table and covered himself with his arms.
, Alvarado's jacks held and he is now the High Roller's chip leader.
flop with Roberto Romanello. The Welshman checked to him and then shoved after he bet 2,225. Faith had around 11,000 chips and called them off after some thought.
for a set. Faith held 
and was confirmed out after the board ran out 
