Remi Castaignon raised to 350,000 from the button, Walid Bou Habib called, and the two players saw the first three community cards come .
Both checked, then Bou Habib checked again following the turn. Castaignon pushed out a bet of 450,000, and Bou Habib called.
The river then brought the and a leading bet of 850,000 from Bou Habib. Castaignon studied the board, the chips and plaques, and then Bou Habib, then made the call.
Bou Habib flipped over for the straight, and Castaignon mucked his hand.
Walid Bou Habib opened to 325,000, a standard raise but Remi Castaignon made it 1,025,000 in the big blind in a larger than expected three-bet.
"He's wanting to play for stacks here," said the commentary team.
Bou Habib thought for a couple of minutes, the Lebanese player hasn't ever really tank-folded many hands, if he's thinking about the hand then he's more likely to push his chips in the middle than the cards. Bou Habib then moved all in for 6,285,000 and immediately Castaignon asked for a count.
It was about a third of the Frenchman's remaining stack meaning that if he called and lost then the two would be almost exactly level. After a minute more, he quietly said, "Call."
Habib:
Castaignon:
A fair few people were surprized to see these two hands but it was still a coin flip. The flop came giving both players a straight draw and now Bou Habib's salvation lied with either a king, eight or seven.
The turn was the - a swing and a miss for the short stack and he had just one card left to save his tournament life. The river came down and was flicked over by the dealer, it was the , close but not enough for Bou Habib who'll have to make do with a second place finish worth €475,000.
Remi Castaignon - 2013 EPT Deauville Main Event Champion
Insurance broker Remi Castaignon entered the final table as a huge chip leader but early on it looked as though things were going to fall apart after a huge hero call went wrong. However, the Frenchman hunkered down and redoubled his efforts, managing to arrest his slide down the chip counts and become only the second Frenchman to win an EPT in Deauville after Lucien Cohen completed the same feat in season 7.
After a grueling penultimate day, the players returned to the final table with relatively short stacks leading to setups that no amount of skill would be able to stop. Jeffrey Hakim, one of three Lebanese players to make the final, was eliminated in just the second hand - a victim of a cooler against [Removed:4].
Hakim's exit wasn't the early talking point surprisingly, instead all the attention was on a hand between Castaignon and Rudelitz where the two tangled in an 8 million-chip pot which saw the chip lead change hands after the Frenchman made a huge call on the river.
By this point, Castaignon had recovered his stack from a low point of 3 million and, alongside Rudelitz and Bou Habib, was once again well stacked. Robert Romeo was the lone short stack and fought on manfully, managing to double up several times.
Meanwhile Rudelitz lost several critical pots to both Castaignon and Bou Habib, eventually exiting in fourth position. After this Romeo suffered the same fate as Jeff Hakim at the start of the day running ace-king into aces to bust out in third.
Castaignon started the heads up battle with a decent chip lead and gradually began to grind away at Bou Habib, managing to take a 3:1 chip advantage before the crucial hand that decided the fate of the title.
The next EPT for the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be in London next month. Always one of the biggest events of the year, it'll no doubt be another cracker from the capital of the United Kingdom.
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turn. Castaignon pushed out a bet of 450,000, and Bou Habib called.
and a leading bet of 850,000 from Bou Habib. Castaignon studied the board, the chips and plaques, and then Bou Habib, then made the call.
for the straight, and Castaignon mucked his hand.
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
giving both players a straight draw and now Bou Habib's salvation lied with either a king, eight or seven.
- a swing and a miss for the short stack and he had just one card left to save his tournament life. The river came down and was flicked over by the dealer, it was the 
