Fabrice Tuil looks like he has recaptured the chip lead as we arrive into the last twenty minutes of play.
Tuil had led out for 5,000 on a flop, he'd been called by a player behind him before Marc Inizan had reraised to around 11,800. Tuil thought for a moment before sticking in his large stack of 5,000 chips, the caller in between was squeezed out of the pot while Inizan sighed, took off his earphones and made the call with
The former EPT Berlin finalist was aghast though when Tuil turned over for the flopped nut straight and Inzian could only watch in horror as the dealer put down a turn and a river leaving him unable to house up.
As Tuil gathered up the chips, another player was heard saying, "He just keeps getting this sick setups..."
It's possible that Fabrice Tuil could break the 200k mark in the last 10 minutes if he continues like this. Another 25k pot headed his way after he saw a flop with Stephane Albertini, who at the 11th hour has been moved to his direct right. The flop: . Albertini bet out 3,300, which was promptly raised to 7,100 by button Tuil. Albertini performed the self-countdown and then called.
The turn brought the and a check to Tuil, who bet 10k, which was enough. In good spirits, he showed the saying "That'e enough to win," before the talk got complicated and fast and possibly jokey and I could no longer follow.
A veritable action frenzy somehow as the last six hands are announced. Just a couple of the last-minute changeovers on one table include Babel passing to a Vikash Dhorasoo check-raise all in on the turn of a board for a pot of over 25k, and then losing half his stack doubling up a shorter stack with his sevens vs. tens.
With that, it is the end of the day and it looks as though Fabrice Tuil has finished as the overall leader for Day 1A. The field looked tougher than one might have suspected as we lost many quality players including Allan Baekke, Ludovic Lacay, Praz Bansi and the Monte Carlo High Roller runner-up Oliver Busquet over the day. With 53 players left, we've lost exactly half the field over the six level, all of whom will be coming back on Monday with whoever is left over from tomorrow's Day 1B.
Speaking of which, Day 1B will begin tomorrow at 3pm local time, with a much large field expected that will include Alex Kravchenko, Anthony Roux and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.
We'll see you tomorrow, in the meantime here are some chip counts as we await the official counts from the lovely people here at the Aviation Club de France.