The board read 
when we arrived and it looked as though Rob Ferrey in the small blind position had checked it. In the cutoff Fabrice Soulier bet 11,100. Eventually Ferrey muttered something about a flush draw and made the call, but was soon wishing he hadn't as Soulier turned over 
for the rivered full house.
"I like the river," said Soulier, somewhat stating the obvious. He's up to an impressive 115,000.
Somebody needs to tell the fearless Jean Noel Thorel that Team Pokerstars Pro Viktor Blom is quite a good heads up player. At the moment all of the action on table 17 is going through these two players with Thorel seemingly throwing the gauntlet down to Blom.
In the latest exchange of bluffs we caught the two of them a little later than we would have liked because we missed the pre flop action. The flop was 
and Thorel bet 2,500. Blom raised to 6,200 and Thorel called.
Before the turn was dealt Thorel checked in the dark and Blom bet 6,500. Thorel then made it 15,000 more to play. A few short breaths later and Blom was all-in making it another 13,675 for Thorel to call and he did.
"Is my Ace high good?" Asked Blom.
"Yes." Muttered Thorel.
Thorel: 
Blom:
The turn was and the river was the 
and as the dealer shipped most of Thorel's chips to Blom they both started laughing.
"Will you stop bluffing me?" Blom asked politely.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
170,000 | |
|
135,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
|
||
|
112,000 | |
|
100,000
10,000
|
10,000 |
Now let me be frank, no really... I want to be Frank. Mainly because Frank Op de Woerd is sitting with 70,000 having just eliminated Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree.
Op de Woerd opened to 2,000 UTG and Boeree pushed in the big blind for 12,000 more with 
only to find the erstwhile poker blogger sitting with 
which held to knock out Boeree.
[EDIT]
A few hands later, though, Op de Woerd took a bit of a knock in a nasty kings-versus-aces cooler. He's at 47,000 now.
Nacho Barbero was sitting with just 12,000 at the 300/600 level but now sits proudly with a 70,000 stack. The biggest helping hand came when he picked up queens against 
after the latter card replaced a flipped over ! This wouldn't have mattered however as Barbero caught a third queen on the river to ship a crucial pot.
As we draw towards the end of Day 1b the main contenders to finish the day as the chip leader seem to be coming from the following group.
Chamoun Lioui with 165,000
Basil Yaiche with 160,000
Patrick Bruel with 153,000
Viktor Blom with 140,000
Fabrice Soulier with 140,000
Mathew Frankland with 135,000
We are not sure how the action developed, because the media have been evicted from the tournament area, while the players are being asked to bag and tag their stacks, but we know Team Pokerstars Pro Vanessa Rousso has been eliminated after losing a coin flip in her last hand of the evening.
It has been a long two days but finally EPT Deauville Day 1 has finished.
Over the past two days, 891 poker players from around the world have descended upon this little town in Normandy hoping to get through to Day 2. Yesterday, 250 achieved their goal and this morning another 472 people tried to follow suit. Unfortunately we do not have chip counts yet so we cannot tell you who the official chip leader is, but Chamoun Lioui, Basil Yaiche, Patrick Bruel, Fabrice Soulier and Mathew Frankland all had stacks in excess of the 130,000 mark at the last time of counting. Roughly 270 players made it through the day.
Joining that prestigious pack is one of the most notable names in the game, Team Pokerstars Pro Viktor "Isildur1" Blom. His battles with Almira Skripchenko and Jean Noel Thorel were some of the highlights of the day.
As soon as we get the end of day counts through from the organisers we will update the blog but in the meantime we will see you back here tomorrow at noon.
Main Event
Day 1b Completed
