David Ostrom On Top at PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville
As the world began another work week, it was a busy Monday as well at the Casino Barrière where Day 1b of the PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville Main Event played out. A total of 475 players arrived to play the second of the event's two Day 1 flights — more than the 307 who played Sunday — with Swedish player David Ostrom ending the night having made the most of his day at the office, gathering an tourney-leading stack of 212,600 chips to begin play tomorrow.
There were quite a few familiar faces among today's field, although not all were fortunate enough to survive the day with chips. Those seeing their Main Event runs end prematurely on Monday included Davidi Kitai, Dominik Nitsche, Ludovic Lacay, Alex Kravchenko, Luke Schwartz, Vicky Coren, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Toni Judet, and Pierre Neuville.
Neuville made a play for most painful exit earlier today after getting nearly all of his stack in the middle with 
versus Joseph Jazzar's 
following a 
flop. But the turn and river came 
and 
to give Jazzar a runner-runner straight, crippling "Zoutechamp" who would be eliminated on the next hand.
James Akenhead would later earn at least equal amounts of pity following his elimination. Like Neuville, Akenhead lost almost his entire stack in a hand in which he too held 
and appeared at a great advantage, in this case up against last year's EPT Deauville Main Event runner-up Paul Guichard's . But the flop came 
to give Guichard trips, and when the lone remaining ace failed to come Akenhead was nearly felted and would be knocked out but two hands later.
And Liv Boeree earned some merit points as well for having persevered despite a bout of food poisoning to survive most of the day before being eliminated. She then watched her boyfriend Kevin MacPhee almost immediately join her on the rail after running 
into Jean Pierre Petroli's and failing to receive any help from the community cards.
Meanwhile as the workday progressed it was [Removed:4], Paul Guichard, Phillipe Boucher, Casey Kastle, and finally Ostrom each taking turns at the top of the leader board. Ostrom's big rise came late in the day, with a set-over-set hand proving key in his push past everyone and into first position.
Others earning a handsome hourly wage in chips today included Ahmed Abd El Fatah, Karim Abdelmoumene, Andrey Baturin, Vadzim Markushevski, Nicolas Levi, and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.
All told 419 players will be back in action for tomorrow’s Day 2, still more than half of the overall starting field of 782. From those just 120 will be receiving paychecks for their efforts at the EPT Deauville Main Event, with the player finishing the week on top earning the biggest cut of €770,000 from the tourney's €3,753,600 prize pool.
But now isn't the time to be thinking too far ahead. As already suggested, much work is left to be done.
We'll be here working as well starting tomorrow at noon to bring you all of the action from the EPT Deauville Main Event. Until then, au revoir!