Arriving on the river of a board 
, the action was checked to Jessy Marillaud and the Frenchman bet 2,700 into a pot of 4,000. His opponent gave it some time before making the call and splashing the chips into the middle of the table. Marillaud mucked quickly and his opponent didn't show anything.
Charlotte van Brabander has taken a few years off the poker circuit and went back to her online gaming, but the young Belgian is back and in today's field along with popular Frenchman Philippe Ktorza. Only two more players are needed to crack the 200 entries for Day 1b a few minutes prior to the end of the first level.
Paul Valkenburg had already lost some chips early on while the opposite applied to the very active David Ozman from Sweden. The latter was in the big blind just now and got involved in a three-way pot with Valkenburg and another player to invest 1,200 each on the 
flop.
On the 
turn, Ozman then fired 4,550 for almost pot-size and just Valkenburg made the call to see the 
appear on the river. Ozman checked and Valkenburg made a steal attempt with a bet of 4,600 to get snap-called in a matter of seconds by his opponent. The Dutchman mucked instantly and Ozman flashed the 
for top two.
"That was the only way to get paid, by checking," Ozman added and Valkrnburg replied with a dry "I only had draws."
Not even 40 minutes are played in the first level and the newly registered participants keep pouring in, bumping the field size to 193 for the second starting day. Two familiar faces on the European tournaments up to €1,000 are now seated in Szymon Bujok and Mateusz Syc.
Bujok has Paul Valkenburg as opponent right from the start, the table of his fellow countryman doesn't include any names yet that immediately ring a bell.
In a fulminating hand right from the start over on table 13, there were multiple raises and Tiago Santos, Mehmet Ongurur as well as Alexey Domorochenkov in the big blind all invested a smooth 30 big blinds = 3,000 chips preflop to see a flop of 
. Ongurur had squeezed to 1,200 before calling the further reraise and then opted to fold to a bet worth 6,000 by Domorochenkov and the call by Santos.
On the 
turn, the Russian check-called 7,500 before both players quickly checked the 
river. Domorochenkov showed 
and chopped the pot as Santos held 
.
The tables are pretty much filled and the screens now show 180 players registered, only two off the total field size of the first starting day. You can expect this number to still grow in the upcoming hours for more than 400 entries in total here in the Casino Barriere Cannes.
Vitalii “v1lat” Volochai - who came third for €2,000 - and Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden, who both participated in yesterday's ESports SNG of Unibet, have enjoyed the poker part a lot and actually stayed here to participate in the Main Event as well. Both were in their seats right from the start and van der Heijden picked up a small pot early on.
The Dutchwoman bet the 
turn for 100 and her opponent in the small blind check-called before mucking the river to a bet worth 500.
Paul Valkenburg is slowly but surely growing a beard, though that project may require a bit of time still. "You know, it's more me being lazy" the Dutchman joked back as we approached him. Valkenburg called a raise to 225 from the player in the cutoff and the player on the button also came along.
On a flop of 
, the Dutchman check-folded to a bet of 225 and a raise to 725 while the other two opponents then checked down the turn and 
river. The player in the cutoff showed 
and that ended up second-best to the 
of the other player in the hand.
Towards the entrance of the tournament room are three familiar faces seated on nearby tables. Unibet Open Glasgow champion Daniel Chutrov, Irish Open champion Ian Simpson as well as Jessy Marillaud. The tables are filling quickly after starting short-handed and we shall soon have a few more well known names added to the counts.
Tournament director John Scanlon has taken care of the introduction and the cards are officially underway with the button in seat 10. The screens show 165 players registered, thus we are not far off the overall participation of Day 1a and the late registration is open until the end of level four.
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