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.
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.
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..."
[user46298]
Bruno Benveniste, building a nicely sized stack
Suddenly challenging the top stacks is Bruno Benveniste, who just now looked to be stacking the remainder of the empty seat next to him into his already very comfortable chip pillar. Seeing as he's an uneven and impressively tall stacker, it was one of those instances where it's easier just to ask a player to confirm his chip leader status directly. I asked if he had 150k, and he replied modestly and accurately, "A little less, maybe 145k," which was still enough to seriously challenge the end of day Big Stack Top Spot.
Elsewhere the player who's kept that title for the majority of the day, Guillaume Darcourt, is still in good shape, but has lost a number of small pots taking his stack well below the top ten. Most recently, he found himself fourbet preflop by neighbour Valentin Messina (to the tune of 10,300), and made the call, only to quickly pass when Messina bet out 11k on the flop.
Arnaud Mattern told us about the exit of Shane Schleger who had 4-bet all-in preflop with . He was quickly called by his opponent's but despite a X flop and a on the turn, Schleger missed Queen, Jack and the Eight on the river.
Also just seen heading out of the rail was EPT Snowfest champion Allan Baekke who had been grinding a short stack all day.
A weird river just now, as Jimmy Ostensson faced a big bet (10k) on a board of . Last year's runner up Jerome Zerbib had fired the river bet and was calmly waiting for Ostensson to come to a decision - and eventually he made the call, but it didn't look as if he particularly enjoyed calling a big chunk of his stack.
"Ace.." said Zerbib, but when Ostensson showed him the for the same hand, apparently, Zerbib mucked his cards! This piqued the interest of another tablemate, who posed the interesting question, "What if he'd mucked the winning hand there when you said Ace?" There was no ill will on any side, though, and a rather satisfied Ostensson is having a good level all round.
board for a pot of over 25k, and then losing half his stack doubling up a shorter stack with his sevens vs. tens.
. Albertini bet out 3,300, which was promptly raised to 7,100 by button Tuil. Albertini performed the self-countdown and then called.
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.
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 
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.
flop.
flop with 
. There was no help on the 
turn or 
river.
. He was quickly called by his opponent's 
X flop and a 
on the turn, Schleger missed Queen, Jack and the Eight on the river.
. Last year's runner up Jerome Zerbib had fired the river bet and was calmly waiting for Ostensson to come to a decision - and eventually he made the call, but it didn't look as if he particularly enjoyed calling a big chunk of his stack.