Day 2 of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Deauville saw 248 players return to the felt with the aim of cruising past the money bubble at 64 players and on to the final table. As expected the action was frenzied in the first couple of levels as short stacks gambled for their tournament lives and the comfortably chipped picked off any weakness.
Among the early exits were Euro Finals of Poker runner up Roger Hairabedian from France with J-8 against K-J, former 
EPT Deauville champion Mats Iremark, Vanessa Rousso, and Matthew Marafioti.
Some players, such as serial EPT challenger and former World Poker Tour runner up Ludovic Lacay barely knew if they were coming or going. First he called an opponent’s all-in with pocket kings, only to be confronted by a pocket pair of aces which left him very few chips behind as he counted out 57,000 to give to his opponent.
He then made a strident comeback before getting all his chips in with A-K versus A-K versus A-2 with both his opponents hitting a flush and the luckless Frenchman hitting the rail.
Former EPT Prague runner up Gino Alacqua was down to two solitary chips in the first session of play before tripling up when his pocket aces held up against A-K and Q-Q. From near broke to above average he couldn’t maintain his momentum and busted out in 70th place when his with A-4 suited was trumped by Q-J offsuit.
Other hopefuls who couldn’t make their money back included Stuart Rutter, Otto Richard, Massimo di Ciocco, Juha Helppi, and Andreas Krause.
David "Devilfish" Ulliott, who started the day as chip leader, endured a rollercoaster ride. Here’s how he describes the day in his CardPlayer.com blog. “I started today off badly, lost 37,000 on a misdeal, then played the bollocks of ’em, got up to 160,000, then I played an A-Q really badly and lost two coin flips and found myself on 50,000. Got back a bit in the final level and ended the day on 140,000, which is about average with less than 50 players left.
The bubble boy, Janek Schleicher, ran sevens into kings, exiting in 65th and with the bubble having bust all remaining players could look forward to a minimum of pay day of €6,225. That’s €975 more than their buy in and registration fee. Probably just about enough to cover expenses for the more frugal European players.
The final table players will receive:
First — €851,400
Second — €495,400
Third — €284,800
Fourth — €219,800
Fifth — €182,700
Sixth — €142,400
Seventh — €108,300
Eighth — €77,400
Play continued until 47 challengers remained. The payouts from 64th to 48th were:
48 – Georges Culla, France, €9,300
49 – Luca Marotta, Italy: €7,700
50 – Lica Sever Marian, Romania: €7,700
51 – Olivier Busquet, USA: €7,700
52 – Jonathan Abdellatif, Belgium: €7,700
53 – Guillaume De La Gorce, France: €7,700
54 – Eduard Kapitonov, Russia: €7,700
55 – Helfried Bernhardt, Germany: €7,700
56 – Freddy Deeb: €7,700
57 – Joao Barbosa, Portugal: €6,225
58 – Ricardo Sousa, Portugal: €6,225
59 – Dennis Kim, U.S.: €6,225
60 – Gabriel Nassif, France: €6,225
61 – Isabelle Mercier, Canada: €6,225
62 – Surinder Sunar, U.K.: €6,225
63 – Alessandro Cavalieri, Italy, €6,225
64 – Amerigo Santoro, Italy: €6,225
The top 10 in chips going into day three are:
- Moritz Kranich (Germany) — 517,500
- Michel Abecassis (France) —310,000
- Arnaud Esquevin (France) — 281,000
- Joep van den Bijgaart (Holland) — 267,000
- Bruno Haddad (France) — 264,500
- Laurent Polito (France) — 212,000
- Arnaud Vicente (France) — 206,500
- David Daraux (France) — 204,000
- Jan Meinberg (Germany) — 196,500
- Jorn Walthaus (Holland) —186,500
Join us at CardPlayer.com today at Noon GMT for what should prove a thrilling denouement to season V of the European Poker Tour Deauville.
