February 02 2012, Marc Convey

Day 2 of the PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville played out over six 75-minute levels Thursday and the field was reduced greatly. Day 1 is all about survival whereas Day 2 is seen as a day to move up through the field. The combined field of 546 returned Thursday, and that number was culled down to 178 players.

Martins Adeniya moved to the top of the pack and bagged up 512,000, up from 115,200 at the beginning of play. Other players who also moved in the right direction included Brahim Oubella (452,000) Ludovic Lacay (377,300), Julien Ehrhardt (363,600), and Chris Brammer (321,900).

Adeniya, no stranger to leading an EPT, gets there by applying relentless pressure on his opponents. He took over the chip lead after he busted Philipe Ma over the course of two hands. Ma was caught bluffing in one hand and then ran into the Adeniya’s full-house in his exit hand.

Adeniya relinquished the lead for a while but had a storming last level. He told PokerNews that he won a 100,000-chip pot when his tens held to bust an opponent holding pocket nines. Apart from that, he won a series of small to medium pots, often forcing opponents to fold. One example of that was when he bet 8,000, 20,000, and 50,000 on a board. His opponent finally gave up on the river.

It will come as no surprise to see Luca Pagano still in. The Team PokerStars Pro in fact the only Team Pro left, is an almost unmovable force through these stages of an EPT. He will be looking for a record extending 20th cash. He finished with 172,400 chips.

Those extra chips at the top had to come from somewhere though. Amir Salhani was the clear chip leader coming into play but he departed in four levels. Nacho Barbero lost his six-figure stack within the first level, and he was joined on the rail by Kevin MacPhee and Arnaud Mattern, both former EPT champions. MacPhee came in short and had a great chance to get back into the tournament when he flopped a set of aces, but he was helpless as an opponent made a baby flush to oust him.

It was a bad day, all-in-all, for former EPT champions, as well as Team PokerStars Pros. Liv Boeree, Jake Cody, and Zimnan Ziyard won’t be the long-awaited double EPT winners. Matthias De Meulder, Vanessa Rousso, Marcin Horecki, Fatima Moreira de Melo, and Henrique Pinho were also all eliminated.

Kara Scott, Praz Bansi, Christopher Mclung, Ruben Visser, and Scotty Nguyen will be missed as much for their personalities, as well as their prowess at the table.

Top 10 Chip Counts Headed into Day 3

Play will begin at 1200 CET (0300 PST) Friday and we fully expect the field to shrink enough to burst through the bubble. One hundred and twenty-eight players will be guaranteed a minimum “7,500.

To follow all the action live, as it happens, tune into PokerNews’ Live Updates. Our team will be here throughout the day, bringing you all the news you need to know and more.

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November 19 2011, Lee Davy

The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Loutraki Main Event has reached its final stage. Over the past five days, 336 players have given everything they have in pursuit of the “347,000 first prize and all of the accolades that accompanies an EPT title.

Before the penultimate day began, 38 players were hoping that they could turn their dreams into something a little more tangible. By the time another Greek sunset had come and gone, 30 players were eliminated, leaving only eight players left with a dream. The final table, our Clash of the Titans, was set, and the player who had finished at the top of the pack was Zimnan Ziyard with 2,771,000 chips.

The day began with Level 19, and during those scintillating 75-minutes we lost 13 players. Among the early casualties were former Day 1a chip leader Julian Herold and Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth. The chip leader at the start of the day was Charalampos Kapernopoulos, and the Greek doctor continued to run hotter than a lava flow, finishing the first level with 1,177,000 chips.

The next level saw another raft of casualties and the most notable player to receive a fatal blow was the last Team PokerStars Pro, and former Day 2 chip leader, Toni Judet. At the top end of the charts, Kapernopoulos was still our chip leader with 1,256,000 chips.

As play reached Level 21, the inexperience of our chip leader started to show. He lost big pots to Ioannis Taramas and Hauke Heseding and started to slip down towards mediocrity. Someone needed to step up and replace Kapernopoulos at the top, and it was Hauke Heseding who walked forward and took a bow.

Moving into Level 23, the last remaining Brits started to make their moves. Former EPT Champion Rupert Elder and fellow compatriot Zimnan Ziyard learned to play poker in their home game at the University of Warwick, and both of them were competing for Heseding’s spot at the top. Then, just as people started to contemplate the possibility of Elder becoming the first-ever double EPT Champion – he was gone – and his old foe Ziyard was his executioner. With blinds at 10,000/20,000, Elder four-bet his entire 700,000 stack holding and Ziyard called with . Ziyard’s hand held strong and he deposed Heseding at the top with 1,760,000 chips.

From that moment on, Ziyard kept his foot on the gas and peered in the rear view mirror as Ioannis Taramas, Hauke Heseding and Mario Puccini all failed to make the headway needed to remove him from top spot.

On Sunday, Ziyard will start with a million more chips than his nearest competitor and has an excellent chance of becoming, yet another, British EPT champion.

The final table starts on Sunday at 1200 EET (0200 PST), so be sure and join us at Pokernews for all of the action from EPT Loutraki.

EPT Loutraki Main Event Final Table Seat Draw and Chip Counts

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