February 01 2012, Marty Derbyshire

On Day 1b of the 2012 PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event, 550 players turned out, meaning the total number of entrants was just two fewer than the record 891 who came to play last year.

Once registration closed and the final numbers were released, the news came down that 889 players had signed up for this incarnation of EPT Deauville, creating a “4,267,200 prize pool that will pay 128 spots with “875,000 reserved for first – just “5,000 less than Lucien Cohen’s take from 2011.

The Day 1b field was heavily French but still featured some of the biggest stars in the game. 1998 WSOP Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen turned up, as did Cohen and a host of Team PokerStars Pros, including Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Liv Boeree, Vanessa Rousso, Eugene Katchalov and more.

But as the masses fell by the wayside, leaving 325 survivors, the day truly belonged to Frenchman Amir Salhani, who grabbed the top spot late and held on heading into Thursday’s Day 2 with 191,100 in chips and the overall chip lead.

Cohen was eliminated in the final 15 minutes of the day, ensuring there will be a new champion this year as the likes Blom, Katchalov, Vanessa Selbst, Dario Minieri, Fabrice Soulier, and Jude Ainsworth joined him on the rail.

Several notables will go on to Day 2 from the Day 1b group, however, including Rousso, Shannon Shorr, Ari Engel, Nacho Barbero, Ludovic Lacay and Team PokerStars SportsStar and Olympic gold medalist Fatima Moreira de Melo.

Adding the Day 1b survivors to the 221 through from Day 1a means 546 players will begin play at 1200 CET (0300 PST) in Deauville on Thursday.

To follow all the action live tune into PokerNews’ EPT Live Updates page, and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

December 16 2011, Donnie Peters

The Epic Poker League continued on with Day 3 of the third Main Event as 25 players returned for play. The plan for the day was to play down until the money bubble broke and 12 players were left. The end came just about five hours after the first cards were dealt and leading the way was Joe Tehan with 1.142 million in chips.

Tehan got his chips thanks to a big double knockout on the last hand of the day to burst the bubble. His closest competitor is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi with 627,500 and then Scott Clements rounds out the top three with 496,000.

Matt Graham was the first to go on the day. According to the EPL Live Update Team, Graham moved his last 31,500 into the middle during Level 10 with the blinds at 1,200/2,400/400. He was called by Brock Parker holding the . Graham held the , but the ladies couldn’t hold up after the board ran out .

From there, Hasan Habib fell in 24th, Yevgeniy Timoshenko was eliminated in 23rd, Eric Froehlich headed out the door in 22nd and Dan O’Brien hit the rail in 21st.

Sam Stein fell in 20th place after his failed to fend of Amnon Filippi’s and Justin Smith’s couldn’t beat Tehan’s , which sent him out the door in 19th.

After the eliminations of Marco Johnson in 18th, Randal Flowers in 17th, Eric Baldwin in 16th and Parker in 15th, just 14 players remained. Now just two places away from the money and a $51,920 payday, the unthinkable happened.

Faraz Jaka was nursing the short stack of the tournament when he raised all-in from under the gun for 68,000 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000/500. Action moved to Vanessa Rousso and she reraised to 120,000 with around 180,000 behind. When play got over to Tehan, he requested a count on Rousso’s stack and then reraised all-in. After some thinking, Rousso called and put herself at risk along with Jaka.

Jaka was fortunate enough to pick up at this very key moment. He was looking for the triple up against Rousso’s and Tehan’s . Wait, what? That’s right, Tehan held the ol’ deuce-four offsuit. What happened from there, we can’t really put into words.

What we can tell you is that the flop, turn and river ran out and Tehan had spiked trip fours to miraculously win the hand and bust both Jaka and Rousso on the bubble to end the day. Stunned, both players headed to the rail while the other 12 remained to bag up their chips for the day.

Day 4 Chip Counts

The final 12 players will return on Saturday at 1200 PST (2100 CET) and continue with three four-handed tables of action. PokerNews will have the recap from play, so be sure to check right back here for it on Sunday.

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Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters