Latest Deauville Post

Among the numerous opponents faced by Gus Hansen on his charge to the Aussie Millions title last year was the American Josh Prager, who is a PokerStars qualifier here in Deauville. Hansen's tournament win down under is now famously documented in the book "Every Hand Revealed", and although Prager plays...more

Tommy Pavlicek just doubled up with K-J over A-Q on a board of J-J-A-Q-8. The PokerStars qualifier was eager to stack his new chips. Pavlicek looks different these days, a shaved head replacing his former Beatle mop-top, now on course to secure a third career EPT cash. As if...more

The full official counts from the end of level 10 have now been added to the chip count page. The young Belgian player Jonathan Abdellatif leads the way with 150,000, but David Ulliott and Michel Abecassis are breathing down his neck. Isabelle Mercier is still also sitting pretty with 53,000....more

Players have taken their first 15 minute break of the day and a full, official chip count is now being processed. Check the chip counts page in a few minutes for the updated counts, and continue to click over there throughout the day. David Ulliott is still near the top,...more

Yesterday Michael Fratty sat through several levels of play watching movies on a portable DVD player. He said very little, appearing to be oblivious to the game, keeping himself to himself behind a cool exterior. Cut to today where we just saw, check that, heard the flip side -...more

The player reward system on PokerStars has been adding incentives to online play for years: bronze stars become silver; silver turns to gold; gold morphs into platinum, before we leave the metals behind and go cosmic. There we meet our Supernovas and Supernovas Elite. On the European Poker Tour, there's...more

A "Yes! (Bang). (Bang). Yes!" in that order - another double up to keep a player's cash dream alive. Balance that with the "(Bang) Non! (Bang). (Bang)" and you have the Morse code of victory and defeat ringing across the ballroom. It's easy to translate. Over on Gino Alacqua's...more

There comes a time when you realise that the world is conspiring against you and you know that the game is well and truly up. The PokerStars qualifier Elroy Wilms knows that feeling: he has just been busted from this event in the most emphatic of circumstances. After tangling and...more

Devilfish to the left, Devilfish to the right. Fatigue can get to you on the tour but not usually enough for you to start seeing double. In one direction I saw chip leader Ulliott and a few minute later there he was again, in the complete opposite direction. Such...more

The familiar day two refrain, "Seat open!" has begun to ring out across Casino Barriere. The short stacks have been shoving, the big stacks have been calling and there's a queue at the door to the exit. Vanessa Rousso was near the front of it. The Team PokerStars Pro's final...more

The conversation around the dinner table last night centred on one crucial question. "If I distract the waiter, do you reckon you can swipe that half-full bottle of wine?" Once that was settled, and the wine was successfully liberated, the assembled journalists put their collective minds to another pressing quandary:...more

Stop press: Such are the vagaries -- the beautiful vagaries -- of tournament poker that we can even write this update. Three hands before what you read below was published, it was entirely accurate. But in the time it took us to formulate the paragraphs below, they were rendered irrelevant....more

With less than a level to play it's a case of keeping up with latest dispatches from the front - several players get a mention. Dave Ulliott just passed the 50K barrier courtesy of a simple 8s-6s hand, good for a flopped pair of sixes that bettered the pocket...more

There are many ways to skin a cat, likewise to cover a poker tournament. Sometimes it's tempting to stand by a single table for a round or two to get a feel for how one particular group is playing over a sustained period. But sometimes it's also good just to...more

Max Pescatori was in. Max Pescatori is now out. The pirate was forced to walk the plank when down to his last 3,500 in level seven, with blinds biting at 200-400 with a 50 running ante. With the last Deauville winner Mats Iremark to his immediate right passing hte...more