Latest Deauville Post

The field of day 1B in Deauville this afternoon is as full of stars as a clear night sky. From our perch on the stage at the end of the Grand Ballroom, we need only move our eyes as if a spook behind a painting in a Scooby Doo haunted...more

There may be the addition of a TV stage, ready for a local broadcast later in the week, but apart from that the grand ballroom looks about the same as it did yesterday ready for another EPT day one. The early forecast predicts another 300 players will take their...more

Many attractions lure the world traveller to these parts. The picturesque streets are only the backdrop to the town's annual film festival, and year-round Deauville is one of the centres of French horse racing. After this week, it will become time for Deauville to be recognised once again as a...more

As dusk gives way to the pitiless black of the winter's night, play inside the chandelier-lit grand ballroom of the Casino Barriere edges towards its conclusion. Cast miserably into the outer-reaches late on day 1a was Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, France's favourite son, Team PokerStars Pro, and on current form one...more

The last time the EPT stopped by these parts it through up one of the most memorable finals of the EPT history book. Many more have since rivalled it but for season two it was something of a classic, and not just for the backdrop of chandelier elegance. Everyone...more

It's been an up and down day for Tony Dobson. The PokerStars qualifier from London, England, tangled with Joao Barbosa during the opening couple of levels, with the EPT Warsaw champion coming out on top, before Dobson hauled it back up to somewhere near his starting stack. Then he chipped...more

We mentioned earlier that you could cross from one side of the room to the other standing only on the heads of former champions. Well, you can still do that but you'll need to leap the last ten feet, over the gap left by the busted Arnaud Mattern. The...more

You'd rather be lucky than good. And best of all, you'd rather be both. Sebastian Ruthenburg's nickname, with which he does not quibble is "Luckbox". And his reputation - EPT Barcelona champion, World Series bracelet winner - shows that he's good. Ruthenberg just took K-8 up against A-6 all in...more

Following the naming conventions of the likes of "Being John Malkovich" or "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", a blockbuster poker film might one day be released entitled "Goading Phil Hellmuth". At last summer's World Series, the Romanian Cristian Dragomir staked his claim as leading man with some fraught feature-table shenanigans against the...more

The French poker veteran and EPT Vienna champion Pascal Perrault is out. "Thank-you, goodbye," he said as he packed headphones into a neat case and made his way out of the tournament room. He had K-9 and was all in on a nine-high flop. His decent-stacked opponent hit his up...more

As play reaches the halfway mark - four levels gone and a second 15 minute break - happiest of the bunch is likely to be Belgian player Jonathan Abdellatif on 54,000, the likely big stack. There are others feeling pleased with themselves. No swan dive for the French player...more

One of the bigger stacks right now is that of Frenchman Ludovic Lacay, although by the look on his face you wouldn't know it. Lacay plays in his work face at the table, whether he's grinding through the early levels or making sweeping moves at the final table -...more

Carter Gill has become a familiar face on the EPT, LAPT and APPT in the past couple of years, either qualifying in PokerStars satellites or exchanging online tournament dollars to make it to the big dances. And he's done mighty well: a cash in the main events in Asia (Macau)...more

You can put the buy-ins up to €5,000, but you can't guarantee the action won't be as frantic as a $5 turbo rebuy. Passing by an outer table about 20 minutes into level three, I noticed Philippe Dauteuil, who made the final table last year in London, involved in a...more

Jean Pierre Gleize was shouting something, but to anyone who has since jettisoned their high school French it was just bluster. But the local railbirds were laughing, clued in to Gleize's good natured frustration at a player at his table. "He says the player is very very very lucky"...more