JAN 25 2010

Pagano looking strong at EPT Deauville

The man who has had more EPT cashes than any other player is having yet another promising run at the EPT champion title he so craves. Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano finished Day 1b of the EPT Deauville main event close to the chip lead with 193,100.

The popular Italian, who currently tops the EPT Tournament Leader Board ahead of fellow Team Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, smashed his own records at EPT Prague in December by making a sixth final table and 13th EPT cash.

A total of 768 players from 41 countries entered this year’s €5,300 EPT Deauville main event – even more than last year’s record-breaking 645-strong field. The massive numbers have generated a prize pool to match: €847,000 to first place, and a total prize pool of €3,686,400 being shared among 104 players.

Among the Day 1b survivors are Team PokerStars Pros Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Alex Kravchenko, Jude Ainsworth, ElkY and Vadim Markushevski. They will join Day 1a’s 186 survivors –which include Arnaud Mattern, in the Casino Barrière’s Salle des Ambassadeurs at noon today.

Rising star Benjamin Pollak now seems closest to the €300,000 first prize in the PokerStars “Job 2 Stars” contest. He and nine others are battling against each other to win the lucrative PokerStars deal and, at the start of yesterday, four were very close in points. Pollak now appears to have pulled ahead with a chip stack of around 120,000.

For full reports from EPT Deauville, please see the PokerStars blog and vblogs on PokerStars.tv. EPTLive starts on Sunday (January 24) with expert commentary in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Russian.