Thursday, 28th March 2024 16:10
Home / Uncategorized / EPT9 Deauville Day 6: Where have these jokers come from?

On final table day of any EPT tournament, we are often asked: “Who the hell are these jokers?”

I tend to reply, “Stephen Bartley and Rick Dacey,” until the inquisitor clarifies their question and points me towards the final table. “No, the players. Who are they? I’ve never seen them before.”

EPT Live has helped answer this particular question this week. Viewers at home have been able to watch the action right from the opening day, and that has allowed people unfamiliar with the workings of these tournament to see how the “name” players can fall by the wayside leaving some lesser known faces to do battle.

We have watched the slow and steady progress of those unheralded players all the way to this largely unfamiliar final table. There may not be any World Champions among them, but Messrs Kalfon, Rudelitz, Romeo, Bou-Habib et al have all earned their tilt at glory.

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Enrico Rudelitz: under the radar despite green hat

Even taking the cameras into account, however, it has been notable just how far under the radar many of these players have remained this week. If they are not an already established big name, players can find themselves in our coverage by being in the top handful of stacks at the end of each day. But none of the final eight have even really filled that criteria this week. Many left their most successful chip building until the late stages of Day 5.

For instance, when 23 players came back this time yesterday, Noel Gaens had the fewest chips of all of them, Jeffrey Hakim was 22nd and Franck Kalfon was 20th. Remi Castaignon was 205th from 419 players on Day 2, he was 93rd from 154 on Day 3 and 35th from 51 on Day 4.

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Walid Bou-Habib: A new star

Here, actually, is the progress of the final table eight through all days of the tournament. Remember, 782 players started Day 1 with a stack of 30,000. There were 419 left on Day 2, 154 on Day 3, 51 on Day 4, 23 on Day 5 and eight today.

Here’s the data dump:

Seat 1 – Joseph El Khoury
Day 2: 66th (91,900)
Day 3: 33rd (252,000)
Day 4: 16th (506,000)
Day 5: 12th (935,000)
Day 6: 5th (1.710m)

Seat 2 – Jeffrey Hakim
Day 2: 36th (114,700)
Day 3: 75th (137,800)
Day 4: 8th (714,000)
Day 5: 22nd(474,000)
Day 6: 8th (895,000)

Seat 3 – Enrico Rudelitz
Day 2: 15th (128,500)
Day 3: 23rd (274,500)
Day 4: 10th (643,000)
Day 5: 7th (1.1m)
Day 6: 3rd (2.69m)

Seat 4 – Franck Kalfon
Day 2: 30th (117,500)
Day 3: 74th (138,500)
Day 4: 40th (260,000)
Day 5: 20th (645,000)
Day 6: 7th (1.195m)

Seat 5 – Robert Romeo
Day 2: 311th (28,500)
Day 3: 29th (261,700)
Day 4: 49th (116,000)
Day 5: 13th (972,000)
Day 6: 6th (1.440m)

Seat 6 – Walid Bou-Habib
Day 2: 271st (36,900)
Day 3: 86th (118,500)
Day 4: 14th (531,000)
Day 5: 19th (676,000)
Day 6: 2nd (3.835m)

Seat 7 – Noel Gaens
Day 2: 135th (67,000)
Day 3: 16th (292,700)
Day 4: 20th (480,000)
Day 5: 23rd (443,000)
Day 6: 4th (1.720m)

Seat 8 – Remi Castaignon
Day 2: 205th (49,900)
Day 3: 93rd (103,600)
Day 4: 35th (321,000)
Day 5: 2nd (1.997m)
Day 6: 1st (9.9m)

In field
Day 2: 419 players (Average: 55,990)
Day 3: 154 players (Average: 152,337)
Day 4: 51 players (Average: 460,000)
Day 5: 23 players (Average: 1,020,000)
Day 6: 8 players (Average: 2,932,500)

*****

Throughout the day, our live coverage will be on the EPT Deauville main event page. And you can also watch it on EPT Live on PokerStars.tv. But there’s also the High Roller playing its second day simultaneously. Tune in to that too.

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