EPT Deauville a hit

A record number of participants have been recorded at this year's EPT Deauville event, forcing organisers to re-home some of the players at anothe rlocal casino.

The success and popularity of the game of poker just keeps on growing, as proved by the numbers in attendance at this season's EPT Deauville. Figures suggest that participate numbers have swelled to a staggering 768 players, beating last year's record number of 645 entrants. In fact the numbers are so high the organisers have faced the un-enviable task of finding a new home for some players in the elegant Salon Prive located in the nearby Casino Barrierre de Deaville. Such an increase in participants has created a huge prize pool: €847,000 to first place, with a total prize pool of €3,686,400 being shared among 104 players.

Among the 350 players who sat down on day 1a of what has become the biggest poker tournaments to ever be held on the Normandy coast were French Pros Marion Nedellec and Adam Lounis, both sponsored by Pokerstars. Other players included Team Pokerstars Arnaud Mattern from France, Katja Thater from Germany and Vlad Zguba from Ukraine. A total of 41 countries are represented at this year's event and this is reflected in the coverage of the tournament – EPT will be providing commentary in seven languages.

EPT4 Dortmund winner Mike McDonald, Hungarian pro Richard Toth, who came 14th at the PCA last week and EPT Vilamoura runner-up Pierre Neuville were amongst other big names spotted at the scene. They are among 100 players who won their seats to the €5,300 No Limit Hold’em event on PokerStars. Antoine Saout, who came third at the World Series of Poker, is also competing. Another famous face was Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, seen signing copies of his book “Kill ElkY” in the Barriere Casino’s Galerie D’Honneur. The book is the French translation of Lee Nelson’s highly successful 'Kill Everyone'. ElkY was also involved in the EPT Deauville Tornament's $220 Ladies Event, by giving a few lucky ladies the chance to backed by him and wear a special “ElkY Lady” T-shirt. With an interesting twist to this year's event, the 89 participants will include...four men, due to French anti-discrimination laws. Players included EPT London Ladies Champion Dagmara Aleksandrowicz, ‘Job 2 Stars’ finalist Barbara Martinez and Poker Mission Caraibes contestant Karine Nogueira.

French Pro Julien Brecard scored his first win of the tournament by winning the people's choice award at the first ever France Poker Awards, after beating stiff compeition from Team PokerStars Pro ElkY, Ludovic Lacay, Antony Lellouche, Fabrice Soulier and WSOP finalist Antoine Saout. Organised by the French Poker Players Federation, the jury included EPT founder and Team PokerStars Pro John Duthrie. All EPT players were invited to attend as the industry rewarded successful French poker players and organisations. Other award handed out were International Player of the Year, New Player of the Year, French Woman Player of the Year and Performance of the Year.