Enough of the separate flights; Tuesday was the time at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Deauville Main Event that all of the survivors from Days 1A and 1B came together in a single, unified field for Day 2. 335 of the original 589 made it to Day 2, led by the home country’s Guillaume Darcourt, who had 167,800 chips. Another three players registered before the start of the day, making the total field 592. Darcourt is still doing just fine, but the man ruling over the remaining field of 138 going into Day 3 is now Alex Tikhoniouk.
Day 3 looks to be one of the more competitive days we have seen in a while in a major tournament. Lately, we have been witnessing players holding dominating chip leads (not that it has guaranteed eventual success), but today, the leaderboard is extremely compact. Tikhoniouk has 312,600 chips, but Kevin MacPhee is right behind him with 308,300. After those two, it’s Robert Schulz with 296,900, Adrien Guyon with 291,100, Jouny Hanna with 290,000, and Omar Dahmani with 289,700. Even the tenth place player, Olivier Piechaczyk, is well within arm’s reach of the chip lead with 272,600.
With the final player tally of 592, the prize pool for the EPT Deauville Main Event is €2,841,600 (€5,000 * 592 less a 4 percent gaming tax). A total of 87 players will make the money, with the winner taking home €543,700. The final six players will all cash six-figure paychecks.
Our chip leader, Alex Tikhoniouk, is relatively unaccomplished on the live poker tournament circuit, having cashed just eight times, all in Ireland, for just over $55,000 total. Though only one of the tournaments in which he has cashed has had a four-figure buy-in, he has made the most of his cashes. He has finished in eleventh place or better in all but one of those eight tournaments, winning four of them.
The second place player, in contrast has a wealth of live tournament experience. Kevin MacPhee has $3.4 million in tourneys, most recently winning about half a million dollars as the runner-up in the EPT London Main Event. He has 21 World Series of Poker cashes, six World Poker Tour cashes, and 15 EPT cashes, included a victory in the 2010 EPT Germany Main Event.
Play continues Wednesday as 138 players return for Day 3. With just 87 making the money, today should be the day the money bubble bursts.
2015 European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Alex Tikhoniouk – 312,600
2. Kevin MacPhee – 308,300
3. Robert Schulz – 296,900
4. Adrien Guyon – 291,100
5. Jouny Hanna – 290,000
6. Omar Dahmani – 289,700
7. Bertrand Grospellier – 281,500
8. Carlo Savinelli – 275,400
9. Benjamin Pollak – 275,000
10. Olivier Piechaczyk – 272,600