Deauville EPT Main Event

By Mel Lofthouse and Eugene Cummins - February 2005

On Monday we went over to Eugene's Mum's house to drop Declan off for five days. Tuesday started very early, 4:00am, ouch too damn early. We set off from south east London to get to Portsmouth for the 8:30am crossing only to find Jeff Duvall and Alan Frinton on our crossing. We were hoping to get a cash game going but their cards were in the car so we fell asleep instead!

Got off the ferry at Le Havre and drove down to Deauville. It's only about 40 minutes away, but with Eugene's driving it took about 25 minutes. After following an English car into Deauville (which we presumed was also going to Hotel Du Golf), we found ourselves going the wrong way and got lost. We eventually found our way, and oh my god the hotel was gorgeous. No wonder they charge 300 Euros a night! There is a Golf course right outside the front of hotel and it was a good job it was all paid for by Pokerstars. We booked into hotel and then got the shuttle bus down to casino.

This is a picture of the casino. Inside it is very grand and has designer shops surrounding the casino. Deauville is a very expensive town.

Once in the casino we had to register for the satellite. I said to Euge that if I won a seat into the main event then he could have it as I've already got a ticket. As we were taking our seats for the satellite we bumped into loads of faces we already knew; Richard Gryko, Frank and Eric from Brighton, Racing Ronnie, Willie Tann, XPham and Steve Vladar, Devilfish, Julian Thew, Tikay, Isabelle Mercier etc, etc, the list went on and on. I ended up drawing on Tikay and Julian Thews table and got to 5000 without a re-buy or add on. Our table was absolutely crazy. We ran out of chips and had to ask for another stack.

I was quite glad that I didn't top up though as I bombed out of the tourney with pocket 10's on a 9 high board. I had raised pre-flop with 2 callers and flop comes 9 8 2. I go all in and Tikay calls in a flash to show trip 8's. Oops! I tell Tikay to use my chips wisely, which I know he will.

I then have to sit through 4 hours of torture in watching Eugene win a seat. It was so close to the knuckle, absolutely unreal. Julian had 200 chips left and Eugene had 400 chips left, which was just enough for the ante. A guy in the big blind ended up busting out so Julian, Eugene and Eric won seats into the main event. This was great, mainly because I didn't fancy Eugene watching me for 2 days. He'd be more nervous than me!

Day 2 - Deauville EPT Main Event

We got to the casino for the PokerStars welcome and freebies giveaway. This meant I could wear the t-shirt whilst playing and have a chat with loads of other online qualifiers and cash qualifiers. We then went for the PokerStars lunch which was spectacular, although there were loads of seafood dishes. We met up with Frank and Eric from Brighton , only to find out that Eric had won the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise and was $250,000 better off, very nice indeed!

After having the lunch it was time for the main event. Let battle commence! I drew my seat and got Devilfish on my left with Jan Bouble on my right, how lucky! It actually turned out to be quite a friendly and lively table and I was winding up Devilfish to show me his hands and I guessed two of them correctly.

Warren Karp, tournament director. He made some excellent rulings over the days events.

The 3rd hand into the tourney I get pocket 7's. The blinds are 25/50 and a Canadian guy raises to 200, 3 people call including me and the flop comes A Q 7. I check, Canadian guy bets, other guy calls, I tickle a raise, everybody calls. Next card is a spade and now there are 2 spades on board and the turn was a blank, a 2 I think. I check, Canadian guy bets again, other guy folds, I re-raise again. He calls like a flash, so I'm thinking he's definitely got AQ or AK. The river is a horrendous card, a 10 of spades. So now there's a straight and flush out there and I've just got trips. I check thinking to myself 's**t hope he hasn't got the flush', and he checks and shows AK. My trip 7's win!

Devilfish then goads me for a few minutes saying 'why didn't you bet it'. I said well when the straight is there, and possible flush, and all you have is trips what would you do? He shut up for a minute!

I'm now up to about 18,000 chips within 4 minutes and looking good. I accumulate a bit more and end up taking out a player with AA v his 99 and am now up to about 28,000 just before the dinner break. Euge is on 10,000 chips and said he hasn't really seen a hand.

We go for the buffet dinner which is sponsored by PokerStars and the EPT. We find seafood on the menu again, doh!! So it's bread and salami for me then! I also find out that Redbull is illegal in France . If I'd have known that I would have brought it over on the ferry.

After dinner nothing major happens apart from Euge winning a pot which takes him up to about 17k. I end the day on 37.5k in chips and am feeling good. I'm in about 13th place.

We then re-draw seats for next days play and I find I'm on table 8, which is one of the back tables. I know that I'm not going to be playing on that table for too long before it's broken up. After about 2 hours of play I get moved onto not only Eugene 's table but also Tikay's and Racing Ronnie's table. It's just like being down at Brighton .

This is a picture of Tony Cascarino, Tikay and Eric.

Racing Ronnie tells me that he had a bit of a bet, and if he comes in top 80 he'll win but he's not got many chips. I'm now up to about 50k. I'm in the small blind and Ronnie is the big blind. He only has about 2k more so I put him all in with K9 and he calls me with A5, I think. Flop comes with a King and knocks out Racing Ron but he's in good spirits since he is in the top 80 and will get loads of dosh back!

Anyway, back to the main tournament. Nothing major happens. Euge is now down to about 13k in chips but blinds are quite big, 2/4k with antes of about 200. Euge is on the button and moves all in. Justin who ends up the event in 3rd decides to call Euges bet with 7 2 off and Euge shows his hand of 5 2 off. Why the hell did he call the raise? Euge and I are still thinking about that one! The board is no help to either player and the 7 kicker counts. Euge is out!

It was not a nice way to go out, especially as Justin had nothing to call the raise with. Even if Euge is on a steal, why does he call? We'll never know! I'm really disappointed that Euge went out and for next couple of rounds I don't really do anything other than lose quite a few chips. Euge went out 35th, just before the money which started at 27th . We carry on playing and Frank is still in, Tikay is on my table and one by one players get knocked out.

This is a picture of me, Mike "Luckyblind" Lacey and Adrian. Mike finished in 13th place and I ended up 18th. Adrian got knocked out on day 1, but we had a great time

We are now down to 30 players and are awaiting another all in...now down to 28 players and one player is hanging on for dear life. They finally get knocked out, everybody cheers and we're all now in the money!

Warren tells us to take a 10 minute break and that we'll be carrying on playing until we get down to 18. We're absolutely shattered by this point as it's now about 1am and having played from 2pm I'm feeling a little tired.

I don't really see a hand until I get pocket 9's and raise it to about 20k. Tikay thinks and thinks and then says that he doesn't like his hand, but it's big, probably a 50/50. He lays down AQ. I tell him I've got a medium/big pocket pair and he says he didn't want to risk it on that hand so I scoop a bit of a pot and get up to about 80k.

I'm now getting blinded away as I keep seeing 7/3, 9/4, 10/5, etc, etc and getting a load of c**p. I'm not getting any kind of chance to raise, since people before me are doing it first! I'm now blinded down to about 60k and we are down to 18th place as Frank just went out in 19th place. We are then told that play resumes tomorrow (it was supposed to be a day off) at 2pm . Uuuurrrrgh! Not good!

Day 3 - Deauville EPT Main Event

This is the final 18 players and chip counts: (thanks to blondepoker.com)

Bob Coombes 348k
Mike Lacey 249k
Peter Eichhardt 249k
Brandon Schaeffer 200.5k
Camel 190k
Peter Dalhuijsen 172k
Luca Pagona 138k
Sam Drams 134.5k
Eric Vanderburg 133k
Justin Bonomo 105k
Z Jerome 99k
Torbey Sami 91k
Carl Olsen 87.5k
Jeremy Tuckman 60k
Mel Lofthouse 57.5k
Tony "Tikay" Kendall 55.5k
Mark Restine 52k
Willie Tann 51k

Luckily I had most of the smaller stacks on my table. However on the 3rd hand into the tournament I need to steal as blinds are now 5k/10k and antes of 1000 a hand, which is not pretty. I find A3 and stick my chips in. Everybody folds around to the big blind, who unfortunately wakes up with AK. Aaarrrgh! There is no help! We do the chip count and find that I've got 500 chips left which is not enough for even the ante. My 6/3 suited hearts doesn't hit and I'm out in 18th place, but with 3,600 euros in my pocket!

Stefan had 5% on me, so he's now in pocket too! About 3 hands later, there's a 3 way all in between Tikay, Camel (I think) and another player. Tikay has A/10, somebody has A/Q and other player has K/K and the kings hold up. Tikay is out!

Mike "Luckyblind" Lacey is another casualty and goes out in 13th place and then 4 hours later they make a final table.

This is the eventual winner of the EPT Deauville event, Brandon Schaefer.

It was a great event with good play and now hoping to play in Vienna for the next EPT event! Anybody want a percentage in me?