Information from Poker Stars
Seat 1 - Claudiu Secara, Romania, 795,000
Seat 2 - Jake Cody, UK, 4,650,000
Seat 3 - Michael Fratty, France, 1,555,000
Seat 4 - Teodor Caraba, Romania, 6,915,000
Seat 5 - Peter Eastgate, Denmark, 695,000
Seat 6 - Craig Bergeron, USA, 3,135,000
Seat 7 - Stephane Albertini, France, 3,555,000
Seat 8 - Mike McDonald, Candada, 1,815,000
PokerStars qualifier Teodor Caraba from Romania goes into the final of EPT Deauville with a massive chip lead after knocking out Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.
The 21-year-old from Timişoara, who won his seat in a $530 satellite on PokerStars, has 6.9 million in chips and is one of two Romanians to make the final – the other is 35-year-old timber company manager Claudiu Secara. Of the two, it is Secara who is the more experienced – he has played several EPTs and came 12th at EPT Prague in December. Caraba has only been playing 18 months - mainly cash games - but is confident he can go the whole way.
Also in the final is Mike “Timex” McDonald who was the youngest ever EPT champion when he won in Dortmund in Season 4 for $1.4m. He now has the chance of becoming the first two-time champion in the tour's six-season history, on what will be his third EPT final table. Along with Caraba and fellow finalist Craig “HU4ROLLZ” Bergeron, McDonald is one of 100 players who won their Deauville seats on PokerStars.
Former world champion and Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate has also made the final after nursing a short stack for most of Day 3. Eastgate is still the final table short stack with just 695,000 in chips.
The other four players who are still in the running for the €847,000 first prize are British online pro Jake Cody, Stephane Albertini from Corsica and Parisian optician Michael Fratty. They have bested a field of 768 players in the €5,300 EPT Deauville main event and are taking the lion’s share of the €3,686,400 prize pool.
Also returning to the Salle Des Ambassadeurs tomorrow will be top French pro Antony Lellouche who has made the final – and the money – of the €20,000 High Roller tournament.
French player Audrey Guyonvarch was the €5,800 winner of the Ladies Event yesterday. The €220 tournament attracted 89 runners including four men but – much to the delight of the female-dominated field, none of the men cashed. Among those in the money were Violetta Szczerba who came third, PokerStars qualifier Melanie Wiesner who came fourth and EPT London Ladies Event winner Dagmara Aleksandrowicz who came tenth.