The final table of EPT Deauville has the kind of complexion we have seen once before this season. Dany Parlafes’s enormous chip lead recalls Stephen Graner’s dominance coming into the final day in Prague, a tournament that the American would go on to wrap up with a minimum of fuss.
After a string of epic final tables, stretching long into the early hours, it was a welcome relief to see a final table bossed so convincingly. Graner had the chips to do as he pleased, and also found himself blessed by the poker gods with a series of big hands, allowing him to steamroller the final stages.
Parlafes certainly has one part of that equation sewn up — his lead, 44 per cent of the chips in play is bigger even than Graner’s — but it remains to be seen if things will go quite so smoothly from here.
Certainly the ephemeral concept of “run good” has a habit of appearing or vanishing with little warning. Parlafes told PokerStars Blog yesterday how his opening two days hadn’t been especially spectacular. He finished Day 1B with 62,500 (100th of the 335 remaining at that stage) and didn’t fare much better on Day 2, at the end of which he was 88th of 138 with 86,700 chips. He suddenly received his blessing from on high, and has never been out of the top four ever since.
By contrast, Ongyan Dimov and Benjamin Pollak both described their passage through this tournament as pretty smooth. Dimov didn’t have a particularly good opening day, finishing with 43,300, but it was plain sailing from there. He finished Day 2 in the top 20 and has never looked back.
Joseph Carlino, on the other hand, has been the most swingy of the bunch. He barely survived Day 1, finishing with 14,200 chips, less than half a starting stack and well below average. But he was chip leader at the end of Day 5 and is now back to the short stack.
We plotted the progress of the final six through this tournament to date. The chart below shows their path (click for bigger version) and all the stats are below. The very pale blue line shows the average stack at the various stages. (Total chips in play: 17,760,000.)
Dany Parlafes
Day 2: 62,500 (100th of 335)
Day 3: 86,700 (88th of 138)
Day 4: 1,220,000 (3rd of 36)
Day 5: 1,850,000 (4th of 15)
Official final table: 4,695,000 (1st of 8)
Day 6: 7,585,000 (1st of 6)
Benjamin Buhr
Day 2: 106,500 (20th)
Day 3: 90,300 (86th)
Day 4: 333,000 (25th)
Day 5: 2,001,000 (3rd)
Official final table: 4,010,000 (2nd)
Day 6: 2,555,000 (2nd)
Ognyan Dimov
Day 2: 43,300 (185th)
Day 3: 234,400 (17th)
Day 4: 677,000 (8th)
Day 5: 1,103,000 (6th)
Official final table: 2,720,000 (3rd)
Day 6: 3,405,000 (3rd)
Andrius Bielskis
Day 2: 150,200 (5th)
Day 3: 261,000 (12th)
Day 4: 425,000 (17th)
Day 5: 1,095,000 (7th)
Official final table: 1,525,000 (4th)
Day 6: 1,680,000 (4th)
Benjamin Pollak
Day 2: 67,800 (91st)
Day 3: 275,000 (9th)
Day 4: 519,000 (14th)
Day 5: 877,000 (8th)
Official final table: 705,000 (8th)
Day 6: 1,665,000 (5th)
Joseph Carlino
Day 2: 14,200 (314th)
Day 3: 197,800 (30th)
Day 4: 372,000 (20th)
Day 5: 2,757,000 (1st)
Official final table: 1,430,000 (5th)
Day 6: 875,000 (6th)
Average:
Day 1: 30,000
Day 2: 53,014
Day 3: 128,695
Day 4: 493,333
Day 5: 1,184,000
Official final: 2,220,000
Day 6: 2,960,000
Coverage from the Main Event of EPT Deauville is on the Main Event page. The High Roller coverage is on the High Roller page. Check out all the action from around the festival on the main festival page. Also follow the action on EPT Live and stay up to date with the sensational EPT app for iPhone, iPad or Android.
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