Player of the Year Leader Omar Lakhdari Through to WPTDS Deauville Day 2

Current Player of the Year leader Omar Lakhdari (pictured above) made it through to Day 2 of the WPTDeepStacks Deauville Main Event after Day 1a with a healthy stack of 70,000.

Lakhdari finished second in both WPTDS Cannes and Vilamoura and holds a slender lead over Tobias Peters in the WPTDS Player of the Year standings. Peters also made it through to Day 2 here in Deauville, and at the end of play today said that he tried not to focus on Lakhdari also being in the field.

“It’s nice to make another Day 2,” said Peters, “I try not to look at what he’s doing. I mean, if he’s doing nothing and I’m doing nothing then I still lose.

“I know I have to do something [to take over the lead].”

The day started with many well-known French players including two-time WPTDS final tablist Anthony Cruz, former WPT National Brussels winner Sebastien Ta, American WPTDS regular Brian Reinert and PMU.fr team pro Johan Guilbert.

By the end of Day 1a, Guilbert had been eliminated, but fellow PMU.fr team pros Erwann Pecheux and Francois Tosques both advanced to Day 2. Fellow team pro Sarah Herzali fell in one of the final hands of the night when here ace-queen failed to hold against the king-queen of Sonny Franco, who subsequently bagged 79,800.

“I missed one big pot,” said Pecheux after bagging 72,000 in chips, “But I don’t have to put another bullet in this tournament!”

Tosques (pictured above) bagged slightly more with 111,200 in chips, despite starting later after going deep in the Opener event.

“I came in level six, and was down to 15,000. I chipped up and it was ok from then,” said Tosques, who had to contend with an active Omar Lakhdari on his immediate left for most of the final level.

“When he came here I had 180,000 and I lost around 70,000. Just had some bad spots. But I’m looking forward to chilling tomorrow.”

The chip leader is Ekrem Saniogu with 190,000, closely followed by Kalidou Sow with 180,000.

Players who bust and did not re-enter today have two options tomorrow, with Day 1b getting underway at 1pm local time. If they prefer the faster format, there is a turbo Day 1c with 20 minute levels which starts at 8pm local time.

Stay tuned to WPT.com for all the updates live from the Casino Barriere Deauville.