Chidwick Bursts Deauville’s Bubble, Bellagio Chip Incident

Bubble Bursts in Deauville

Day 2 in Deauville was one of early upsets as a number of high profile players found themselves watching from the rail before the final prizepool was announced. Welcome just over 400 players for a third day of action, Casino Barrière saw that number quickly decrease as the likes of Bertrand Grospellier, Kevin MacPhee, Morten Mortensen and former chip leader Ayman Zbib fell by the wayside.

By far the most shocking exit for many was the demise of Zbib who lost his chips so swiftly that only his tablemates were able to witness the action.

With the field rapidly decreasing, the organisers took a moment to announce that 671 players had entered the Main Event, generating a total prizepool of €3,220,800. That meant 95 players would earn at least €9,500 and this year’s EPT Deauville winner will walk away with €614,000.

Today’s session kicked off earlier and at the time of writing the bubble had burst. Feeling the force of negative variance and missing out on some money was Stephen Chidwick.

The British pro started the day with a healthy stack but soon found himself all-in and in trouble after his pocket kings weren’t able to overcome Tobias Wagner’s Ad Kh. With the board showing 6d Ac 9s 5d 6c a disappointed Chidwick made a dignified exit while the remaining players gave themselves a congratulatory round of applause.

High Stakes Chip Theft

It appears that even if someone is able to play high stakes poker, it doesn’t mean they are above stealing chips from one of their tablemates.

According to a tweet from Todd Brunson, someone he used to play $4,000/$8,000 with was recently “caught on camera” by the Bellagio’s security team stealing $800 from someone at the table.

The tweet instantly set the wheels of speculation in motion and Todd was quick to offer the community a few clues as to who the thief was.

After stating that the perpetrator had “3 bracelets”, had appeared on High Stakes Poker and “they used to make a cat food named after him”, many people instantly charged Chau Giang with the crime.

As yet there’s been no confirmation that Chau was involved in the incident, but that hasn’t stopped people pointing the finger of suspicion at him.