Ostrom, Kastle Lead Charge to €770k at EPT Deauville

Ostrom, from Sweden, has zero poker results to his credit while American veteran Kastle has been cashing in poker tournaments since 1998.

Both Kastle and Ostrom played the second Day 1 heat, outshining Day 1A chip leader Jesper Feddersen from Germany.

The annual French stop on the EPT attracted 782 runners this year, down roughly 100 compared to one year ago.

Nevertheless, there's over €3.7 million in the pot and 419 players left fighting for a piece. The eventual winner will take home €770k, over $1 million USD.

Also making it through to Day 2 with big stacks are WSOPE bracelet winner Philippe Boucher (160,700), former EPT final-tablist Ben “benwa1” Warrington (118,300), WSOP bracelet winner Pascal LeFrancois (118,000)  and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (105,500).

Here's a look at the top 10 chip counts after Days 1A and 1B:

1. David Ostrom - 212,600 2. Casey Kastle - 204,500 3. Jesper Feddersen - 188,900 4. Ahmed Abd El Fatah - 185,000 5. Karim Abdelmoumene - 175,800 6. Andrey Baturin - 162,300 7. Philippe Boucher - 160,700 8. Ferit Gabriellson - 152,200 9. Cyril Andre - 150,000 10. Paul Guichard – 147,200

Aces No Good for Akenhead, Neuville

A host of big-name players failed to make Day 2 in Deauville, and in at least two cases they got extremely unlucky to make their exits.

James Akenhead and Pierre Neuville both managed to pick up pocket aces and get the chips in the middle. And they both took bad beats to bust.

Akenhead was up against A-K and watched two cowboys hit the flop while Neuville's bullets lost out to pocket kings thanks to a runner-runner straight.

Also out on Day 1 were recent PCA main event champion Dimitar Danchev, former world champ Jonathan Duhamel, EPT main event champion Nicolas Chouity and EPT London winner David Vamplew.

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