Breaking News: Francesco De Vivo joins the Live the Dream Team!

In an unexpected twist, 2008 Italian Championship winner Francesco De Vivo (raffa.de) has been awarded a $100,000 sponsorship with the Everest Poker Live the Dream Team. Francesco was one of the Top 21 finalists in the Live the Dream casting last month in Vienna, where Everest Poker awarded 10 year-long contracts worth $100,000 each. German player Ronny Pickard pulled out of the final selection for personal reasons and Francesco was selected by the jury to be the tenth member.

"Being a poker player, I have learned to accept defeat. But the elimination from Live The Dream was still burning," Francesco says. "Everything was so well organized and the ceremony was so emotional that all I wanted was a place in the Team. With this unexpected change, I’m back on cloud nine and I want to pay off the trust that Everest Poker is showing to me with my results and my work."

Marco Trucco, Everest Poker's Italian PR & Events Coordinator, was thrilled to give Francesco the good news. "Francesco has an outstanding poker career. On top of that, he’s the kind of easy-going and articulated guy to perfectly represent Everest Poker in Italy and abroad."

Two years ago, the 39-year-old Turin resident left his career in real estate to pursue poker full time. He has since become one of the most well-respected and recognized players on the Italian circuit. In 2008, Francesco both won the title of Italian Champion and the overall Italian Championship leaderboard, as well as cashing in his very first WSOP Main Event. As a member of the 2010 Live the Dream Team, Francesco's will compete in even more of the world's biggest tournaments while representing the online poker room he has been a loyal player of since 2006.

Fabien Perrot — Three Weeks Later

France's Fabien Perrot (Schumyfab) has been enjoying every single moment since making the 2010 Live the Dream Team. "The dream started that Sunday and I have not left it yet!"

"I have been congratulated by most of my friends and keep answering their questions. It's such a great feeling to have to talk about poker all day long!"

As one of the 10 Everest Poker players to receive a year-long sponsorship worth $100,000, Fabien will definitely be talking more about poker for many days yet to come. Along with fellow French teammates Julien Claudepierre and Leo Truche, Fabien has already been featured on the French PokerNews.

Fabien rejoined his fellow Live the Dream Teammates Viktoria Szilasi, Koen de Bakker, Javier Martinez, and Sigurd Eskeland in Deauville for his first international live tournament as an sponsored player. Although he did not finish in the money in Deauville, Fabien still played deep into Day 2 amongst a very competitive field.

Not bad for a guy in one of his first major live events.

Koen de Bakker — Two Weeks Later

Congratulations to Everest Poker's Koen de Bakker!

In his first live event as a sponsored Everest player, Koen finished posted one of the top Everest finishes at the Main Event in Deauville, finishing 92nd out of over 700 players and taking home €8800!

The 25-year-old Dutchman has been very busy since making the 2010 Live the Dream Team. "First, all of my friends and family congratulated me with making the Team, but of course, I then had to explain to them for what it was they were congratulating me."

Amazingly, Koen managed to fit some serious online tournament action into his crazy schedule before heading off to Deauville. "Later on during that first week, I even found some time to play poker. I got second in the $100,000 Guaranteed and won $15,000!"

In his first week as a Live the Dream player, Koen did three interviews with the Dutch press — including excellent Q&As with both Poker News and NederPoker about his Live the Dream experience, and also wrote two articles of his own for two of the Netherlands' biggest poker sites! Check out Koen's wrap-up of the events in Vienna on the PokerInfo.nl forum, and read his advice on how to beat a sit & go at NederPoker. It's also an opportunity to learn poker strategy from some of Everest Poker's finest — Koen and Team Everest's Steven van Zadelhoff will be writing many educational pieces at NederPoker in the months to come.

And if his performance in Deauville is any indication, the world will be seeing a lot of Koen de Bakker in 2010.

Thomas Froslev — Two Weeks Later

After being selected for the 2010 Live the Dream Team , Denmark's Thomas Froslev (Danny McCoy--) went back to school — literally. The economics student is in his final semester of classes, so it was back to the books after Vienna. Of course, Thomas won't have to worry about looking for a job after graduation — he's secured a year-long sponsorship worth $100,000 with Everest Poker!

"I’ve been interviewed by a lot of journalists from online magazines, television and newspapers. It is almost unreal," says Thomas. Since winning, Thomas has already spoken with such widely-read Danish publications as Tipsbladet and JydskeVestkysten.

"But most of my time has been spent in school or with my family and friends — CELEBRATING, of course! And I’ve been thinking a lot about what tournaments I want to play."

EPT Deauville - A French player from Team Everest Pro In The Money

Leonard Truche finished 19th of the 1 000 € HNL EPT Deauville and has completed his first performance sporting the Everest colors.

21h00 One of our French players is truly living his dream and has posted his first in the money finish as a sponsored Everest Poker player.

We are proud to announce that one of the three French players of the 2010 Live the Dream Team — Leonard Truche (Leoledingo)— has passed the bubble of the 1 000 € tournament HNL after 10 hours of play.

We're at level 16 with blinds of 2 500 / 5 000 and 500 ante.
There are 25 players of the 252 that were present at the beginning of the tournament last night and the prize pool is 241 920 €.

Leoledingo has a stack of 90 000 for an average of 75K and enjoys a strong position at his table which allows him to consider the tournament more serenely.

Leonard Truche

EPT Deauville Day 3 update

15h30: Well we can not say that our two players had any luck being caught side by side.

Initially, Koen de Bakker who had been card dead since the start of the day, decided to push all in and was called by one player. Our Netherlands player showed KK, which largely dominated the KJ of his opponent. However, his pair of Ks will not last for long, and our pro player is out.

A few hands later, Laurent Bachelet suffered the same fate with QQ against AT.

Congratulations to both our Everest Poker players for their in-the-money finishes!!!! Koen finished in 92nd place, and Laurent in 90th. Both players take home €8,800 — an excellent accomplishment considering over 700 players entered into this year's Deauville event!

14h48: The bubble has burst! First tournament and ITM for Koen de Bakker since he won a year-long sponsorship with Everest Poker worth $100,000. Now it will reach to double again and again his 60k chips with blinds at 3k-6k and 500 ante. The average is 225k.

Other players of the Everest Poker community are in the money.

Cristian "Oracle" Debeil: 370k.

- Laurent "MacQueen" Bachelet: 70k.

Armijn: 200k.

Hazard of the draw, Laurent and Koen found themselves side by side.

14h22: The atmosphere is unbearable here in Deauville. There are no more than 105 players and only 104 will be paid. The tournament is currently played "hand by hand" and tournament directors have asked the full press to stay outside of the aisles of the tournament so they can move freely and comment on hands. Koen de Bakker is still there and fighting to try to make his first GTI in EPT since he signed with Everest Poker. Come on Koen, we're all behind you!

14h11: There are 107 players, but we know that there will be only 104 who will return in the money. Since the beginning of the day the short stacks are obligated to be very active which significantly reduces the margin of maneuvers. Koen's card is dead and saw his stack melt like snow in the sunshine. Go Koen ... More!

13h50: We are now at level 17 with blinds at 3k-6k and 500 ante. There are 109 players and the average is 211k.

13h45: Here are some chip counts

- Koen de Bakker: 75k
- Christian Debeil: 170k
- Laurent Bachelet: 130k
- Armijn: 240k

13h30: 15 min break.

13h23: There is an electric atmosphere here in Deauville. While five players have been booed by the lady participants, the bad beat rain has continued at Tristan Clemencon's table. The player who scored the last bad beat is obviously on tilt and had to be reprimanded by the floor manager.

Very strange day here in Deauville. While we follow the action at Koen de Bakker's table, an Italian player who was consuming spirits to the left of the dealer, chokes and spits a large amount of water on the dealer's head. The dealer becomes very angry, but we understand!

Then a few seconds later, three men are heavily booed by hundreds of female players while they register for the Ladies tournament.

At the same time, at the next table, Cristian Clemencon with AA is all in and his called with QJ on a board of 9 K 9 ... Turn Q, river ... Q! Sad way to get eliminated to the doors of places paid!

We return to the EPT Deauville: Day 3

We are back for Day 3 of EPT Deauville. Of the 746 players who began the tournament, there are only 133 players remaining that can expect to share a portion of the prize pool. Among them are the new rookie of Team Everest Pro, the Dutchman Koen De Bakke. In table 7, his stack grew to about 128.000 chips.

We're at level 16 with blinds at 2500-5000, 500 ante. The average is 173.500.

Like yesterday, the tournament is structured so that the players play 6 levels of 75 minutes each.

We will keep you informed throughout the day with the progression of our pro players, as well as some Everest regulars who came to participate in Deauville for the EPT.