Rachid El Yaacoubi Leads Final 8 of the �1,000 French Championship Main Event

Maxime Taldir

Level 27 : Blinds 30,000/60,000, 60,000 ante

From 47 players at the beginning of Day 3, only eight remain at the end of the day and will return tomorrow, Sunday, September 15, for the final table of the �1,000 French Championship Main Event.

They are the last players out of a field of 553 entrants, and are closer than ever to the �75,000 first-place prize. Having qualified for free in this event, Jose De Andrade could have been the next French champion, but he bubbled the final table, eliminated in ninth place by the new chip leader of the day, Rachid El Yaacoubi.

On the edge of elimination earlier in the day, El Yaacoubi won a flip when 14 players remained, then came back and reached the top of the chip counts. He has 7,060,000 chips and Heni Mokni is second in chips with 6,360,000. Cecile Ticherfatine holds third place with 4,400,000 thanks to a rush during the day where she hit quads to crack aces.

�1,000 French Championship Main Event Final Table

Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Rachid El Yaacoubi	France	7,060,000	118
2	Alexis Rozenblat	France	2,595,000	43
3	Heni Mokni	France	6,360,000	106
4	Hugues Girard	France	1,820,000	30
5	Axel Bayout	France	2,925,000	49
6	Frederic Delval	France	685,000	11
7	Lionel Foulquier	France	1,825,000	30
8	Cecile Ticherfatine	France	4,400,000	73

The day started with the early eliminations of Michael Rodrigues (47th) and Malcolm Franchi (46th). Adrien Guyon was also quickly sent to the rail (41st), while Mohamed Mokrani (37th) ran with a straight into Michel Leibgorin's flush. However, this hand wasn't enough for Leibgorin to continue further, as he was eliminated in 23rd place by Mokni.

Once the field was down to three tables, Michel Marcone lost a flip and left the tournament area (24th - �3,250), followed by Evgeny Sirotenko (20th - �4,150) and Patrick Passelaigue (21st - �3,650), who were both eliminated at the same time by El Yaacoubi.

2022 WSOP Circuit Cannes Main Event winner Cyril Mazet (18th - �4,150) then lost a big pot to Ruben Padovani. Meanwhile, Lucas Segall with kings couldn't avoid Fr��d��ric Delval's aces and finished in 17th place (�4,750). Delval had more lows than highs today, being at risk several times, but he managed to secure a spot on the final table with 685,000, the shortest stack of all.

Julien Pavon (16th - �4,750), Sonny Franco (15th - �5,450), and Cl��ment Poletti (14th - �6,250) were all eliminated one after the other by De Andrade, while Arnaud Mattern (11th - �7,250) and Akram Soltane (10th - �7,250) both fell victim to Alexis Rozenblat, who will return on Day 4 with 2,595,000 chips.

Before Mattern and Soltane, the chip leader at the beginning of the day Ruben Padovani was eliminated in 12th place after finishing ninth last year. He lost a flip against Hugues Girard's tens; Girard now has only 1,820,000 chips (30 big blinds), down from the 4,250,000 he had at one point.

Axel Bayout (2,925,000) and Lionel Foulquier (1,825,000) are the two other players who have qualified for the final table. They will be competing for the French Championship title.

The final table of the �1,000 French Championship Main Event kicks off at 1 p.m. local time tomorrow, Sunday, September 15 with blinds restarting at 30,000/60,000/60,000. The action will be to follow on steam on Texapoker, with a 30-minute delay.