Scandis Still Strong as the Final Table's Set in Deauville

The Allied poker invasion, as described by The Sun's Simon Young, continues this afternoon with the final table getting underway at the EPT's French Open, held at the Casino Barriere in Deauville, France.

The multinational, 8-handed battle started with 2 Brits (Ram Vaswani and Stuart Nash), a French-Canuck (the lovely Isabelle Mercier), a Dutchman (Mark Boudewijn), a Russian (Kirill "the Matt Damon of Moscow" Garasimov) and to no surprise 3 Scandis, including 2 Swedes (Patrick Martensson and Mats Iremark) and 1 Dane (Theo Jorgensen).

Here's what the chip counts looked like, courtesy of our friends at Gutshot.com:

1. Ram Vaswani (England) 1,191,500
2. Isabelle Mercier (Canada) 428,000
3. Mark Boudewijn (Holland) 911,500
4. Kirill Garasimov (Russia) 215,000
5. Patrick Martensson (Sweden) 291,000
6. Stuart Nash (England) 125,500
7. Theo Jorgensen (Denmark) 809,500
8. Mats Iremark (Sweden) 397,000

Top place takes home €480,000, plus €10,000 buy-in into EPT Grand final and free socialized healthcare for life.

Last I looked at Gutshot, the UK's Stuart Nash, a cash player at London's Vic, went out in 8th, thus placing the hopes of a nation, or at least the Suffolk Punch, in lone Brit left, Ram Vaswani. It looks like the EPT Dublin winner may be up to the task, as he's held the chip lead for a good part of the day, although last I saw Marcel Luske's countrymate Mark Boudewijn holds the biggest stack.

For Isabelle fans, her day is done, as it was "fin" in 7th for "No Mercy" Mercier when her pocket nines got knocked by Boudewijn's big-slick after his top card connected on the turn.

UPDATE: So much for the Allied invasion. Ram Vaswani is the most recent casualty, falling in fifth after getting canoned by two big hands and going out when Kirill called his K-8o all-in with A-Jo and nothing connecting for either on the board. It's now up to the Russian and the Dutchman to stop the two Scandinavians left in the field (Jorgensen and newcomer Iremark) from winning their 4th consecutive EPT title.

Stay posted on the outcome over at Gutshot.com (click on "Live Coverage").

Also, be sure to read John Caldwell's From the Felt column today over at his site Pokernews.com. Caldwell (at left) laments just a tad bit about the effects of running a successful poker site on his poker playing, but most of it is on the success and quality of the European Poker Tour as well as a recount of his role as Le Donk Americain in Deauville this week.