Home / Poker News May 2010 / WPT Grand Prix de Paris – Day 1A report
WPT Grand Prix de Paris – Day 1A report
Posted by: Jo Martin - Sun, 2010-05-09 12:10
As the EPT has just wrapped up its 6th season in Monte Carlo a few days ago, live poker specialists barely had time for a breather before the next major event hit the scene. The WPT’s Grand Prix de Paris kicked off the other day, attracting a reasonably large starting field on its Day 1A (a little over 100 registrants). When the dust settled in the wake of the first Day 1 flight, Fabrice Touil found himself in the driver’s seat, having amassed a stack of over 200k chips, the most in the poker tournament.
Everyone knows that in order to do well in a massive multi table
poker tournament, one has to get more than a little lucky. Touil’s run was a clear illustration of that theory. The Frenchman found himself drawing a longer straw several times throughout the day. Not only was Touil lucky in making strong hands, he was lucky enough to have his opponents make marginally inferior monsters against many of them. One such hand was the one that ended up pumping his stack over the 200k chip mark. He flopped a straight with his 8,6 on the 7,9,5 board. Marc Inizan had pocket 5s in the same hand and there was no way he would make a lay-down on that hand. Both players shoved all-in and Touil walked away with the easy chips.
Another player who had a great run on Day 1A was Nicholas Babel. Most of Babel’s chips came from none other than Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi was forced to fold when faced with an aggressive Babel, after having put a significant amount of chips into the pot. Babel then proceeded to hit Vikash Dharasoo in a similar manner for another large chip-up.
Other players who did well were Guillaume Darcourt and Stephane Albertini.
PokerStars’ Arnaud Mattern, Antoine Saout, Antony Lellouche and Jim Collopy also made it past the Day 1A hurdle.
At the end of the day, only 53 of the original starters were still in the books, as several of the “name” registrants fell by the side during the battle. Praz Bansi and Ludovic Lacay were among the victims, together with Martin Tureniec and
EPT sensation Allan Baekke.
Around 150 more players are expected to get rolling on the second Day 1 flight of the event.
