The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event just ended and the traditional WSOP Main Event final table is just a week away. Serving as the meat in a delicious poker sandwich this fall is the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris Main Event, hosted by the legendary Aviation Club de France. Two starting flights and Day 2 are already in the books, so let’s take a look at where the tournament stands to this point.
Day 1A saw 79 players register with 58 moving on to Day 2, while Day 1B was a bit larger, as Day 1B’s tend to be, with 92 players signing up and 74 making it past the first five levels with chips in hand. After Day 2 re-entries were added, the total field was small for a major event, just 187 players. In fact, this venerable tournament hasn’t been this small since 2005, when the field was 160 players (unless you count Seasons VI through VIII, when it was not on the Tour schedule).
With a buy-in of €7,500, the total prize pool amounts to €1,332,375 with €340,000 going to the winner. Payouts start at €14,665 for 21st place.
The leader after Sunday’s Day 2 was Matt Salsberg with 212,600 chips. Hicham Hilmi is close behind with 200,700 and Vasili Firsau is right behind him with 193,300. Salsberg has been a respected player for years, but didn’t accomplish much of note on the live tournament circuit from 2004 through 2011 aside from a 70th place finish in the 2011 WSOP Main Event. Last year, though, he really took off, winning this exact event. He followed that up the next month with a strong showing in the European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo Main Event. This year, Salsberg had top-ten finishes in WPT Main Events in each of the first three months and then had thirteenth and tenth place finishes in April and May, respectively. This summer, Salsberg cashed six times at the World Series of Poker.
Salsberg grabbed the chip lead in the final level of day when Ekrem Sanioglu, owner of one of the field’s largest chip stacks, refused to concede a pot to Salsberg, six-betting all-in with just A-Q. Salsberg was never going to give in, though, as he held pocket Aces. The Aces held and Salsberg was suddenly the chip leader, in great position to make a run at Grand Prix titles in back-to-back years.
Just 65 players remained after Day 2 and just 24 will be left in the competition after Monday’s action.
2013 bwin World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Matt Salsberg – 212,600
2. Hicham Hilmi – 200,700
3. Vasili Firsau – 193,300
4. Connor Drinan – 175,000
5. David Peters – 171,200
6. Ricardo Manquant – 155,400
7. Dimitri Holdeew – 147,700
8. Kimmo Kurko – 139,700
9. Philippe Ktorza – 139,300
10. Bernard Guigon – 134,600
