2014 PMU.fr WPT National Paris Day 1a/1b: Wilhelm and Makaci Lead

World Poker Tour

On Thursday, players took to the felt for the first two starting flights in the 2014 PMU.fr World Poker Tour National Paris Main Event. The day consisted of Day 1a starting at 10 a.m. local time, and then Day 1b kicked off at 8 p.m. local time.

Following Day 1a, it was Guillaume Wilhelm topping the field. He remained the overall leader after Day 1b's flight saw Franck Makaci bag up less chips.

Wilhelm Tops Day 1a

Wilhelm ended Day 1a as the leader with 177,700 in chips. It was a day that saw many players come and go, and one that also included PMU Poker Team Pro Damien Lhommeau. Lhommeau finished on 139,100, which was good enough for second place. Belhardj Samir was in third with 133,100.

Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts

RankPlayerChips
1Wilhelm Guillaume177,700
2Lhommeau Damien139,100
3Belhardj Samir133,100
4Merceron Nicolas118,800
5Lezzi Antony117,400
6Benhamou Brian116,600
7Ouzilou Stephan113,000
8Hijazy Nabil112,900
9Luong Hoa Vinh110,400
10Abed Redouane105,000

Day 1a started with a dozen players queueing and shivering outside the Cercle Clichy Montmartre. At the start of play, there would be 80 eager players huddled around the historic and ornate card room, and by the end of the day that number reached a final tally of 146. Of those, 72 survived to advance to Day 2a.

Wilhelm, a French poker pro, spent most of the day as the chip leader having gathered a stack early on and using it to command the table. It was an impressive display from Wilhelm, who was constantly in action putting pressure on smaller stacks. He once showed the table his AA and on another occasion made a check-raise with the A5 on the turn of a board reading 5483 before again showing the table his cards.

Other notables who survived and thrived on Day 1a included Erwann Pecheux with 85,900 and Quentin Lecompte with 83,000.

Makaci Leads Day 1b

Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts

Makaci finished on top of the leader board after 10 45-minutes levels of play on Day 1b, bagging up 146,000 in chips. David Lascar finished second place with 140,300, and Georges Viaud rounded out the top three with 126,300.

RankPlayerChips
1Franck Makaci146,000
2David Lascar140,300
3Georges Viaud126,300
4Michel Serrero111,000
5Michel Moysan103,300
6Mathieu Gourmelen99,300
7Dan Djorno94,700
8Jean-Pierre Simonini89,200
9Saber Harrazi88,600
10Thomas Dutertre86,700

Makaci took the lead in Level 2 when he was involved in a three-way all-in pot on the turn of a board that read AKJQ. Makaci held the A10, and his two opponents had the 109 and the J10. While all three players currently had a Broadway straight, Makaci was freerolling the lot with his flush draw. As it turned out, Makaci spiked his card on the river — the 3 — to triple up. From there, he cruised through to the end of the day.

As for the overall lead, that still belonged to Day 1a's Wilhelm. He remained the man to catch after finishing on 177,700.

Overall, 62 players from Day 1b made it through to Day 2. There are two more starting flights still to run for those who failed to still advance, so this field is only going to grow, grow, grow.

Day 1c and Day 1d will take place on Friday, with Day 1c already in action after kicking off at 10 a.m. local time. You can follow live coverage from Paris by clicking here.

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