Labous Leads 134 Survivors After Day 1 of 2023 EPT Paris €2,200 FPS High Roller
The 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris stop at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile continues to produce solid attendance numbers and the latest event to shine was the France Poker Series (FPS) Paris €2,200 High Roller. A total of 910 entries emerged to generate a prize pool of €1,747,200 and two players already earned a tiny portion of the cash prizes after a dramatic conclusion to Day 1.
With approximately 15% making the money, the top 135 finishers were supposed to advance but three all-in showdowns at separate tables resulted in two eliminations. Ankit Ahuja and Kyung Sik Jung came up second-best to split the min-cash of €3,350, ultimately coming up short of a Day 2 berth.
Only one player turned the starting stack of 30,000 chips into a seven-figure stack and Manuel Labous topped the leaderboard with 1,106,000, followed by Luis Machado (702,000), Julien Rouxel (573,000), Alexandru Papazian (569,000), and Daewoong Song (563,000). Rouxel was responsible for the elimination of Jung to become one of the biggest stacks in the room.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manuel Labous | France | 1,106,000 | 184 |
| 2 | Luis Machado | Portugal | 702,000 | 117 |
| 3 | Julien Rouxel | France | 573,000 | 96 |
| 4 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | 569,000 | 95 |
| 5 | Daewoong Song | South Korea | 563,000 | 94 |
| 6 | Toivo Rinne | Finland | 506,000 | 84 |
| 7 | Quentin Roussey | France | 469,000 | 78 |
| 8 | Darko Svesko | Serbia | 468,000 | 78 |
| 9 | Jon Kyte | Norway | 451,000 | 75 |
| 10 | Silviu Baltateanu | Romania | 424,000 | 71 |
Among the notables to advance with an above-average stack are Anton Suarez, Philippe Souki, Iacopo Brandi, Mauricio Ferreira Pais, Symeon Alexandridis, Vlada Stojanovic, and Emil Bise.
The only PokerStars ambassador advance to lock a portion of the seven-figure prize pool is Lex Veldhuis, who claimed 131,000 to his name. Ramon Colillas, Benjamin Spragg, Parker Talbot, and PokerStars Live at the Hippodrome Pro Chris Da Silva were among the hundreds of casualties throughout more than 15 hours of play including breaks.
Many other big names of the international poker scene came up short of reaching the money including EPT Main Event and WSOP bracelet winners such as Simon Brandstrom, Frederik Brink, Jack Sinclair, Dominik Panka, Remi Castaignon, Michael Wang, Benny Glaser, Arnaud Enselme, Sung Joo Hyun, Harry Lodge, and Jason Wheeler were all among the casualties.
The WSOP Main Event winner Martin Jacobson recovered from a short stack with a triple up only to then bow out with ace-ten suited against the ace-queen of Ruslan Rishko. Jun Obara departed from the very same table as well and was not able yet to carry on the momentum from his 2022 EPT Prague Main Event final table run.
Only a few spots away from the money bubble, former PokerStars ambassador Kalidou Sow failed to improve with king-five against the pocket sixes of Aleksandr Shevliakov. That set up a frantic few minutes in which five further eliminations concluded the late night poker action.
All remaining 134 survivors will return to their seats at noon local time with at least €3,350 guaranteed for their efforts. Only 2:23 minutes are left in Level 17 at blinds of 3,000/6,000 and a big blind ante of 6,000 before the blinds increase right away. The tournament is scheduled to play down to a winner, and another marathon session can be expected.
As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide as many key hands as possible en route to crowning a winner.