Emrah Yildiz raised to 2,500 and Thibault Reverdito called from the next seat over before Elias Fisz came along from the button. Benny Glaser tossed in the chips to call from the big blind and action was four-handed.
The flop was and Yildiz continued for 33,000 after Glaser checked. Reverdito and Fisz folded before Glaser slid out a stack of blue chips to cover Yildiz. Yildiz called quickly for his last 29,300 and the cards were turned up.
Emrah Yildiz:
Benny Glaser:
The board finished up and Yildiz secured the double with his flopped set of nines.
Brian Kim and Alex Kulev were all in, Kim with the least, and Diego Zeiter was there to put both players at risk with the biggest stack. The cards were on their backs and the dealer was ready to go.
Brian Kim:
Alex Kulev:
Diego Zeiter:
The board ran out and Kim flopped a pair of jacks to beat both players and triple his stack of 32,000. Zeiter counted out 46,200 to pay Kulev's side pot.
Action was heads up with over 20,000 in the middle and on the board when William Kassouf bet 12,500. Alexane Najchause went into the tank to consider her options, and Kassouf's voice was not far behind.
Kassouf went into his line of questioning. The usual "do-you-have" and a string of accusations relating to which card improved her hand. The clock was finally called, but it was a mere formality when Najchaus put out the chips to call.
"Nice hand, you win," Kassouf said, not yet turning over his cards.
He finally showed and Najchaus turned over to take the pot with a pair of nines.
Roland Rokita raised to 2,500 and Kenny Hallaert then three-bet to 6,500. What followed was a four-bet shove by Rokita for around 25,000 and Hallaert instantly called to put the Austrian at risk.
Roland Rokita:
Kenny Hallaert:
The flop propelled Rokita into the lead which he kept with the turn. However, the river restored the preflop order and Hallaert added to his growing tower.
It was a busy day in the conference room of the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile in the heart of the French capital, which was bursting with poker enthusiasts from all over the world. The second and final starting day of the €5,300 Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris surpassed the attendance of the previous flight and attracted 909 entries, bringing the total field size so far up to 1,570 entries for a prize pool of €7,612,800.
Another 16 players have already pre-registered to enter the competition prior to the start of Day 2 on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at noon local time. That's the cutoff time for everyone wishing to join as the late registration will close at the start of level 11. All late entrants at the very last minute will enter with 20 big blinds at 1,000-1,500 and a big blind ante of 1,500.
During the ten 60-minute levels of Day 1b, a new overall chip leader was crowned in Teun Mulder. The Dutchman already had a successful series so far as he won an €25,000 Single-Day High Roller a few days ago after knocking out all opponents on his final table. Nobody could beat the 347,000 of Mulder today either, as Oshri Lahmani (301,000) and Marcin Jaworski (275,000) finished behind the Dutchman on the leaderboard.
Other notables in the overnight top ten include Benjamin Chalot, Niklas Astedt, and Bogdan Berinde.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1b
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds Day 2
1
Teun Mulder
Netherlands
347,000
231
2
Oshri Lahmani
Israel
301,000
201
3
Marcin Jaworski
Poland
275,000
183
4
Sebastian Gahl
Germany
250,000
167
5
Justus Held
Germany
247,000
165
6
Benjamin Chalot
France
230,500
154
7
Nikolaos Lampropoulos
Greece
230,500
154
8
Niklas Astedt
Sweden
227,500
152
9
Bogdan Berinde
Romania
220,500
147
10
Alexis Lucarini
France
219,500
146
Several PokerStars ambassadors were also involved in the action throughout the day. Parker Talbot advanced with 153,500, Sam Grafton (78,500), Alejandro Lococo (78,000) and Benjamin Spragg (30,000) on his second bullet also made it through as well. Not as fortunate were Team Online's Sebastian Huber, Ramon Colillas, and Lex Veldhuis, as they were among hundreds of casualties during an action-filled day.
Some EPT Main Event champions such as Manig Loeser, Hossein Ensan, Roberto Romanello, and Dimitar Danchev retained their chances of becoming the third two-time champion of the popular live poker series whereas Antonio Buonanno, Jordan Saccucci, and Remi Castaignon saw their attempts come up short of reaching Day 2. Steve O'Dwyer was eliminated by the very same opponent who also claimed his chips at the EPT Prague Main Event as well.
Chris Brewer experienced a very successful day at the poker tables as he first took down the €50,000 EPT Paris Super High Roller for his biggest score on the live circuit to then late register Day 1b and claim an above-average stack of 134,500.
Berinde joined the big stacks during the late stages when he was part of a spectacular three-way all-in during which pocket kings held up against the pocket queens of Jonathan Fhima and the flush draw of Ankit Ahuja. Neither short stack could improve and the Romanian finished the day inside of the top 10.
Another memorable all-in showdown brought the elimination of Omar Lakhdari, who came up short with pocket aces against a flopped set. Many notable casualties took advantage of the single re-entry to try and run up a stack once more. Numerous WSOP bracelet winners and EPT regulars came up short as the Day 1b field was cut into more than half.
All those who have not exhausted their maximum of two entries yet can take another shot before the cards go in the air at noon local time. The live stream action from Paris will commence as of Day 2 on the PokerStars Twitch and YouTube channels and the PokerNews live reporting team will continue to deliver updates from the floor in the flagship tournament of the stop.