Kayhan Mokri Looking to Continue Stellar EPT Paris on Day 3 of Main Event
What would be a dream trip for some seems to be just another week in the office for Kayhan Mokri. The high-stakes regular, who captured the top spot on Norway's all-time money list for the first time at the end of 2025, has already booked two six-figure scores at the 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris, including a victory in the €25,000 PLO High Roller, and is now entering Day 3 of the €5,300 EPT Main Event as a top stack.
Mokri is one of 179 players from the 1,474-strong field who will return to Le Palais des Congrès at noon local time for the third day of the Main Event. With the bubble popping late on Day 2, they have all secured themselves a piece of the €7,075,200 prize pool. Mokri will be sitting down as fourth in chips with a stack of 750,000, which he spun up from just 500 on Day 2, good for exactly 150 big blinds. Mokri hunts a second Main Event final table to add to his impressive EPT resume, which includes two Super High Roller victories.
Meanwhile, the only seven-figure stack so far in the chase for the seven-figure first-place prize of €1,148,600 belongs to hometown player Bruno Fuentes. Fuentes will be unbagging 1,043,000 at the start of today, a small chip lead over Mahersh Selvakumaran, who sits in second with 995,000. Both Fuentes and Selvakumaran are cashing in an EPT Main Event for the first time, but the same can not be said for Cesar Garcia, who made his first EPT Main Event final table in 2012 and added a second one last year in Barcelona. The longtime EPT regular rounds out the podium with a stack of 870,000.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bruno Fuentes | France | 1,043,000 | 209 |
| 2 | Mahersh Selvakumaran | Netherlands | 995,000 | 199 |
| 3 | Cesar Garcia | Spain | 870,000 | 174 |
| 4 | Kayhan Mokri | Norway | 750,000 | 150 |
| 5 | Tsugunari Toma | Japan | 739,000 | 148 |
| 6 | Lyudmil Ivanov | Bulgaria | 695,000 | 139 |
| 7 | Mathieu His | France | 654,000 | 131 |
| 8 | Mario Colavita | Italy | 648,000 | 130 |
| 9 | Zdenek Zizka | Czechia | 607,000 | 121 |
| 10 | Salman Ramzi | Lebanon | 570,000 | 114 |
No previous EPT champions remain, but plenty of notables are eyeing their first title. Alex Keating (470,000), Rui Ferreira (450,000), Adrian State (421,000), Duco ten Haven (318,000), Joris Ruijs (312,000), and Felix Schneiders (311,000) all return with above-average stacks.
Mehdi Chaoui is among the shorter stacks with 127,000 as he looks to improve upon his eighth-place finish at EPT Paris 2023, and is joined near the bottom by Jessica Teusl (126,000), €2,700 PokerStars Open High Roller champion Mathew Frankland (124,000), 2025 PokerStars Live League winner Gerard Rubiralta (115,000), and NAPT champion Sami Bechahed (107,000).
The 179 returning players have all secured a cash of €9,850 after the first pay jump was reached during the last hands of Day 2. A five-figure sum will be awarded to the top 143, while the real eye-watering prizes start from the unofficial final table of nine players.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €1,148,600 | 10-11 | €81,650 | 32-39 | €22,850 |
| 2 | €717,350 | 12-13 | €68,050 | 40-55 | €19,800 |
| 3 | €512,400 | 14-15 | €56,750 | 56-71 | €17,200 |
| 4 | €394,150 | 16-17 | €47,250 | 72-95 | €15,000 |
| 5 | €303,150 | 18-20 | €39,950 | 96-119 | €13,000 |
| 6 | €233,200 | 21-23 | €34,750 | 120-143 | €11,300 |
| 7 | €179,350 | 24-27 | €30,200 | 144-179 | €9,850 |
| 8 | €137,950 | 28-31 | €26,250 | ||
| 9 | €106,150 |
Day 3 of the EPT Paris Main Event will continue with Level 16: 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. All levels will remain 90 minutes long, with a short break after every level. The provisional plan for Day 3 is to play five full levels and half of Level 21, which would see the night end around 10:30 p.m. local time. The shot clock will come into play today, and a 70-minute dinner break is currently planned after Level 19, at 7 p.m.
PokerNews will be live reporting another day of exciting poker action straight from the tournament floor in Paris, so stay tuned to not miss any of the thrilling action.