Max Neugebauer Tops Day 1b as Abidi’s Stack Crumbles
Yesterday on Day 1a of the €1,000 World Series of Poker Circuit Aix-en-Provence Main Event, Frédéric Delval dominated the field and bagged the top stack with 558,000 chips after spending the entire day on top of the leaderboard.
Today on Day 1b, the script looked set to repeat itself — this time starring Karim Abidi, who stormed past the 600,000-chip mark by the dinner break and even flirted with the 800,000 mark. But things quickly took a turn in the final two levels, with Abidi losing most of his stack to end the day with 237,000. According to several players at his table, his downfall came from an aggressive style that saw him involved in “almost every hand.”
One player who couldn't complain about this situation is none other than Max Neugebauer, the 2023 WSOP Europe Main Event champion. Seated just to Abidi’s right during the end of the day, Neugebauer found himself down to just 20,000 chips at one point. But tided then started to turn with Neugebauer "winning every hand", including "a four-bet pot against Abidi". Riding that hot streak, he turned his short stack into 688,000 chips to close out Day 1b as the unexpected chip leader.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Neugebauer | Austria | 688,000 | 172 |
| 2 | Mercedes Osti | France | 525,000 | 131 |
| 3 | Azzedine Zouitene | France | 488,000 | 122 |
| 4 | Hugo De La Fouchardiere | France | 478,000 | 120 |
| 5 | Jean-Christophe Deville | France | 389,000 | 97 |
| 6 | Yassine Roudine | France | 383,000 | 96 |
| 7 | Abel Pruchon | France | 373,000 | 93 |
| 8 | Benjamin Touati | France | 360,000 | 90 |
| 9 | Kamal Jbirane | France | 350,000 | 88 |
| 10 | Adrien Ryvol | France | 346,000 | 87 |
Second in chips out of the 98 remaining players from a field of 393 entries, Mercedes Osti explained that she intentionally played a lot of hands in order to build her stack — a strategy that clearly paid off, as she bagged 525,000 chips.
Benoit Grobocopatel, who shared the table with both Max Neugebauer and Karim Abidi, managed to collect 322,000 chips, slightly ahead of Miroslav Alilovic (302,000) and Luca Moschitta (287,000).
Seated in front of each other today, Lucia Navarro (276,000) and Cécile Ticherfatine ended the day with nearly identical stacks. Not far behind, Hugues Girard (243,000) and Jérémie Zouari also finished above the average.
Further down the leaderboard, Idir Haiche (164,000), Hervé Gouzil (151,000), and Nicolas Vayssieres secured their spots for Day 2, as did seven-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Sonny Franco (101,000) and Aurélie Reard (88,000).
WSOP bracelet winner Thibault Perissat didn’t hide his frustration as he bagged a short stack of 69,000 chips. The disappointment seemed even greater on Fahd Boudaouine’s face, who’ll return on Day 2 with just 37,000 chips and a clear goal: an early double-up.
The 393 entries recorded on Day 1b bring the total field to 715 entrants ahead of the two final starting flights scheduled for tomorrow. Day 1c will kick off at 12:30 p.m. with 45-minute levels, following the same structure as the first two flights. Later in the evening, Day 1d will offer a final chance to qualify, starting at 8:00 p.m. with a turbo format featuring 20-minute levels.
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