Luca Bernardi Leads Final 11 After Day 2 of WSOP Circuit Paris Main Event

After a long and exhausting Day 2, only 11 players remain out of a massive field of 1,282 entries in the €1,500 Main Event of the World Series of Poker Circuit Paris.

However, among these players are some of the most notable names in the field, starting with the chip leader Luca Bernardi. After winning the first-ever Unibet Open organized at the recently opened Partouche Pasino Club in May, he'll be back on Day 3 with 12,350,000 chips. To build his stack, he notably secured a massive double-up with aces over Davidi Kitai's kings and found aces again during the last hand of the day.

Despite this loss, Kitai still ended the day third in chips on his way to winning one of the only trophies he's missing: a WSOP Circuit ring. "It was good fun today with a lot of friends. I've been playing French players for years, so I know them very well," he said after bagging 6,525,000.

In between Bernardi and Kitai is Mathieu Selides, who already won a WSOP Circuit Main Event back in 2016 in Marrakech. "It was a long time ago, I want to do it again," he joked at the end of the day. "Matslide" scored several eliminations to make his stack grow, but a full house on the river against Laetitia Jeancolas (14th) propelled him to 11,775,000.

Day 2 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Luca Bernardi	Italy	12,350,000	103
2	Mathieu Selides	France	11,775,000	98
3	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	6,525,000	54
4	Pierre Chevalier	France	6,350,000	53
5	Hervé Gouzil	France	5,800,000	48
6	Natasha Mercier	Lebanon	5,750,000	48
7	Alberto Ah Line	France	5,225,000	44
8	Valentin Blot	France	4,075,000	34
9	Ankit Ahuja	India	2,775,000	23
10	Tristan Clemencon	France	2,025,000	17
11	Maxime Doki-Thonon	France	1,450,000	12

In fourth position sits Pierre Chevalier, who cracked queens with nines to double and reach 6,350,000. He is followed by Hervé Gouzil (5,800,000), who also doubled up during the last minutes of the day, sealing the fate of Heiko Raisch, the last player eliminated today (12th, €12,500).

Natasha Mercier will be another player to keep an eye on. She had a strong start at the beginning of the day and kept up this pace all day long. Like Bernardi, she secured a massive double-up with aces over kings to stay in contention and finish with 5,750,000, almost a year after her WSOP Super Main Event final table.

Alberto Ah Line (5,225,000) and Valentin Blot (4,075,000), who scored most of the last eliminations, are still in contention as well, followed by Ankit Ahuja, who had a roller-coaster day but finished with 2,775,000.

"I feel comfortable," Tristan Clemencon summed up, even if he would have preferred to have a bit more than 2,025,000 at the restart. It is still slightly more than Maxime Doki-Thonon, who'll be back as the short stack with 1,450,000.

The 11 remaining players are expected to be back at the tables at 1 p.m. local time for Level 28, featuring blinds of 100,000/150,000 with a 150,000 big blind ante. Play will only conclude when a winner is crowned, and the final table will be streamed on PMU PLAY.

They have all secured a minimum cash of €15,786 from a total prize pool of €1,661,472, but they all have their eyes on the first-place prize of €260,000 and the WSOP Circuit gold ring that comes with it.