World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris Day 1B: Iacob and Boujenah Rule the Day
Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris got underway on Sunday afternoon at the Aviation Club de France in beautiful Paris, with 141 players forking over the €10,000 buy-in to join the 106 that started the tournament yesterday. Play was finally halted well into the early hours of the morning after six levels of play and it was Iulien Iacob who looked to be the chip leader with about 180,000.
Iacob has been at the top of the counts since the early part of the day, crossing the hundred-grand threshold when he crippled Casey Kastle without even reaching a showdown. The board read 5♣ 4♥ 2♥ 8♠ K♦ and with more than 20,000 in the pot, Kastle decided to save his last 5,000 after Iacob put Kastle all-in on the river. Iacob later picked off a Tommy Vedes bluff attempt holding 9♦9♥ on a Q♥10♥5♥7♥4♦ board. Vedes flipped over K♠J♦, and Iacob said simply, "Don't bluff me."
Ilan Boujenah also built a sizable stack, sitting around 140,000, and he earned much of his coin late in the day. He was involved in one hand in which Theo Jorgensen opened for a raise and Jari Mahonen shoved all-in with a below-average stack holding A♦J♣. Boujenah woke up with pocket kings and made the call. Jorgensen got out of the way before the dealer spread out a Q♠10♥2♣4♥9♦ board, eliminating Mahonen and boosting Boujenah's stack to the top of the counts.
Joining Iacob and Boujenah at the top of the pack were Theo Jorgensen, Jonathan Layani and Eric Sadoun, who all have breached the 100,000-chip mark. Andrew Feldman, Alexander Kravchenko and Isabelle Mercier also have survived the day and will join the 53 survivors from Day 1a right here at the Aviation Club on Monday afternoon for Day 2.
Almost half of the day's starters were not so lucky, however, and among the busted were John Juanda, Casey Kastle, Freddy Deeb, Josh "JJProdigy" Field, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and David Steicke. Some of those players will surely be back in action on Friday in the €20,000 high-roller event taking place here at the Aviation club.
With the registration complete, the return of the WPT Grand Prix de Paris saw 247 total runners, creating a prize pool over €2.3 million that will be spread out amongst 27 players. The winner of the event will pocket a hefty €633,902 for their efforts along with the coveted World Poker Tour title.
The action gets back under way at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow local time here in Paris at the Aviation Club de France, so be sure to keep your browser locked to PokerNews for up-to-the-minute live coverage.
Get in the action yourself by opening up an online poker account yourself. Who knows, maybe the next tournament we cover it could be you at the final table.
