2011 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris Day 1a: A Sundell Day in France
Day 1a of the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris took place on Monday at the Aviation Club de France. One hundred and forty players ponied up the €7,500 buy-in for the first day of the event. By the end of the day, the field was cut in half with 70 players remaining. Leading the charge is Mikko Sundell, who managed to bag up 203,800 in chips. He’s closely trailed by Yann Dion in second place with 201,400.
With so many poker players over in Europe for the various events going on this month, there were plenty of notables in the field. A few of those who made an appearance but were unable to advance, were former WPT champions Roberto Romanello and Sam El Sayed, 2009 World Series of Poker November Niners James Akenhead and Antoine Saout, Arnaud Mattern and Kara Scott.
According to the WPT Live Update Team, Romanello was eliminated in Level 2. He got the last of his money in with AxJx and was up against Hu Gangzhou's pocket tens. The flop, turn and river ran out 6x4x2x10xQx and Romanello was eliminated.
Scott went out later in the day after having a bit of a roller-coaster ride with her stack. First, she lost a large chunk of her chips in a set-over-set confrontation. After building back up, her AxJx lost to a short-stack opponent’s KxQx. Still, she fought back and wound up eliminating a player when her pocket fives outraced the player’s AxJx, but her run ended shortly thereafter. Scott got the last of her money in on a JxJx6x board with AxJx, but was up against a flopped full house for her opponent who was holding pocket sixes. No help came on the turn or river and she was eliminated.
There are plenty of notable players moving onto Day 2. The WPT’s own Mike Sexton bagged up 74,000 in chips, Jani Sointula finished with 135,400, Marvin Rettenmaier built to 104,600 and Ludovic Lacay ended with 62,200. All of those players are above the average of 60,000 while Joseph Cheong, Juha Helppi, John Eames and Sorel Mizzi couldn’t get much going on the day and finished with right around the starting stack of 30,000 or less.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikko Sundell | 203,800 |
| 2 | Yann Dion | 201,400 |
| 3 | Jean-Noel Thorel | 186,000 |
| 4 | Frederic Magen | 156,300 |
| 5 | Jani Sointula | 135,400 |
| 6 | Jerome Brion | 107,900 |
| 7 | Kent Lundmark | 107,700 |
| 8 | Pori Yacoub | 106,000 |
| 9 | Marvin Rettenmaier | 104,600 |
| 10 | Alexandre Brivot | 103,800 |
The event continues on Tuesday with Day 1b starting at 1400 CEST (1300 BST). The players who advanced from Day 1a will combine with the remaining players from Day 1b and return to action on Wednesday. Stay tuned to PokerNews for the recaps from each day.
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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour
