2011 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris Day 2: Pepe Moves into Pole Position
The 2011 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris continued with Day 2 on Wednesday. The returning field of 167 was whittled down to 61 players. Franck Pepe is leading with 432,000 in chips. You may recognize Pepe's name from his second-place finish in last year's WPT Amneville event.
Coming into the day, Mikko Sundell was the chip leader. He went on to build his stack to 334,500 and continued to prove himself a fierce force in the tournament. Other notable big stacks included Dori Yacoub with 370,100, Matt Waxman with 285,300, McLean Karr with 323,400, Guillaume Darcourt with 207,000 and Alexandre Brivot with 339,400.
Of course, with all poker tournaments there had to be some eliminations. Two of the notables to bust on Day 2 included Dominik Nitsche and the WPT's own Mike Sexton.
The WPT Live Update Team reported that Nitsche raised to 1,600 from under the gun with a pair of nines and was three-bet to 7,600 from Fred Magen. Nitsche made the call and the flop came down Qx7x3x with two spades. After check-calling a bet of 12,000 from Magen, Nitsche called all-in when the turn paired the board with another 7x. Magen held pocket queens for a full house and had Nitsche drawing stone dead.
Sexton went out after having his aces cracked by Q♣J♣ on an all-club flop. The money went in on the turn and Sexton was sent to the rail during Level 10 on Day 2.
A few other notables to hit the rail included Jeff Vertes, Joe Ebanks, Tony Dunst, Casey Kastle and Olivier Busquet.
Day 2 was short because play was halted earlier then expected. We're sure the players won't have too much complaining about that because they'll have plenty of time to hang out before returning Thursday at 1400 CEST (1300 BST). Stay tuned to PokerNews for the recap.
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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour
