Omar Gonzalez Leads Day 1a of the €5,300 Main Event at EPT Paris
The opening flight of the €5,300 Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris has come to an end, and Omar Gonzalez is the chip leader after a field of 661 entries turned out for the first of two opening flights in the flagship event of the series.
The Day 1a field generated a prize pool of €3,172,800, and a total of 221 players will return for Wednesday’s Day 2.
Gerard Carbo held the top stack for the latter portion of the night, and he finished the evening with 302,000 and the second most chips, while Patrik Jaros bagged 260,000 for the third spot on the leaderboard. Martin Merz and Gorki Oliveira round out the top five chip counts with 255,000 and 251,000, respectively.
2023 EPT Paris Main Event Top 10 Day 1a Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chips | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Omar Gonzalez | Spain | 317,000 | 211 |
| 2 | Gerard Carbo | Spain | 302,000 | 201 |
| 3 | Patrik Jaros | Czech Republic | 260,000 | 173 |
| 4 | Martin Merz | Germany | 255,000 | 170 |
| 5 | Gorki Oliveira | Brazil | 251,000 | 167 |
| 6 | Silius Moll | Norway | 245,000 | 163 |
| 7 | Timo Kamphues | Germany | 227,000 | 151 |
| 8 | Majid Ejlal Noubarian | Iran | 225,500 | 150 |
| 9 | Sacha Zaffran | France | 225,500 | 150 |
| 10 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 222,000 | 148 |
Day 1a Highlights
Gonzalez was a factor in big hands all day, and his turning point came when Quentin Roussey tried to bluff him out of a big pot, but Gonzalez called after a long tank and turned over two pair to take his entire stack. A short time later, Gonzalez took another big pot from Ori Hasson with another two pair. Gonzalez will return with 317,000 in the bag for Day 2 and the chance to go on a magical run.
Big players on Day 1a included Adrian Mateos, Johan Guilbert, and PokerStars Team Pro Laurie Tournier. Tournier finished with 42,000, which includes chips from a clash with Jan Bednar where Tournier beat Bednar’s pocket fours with pocket tens. Tournier is looking for her first win on the EPT and her previous best finish is a run to fourth place in the 2022 Women’s Event at EPT Barcelona.
Guilbert was in trouble earlier on in the day, but he doubled through Basile Yaiche’s pocket kings when his ace-nine improved on the all-in runout. Guilbert bounced back and he will return for Day 2 with 115,000. He previously won the €10,200 6-Handed event, also at EPT Barcelona.
Mateos will return with a top-ten chip stack and a chance to continue his EPT dominance. Mateos won two EPT tournaments last year, including a €100,000 High Roller in Monte Carlo and a €25,000 High Roller in the winter edition of Prague.
Other players to bag for Day 2 include Boris Kolev, Mike Watson, Victoria Livschitz, Harry Lodge, Jonathan Jaffe, and Paulina Loeliger.
Among the familiar faces that turned out for Day 1a but did not make survive are PokerStars Ambassadors Jen Shahade, Parker Talbot, Ramon Colillas, Andre Akkari, Rafael Moraes, Lex Veldhuis, and Alejandro Lococo, who made it to the late stages of the night but hit the rail when his short stack couldn’t double with pocket sevens.
Day 1b will kick off at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, and players will once again play 10 levels. The surviving players from both flights will combine on Wednesday for Day 2.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team all week long for live updates from the floor of the €5,300 EPT Paris Main Event at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile.