Peter Jorgne Aims to Go One Better as Day 2 of EPT Paris Main Event Kicks Off
The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris at the new and improved location of Le Palais des Congrès has been a big success. Across the two starting flights of the €5,300 Main Event, 1,661 entries were recorded, creating a massive prize pool of €8,040,000. These numbers already surpass the totals of the inaugural EPT Paris in 2023, and can only grow larger with late registration still being open until play restarts at noon local time today.
Peter Jorgne knows what it takes to navigate the huge field in Paris, as he came runner-up in the previous edition of the EPT Paris Main Event. He is once again on a path to a deep run, as he booked himself a firm spot in the top ten overall chip counts, having bagged 286,000 on Day 1a. Meanwhile, defending champion Razvan Belea also made his way to Day 2, albeit with more than ten times fewer chips, needing to spin up a stack of 22,000.
Although he is coming in with a staggering 191 big blinds, Jorge is not the leader of the 558 returning players. That honor befalls on France’s very own Gregory Fournier, who is head and shoulders above his competition with a stack of 351,000 chips. Trailing him by 25 big blinds is Gheorghe Fedorca, who brings 310,500 into Day 2. Meanwhile, Ruida Lin is the last player who starts today with more than 200 big blinds, with 304,500 chips sitting in his bag. Canadian regular Guillaume Nolet, meanwhile, finds himself in sixth place with 295,000 chips to start with.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gregory Fournier | France | 351,000 | 234 |
| 2 | Gheorghe Fedorca | France | 310,500 | 207 |
| 3 | Ruida Lin | Hong Kong | 304,500 | 203 |
| 4 | Eero Rantala | Finland | 299,000 | 199 |
| 5 | Grigorii Rodin | Russia | 297,000 | 198 |
| 6 | Guillaume Nolet | Canada | 295,000 | 197 |
| 7 | Peter Jorgne | Sweden | 286,000 | 191 |
| 8 | Alexey Badulin | Russia | 282,000 | 188 |
| 9 | Romeric Redjdal | France | 278,000 | 185 |
| 10 | Zhongxian Li | China | 277,500 | 185 |
Other notable big stacks include the likes of Jamil Wakil (226,000), Sergi Reixach (213,500), Max Neugebauer (187,500), Benny Glaser (180,000), and Robin Ylitalo (161,000). They all play stacks that dwarf the 30,000 chips the players who register today receive, but the same can not be said for players such as Gaelle Baumann (19,500), Lewis Spencer (13,000), and Marc MacDonnell (12,000), who will need to catch up to the rest of the field as they start Day 2 near the very bottom of the leaderboard.
Players who decided to hop in today for the first time, or use the one reentry they had, include Leo Margets, Claas Segebrecht, and France’s all-time money leader Jean-Noel Thorel. Like the others who join at the latest possible moment, they will receive 20 big blinds at the start of play as they try to play catch-up to the rest of the field.
The tournament will resume in Level 11: 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 big blind ante and all levels will have a duration of 90 minutes. A 20-minute break is scheduled after every level, except after Level 14, where a 65-minute dinner break will be had instead.
Historically, Day 2 is where the bubble bursts in EPT Main Events, so be sure to not miss any of the live report on PokerNews, and be sure to check out the cards-up stream over at PokerStars’ Twitch and YouTube channels as well.