The 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris stop has shifted into fifth gear, with the series' showstopper kicking off inside Les Palais des Congres. Day 1a of the €5,300 EPT Paris Main Event got off with a bang as it was announced that France's Simon Wiciak was the latest face to join the PokerStars Team Pro roster.
An EPT Main Event winner in the first two years of his live poker career, Wiciak has quickly become one to watch on the circuit. After ten levels of play, he bagged an above-average stack of 115,000, starting his new ambassadorship in fine fashion.
Two more representatives of the spadie brand will be joining Wiciak on Day 2 as Fintan Hand and Ramon Colillas also bagged chips at the end of the night. Both will return for the next stage with 50+ big blinds and are among the 200 players who made it over the first hurdle on the marathon to the title and riches.
An impressive 607 entries were registered throughout the day, but the slips collected fell short of last year's tally of 661. Today's field contributed €2,913,600 to the prize pool but that figure is already over $4 million as, of the time of writing, 254 more players have already booked their seat at the table for Day 1b.
On top of the chip counts sits Eero Rantala (299,000). The Finnish poker player wrapped up the opening session with 10 starting stacks.
One big blind behind in second is Grigorii Rodin and he's put himself in a prime position to pull off another deep run in a major EPT tournament. Rodin battled his way to the final table, finishing in sixth place for €209,000 in Prague just a few months ago. His stack began on an upward trajectory after compiling a trio of eliminations in quick succession.
EPT Paris Main Event Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eero Rantala | Finland | 299,000 | 199 |
| 2 | Grigorii Rodin | Russia | 297,000 | 198 |
| 3 | Guillaume Nolet | Canada | 295,000 | 197 |
| 4 | Peter Jorgne | Sweden | 286,000 | 191 |
| 5 | Romeric Redjdal | France | 278,000 | 185 |
| 6 | Sergio Coutinho | Portugal | 268,000 | 179 |
| 7 | Noa Chan | France | 261,000 | 174 |
| 8 | Miguel Faria | Portugal | 228,000 | 152 |
| 9 | Nicholas Funaro | United States | 221,000 | 147 |
| 10 | Jan Kesanen | Finland | 213,000 | 142 |
Last year's runner-up is in the upper echelons of the chip leaderboard. Looking to go one better this time around, Peter Jorgne could do just that after his performance on the felt resulted in a top-five chip stack. The player to pip Jorgne to the post 12 months was Razvan Belea, who was in attendance today. Unfortunately for the defending champion, he'll have to exercise his single re-entry after being eliminated around the middle of the day.
Many Main Event winners were hoping to recapture glory once more, and several took one step closer to doing so. Robin Ylitalo, Dimitar Danchev, Artur Martirosian, Anton Wigg, Piotr Nurzynski, Davidi Kitai, Steve O'Dwyer, and Aliaksei Boika navigated their way into Day 2, although some will have more work cut out for them than the others.
EPT Main Event Winners Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26th | Robin Ylitalo | Sweden | 161,000 | 107 |
| 38th | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | 136,000 | 91 |
| 53rd | Simon Wiciak | France | 115,000 | 77 |
| 54th | Artur Martirosian | Russia | 112,500 | 75 |
| 91st | Piotr Nurzynski | Poland | 82,500 | 55 |
| 121st | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 64,500 | 43 |
| 153rd | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | 45,000 | 30 |
| 165th | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | 36,000 | 24 |
The clock is now ticking down to the start of Day 1b, which gets underway on Tuesday, February 20, at 12:00 p.m. CET. Players who were eliminated today can only re-enter once more, either by taking part in 1b or by taking advantage of the Day 2 late registration. Those firing their first bullet in 1b can re-enter once more in the flight or decide to wait until the last moment.
When play begins, each player will have a 30,000 starting stack. The day closes after ten one-hour levels have been completed. There is a 20-minute break after every two levels, with the 75-minute dinner break scheduled for around 6:50 p.m.
As always, be sure to return to PokerNews to follow all of the coverage from EPT Paris.
