Jazzar Maroun Bags Chip Lead at the End of Day 1a of the Main Event

By Lisa Yiasemides

It’s been a busy day so far here at Palais des Congrès de Paris, where the first starting flight took place in the Main Event. The festival has seen fantastic numbers throughout, and the festival organised by Club Pierre Charon saw no exception when play kicked off at 10 am.

Over the course of eleven 40-minute levels, the 180-strong field was reduced to 87 and at the end of it, Jazzar Maroun (pictured) managed to build the biggest stack, bagging 152,400.

Maroun was sat on a tough table featuring the likes of Vicente Delgado, who also had a profitable day, finishing just a whisker behind him on 146,000. They weren’t the only members of the six-figure club either. Mikkel Plum (130,500), Ivan Sheptytskyi (119,000), Ryan Didi (117,000), Bart Lybaert (116,000) and Guillaume Walch (114,000) also chipped up, accumulating around double the 62,000 average.

The inaugural €1,500 WPTDS Paris Main Event drew lots of big names today, with the likes of Maxim Panyak (114,000), Florence Allera (72,000), WPTDS Marrakech 2018 Champion Francois Tosques (63,700), Julien Sitbon (59,300), partypoker pro Bruno Fitoussi (55,700), Michel Leibgorin (54,900), Tomas Macnamara (46,600), Gaelle Baumann (28,900) and partypoker pro & WPT Champion Bertrand Grospellier (21,100) all taking a shot.

Reigning WPTDS Brussels Champion Gregory Luttke-Greche came and went after busting midway through the day. He was joined at the rail by Anatolii Zyrin, Giuseppe Zarbo and Gregoire Ceran Maillard among others but they need not despair, with a single re-entry option and a further three starting flights to choose from.

Coverage of Day 1c will begin shortly, with the kick-off scheduled for 9pm local time. Tomorrow we are back to do it all again for Days 1c and 1d.

The WPT.com live updates team are here to guide you through it all, with coverage continuing up until the winner is crowned.

Check out all the WPTDS Paris photos here. WPT Germany photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.