WPTDS Paris Bursting at the Seams: Unknown Player Tops Massive Day 1d as Many Big Names Survive

By Frank Op de Woerd

Every single starting day of the World Poker Tour DeepStacks Paris Main Event was bigger than the one before, with things culminating on Day 1d with a massive 240 entries. Together with the 180 entries from Day 1a, Day 1b’s 205 entries, and the 228 registrants on Day 1c, that makes for a total field of 853 entries!

Unknown Player did best on Day 1d, collecting 232,500 in chips. He’s only outdone by Eric Souvay who topped Day 1b with 268,300 in chips.

Day 1d, the last of the four starting flights, got underway at 9 pm local time with ninety players in their seat. A massive contingent of French players, led by some of the most legendary names in French poker, got to Paris for a chance at the WPTDS-title. But it wasn’t just the creme-de-la-creme of French poker that got to the Club Pierre Charron‘s poker room hosted in Palais des Congrès de Paris, there were some international top pros sprinkled in as well.

But you can’t make an omelette du fromage without breaking some eggs; many familiar names headed to the rail early. Legendary French poker players like Antonin Teisseire (tens into aces) and Roger Hairabedian (top-pair versus top-pair with a better kicker) busted out well before the end of the day was even in sight.

Another French regular, Ange Besnainou who’s been part of the French poker scene as long as anyone can remember, faired better and closed out the day with 81,200. Twenty-two years since his first cash in 1997, Besnainou is looking for his eleventh poker title and first WPTDS trophy.

WPT champion and Triple Crown winner Davidi Kitai was just one of the numerous big-time poker players making their way to the French capital. The Belgian high roller kicked things off prosperous and found himself atop the counts in the early levels of the day. While he didn’t keep up with the pace set by some others, he did have a good day, ultimately bagging 75,800 in chips.

William Kassouf busted his first bullet running top-two into a set

Kitai shared the table with nonother than William Kassouf the last couple of levels. Kassouf, who qualified for the event in a live satellite earlier on the day, kept an average stack until doom struck. While it wasn’t as bad as his WPTDS Brussels bust-out earlier this month (there he got it in with a flopped straight against three flopped sets only to lose to quads,) running top-two with ace-queen into a set of queens still stung.

Kassouf busted right before the end of Level 9 and bought straight back in, making him one of the last to enter the event as registration closed at the start of Level 10. On his second bullet, Kassouf kept hanging around starting stack. On Day 2b, the “Nine High Like a Boss”-jester will begin with 28,400 in chips, the equivalent of 18 big blinds.

Florian Duta (117,600), David Hu (90,800), Kalidou Sow (42,000), Erwann Pecheux (23,000), and Goran Mandic (16,600) are just a few of many familiar names to make it through the eleven 40-minute levels on Day 1d.

The 116 Day 1d survivors join the 74 Day 1b survivors on Day 2b starting Saturday, February 9th at 8 pm. But first, Day 2a gets underway at 10 am, which sees Day 1a’s 87 survivors join the 111 that bagged Day 1c.

Blinds on Day 2 start at 800 and 1,600 with a 1,600 big blind ante. The time of 40-minute levels is over; from Day 2 onward, the level duration is 60 minutes.

Both Day 2a and Day 2b play until they’re in the money. The prize pool and it’s exact distribution is likely to be announced early on Day 2a. Day 3 on Sunday, March 1st, is the first time the entire remaining field merges with the final day taking place on Monday, March 2nd.

WPT.com is your one-stop shop all day for live updates and chip counts, with the world’s best poker photos available on WPT’s Flickr-page, courtesy of Tomas Stacha.

Who’ll make the money and who’ll fall by the wayside? Who’ll end up lifting the trophy? Check WPT.com all day and find out!

Famed French poker player Ange Besnainou returns on Day 2 with a healthy stack of 81,200.