With around 60,000 in the pot on a board of 6♦A♥J♦9♠, Stanislaw Grodek bet 32,000 from the cutoff and David Hu called in early position.
The river was the J♣ and Grodek bet another 96,000. Hu again called and Grodek showed A♣Q♣ for two pair. Hu mucked as he watched most of his stack head over to Grodek.
It was a grueling, arduous journey through Day 1a of the€2,200 FPS High Roller at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris festival, but 187 players finally managed to book their ticket for Day 2.
With 189 players remaining and only the top 188 finishers out of a starting field of 1,250 making the money, play went hand-for-hand. Through a combination of timely double ups and slow play, the bubble took nearly two hours before Mercedes Osti and Floyd Rosner became the last to leave Le Palais des Congres empty-handed.
Yves Bianchetti enjoyed no such fate on Day 1a. The Brazilian native knocked out a player with pocket jacks, then picked up kings for another knockout on his way to bagging up the chip lead with 855,000. He’s followed by Yunsheng Sun (839,000), Daniel Neilson (787,000), and Fabiano Kovalski (778,000). Claudio Di Giacomo knocked out former big stack Kazuhiko Yotsushika with two aces and finished with 686,000 to round out the top five.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Yves Bianchetti
Brazil
855,000
86
2
Yunsheng Sun
China
839,000
84
3
Daniel Neilson
Australia
787,000
79
4
Fabiano Kovalski
Brazil
778,000
78
5
Claudio Di Giacomo
Italy
686,000
69
6
Adil Oubaaous
Morocco
685,000
69
7
Lars Kamphues
Austria
620,000
62
8
Yang Zhang
China
612,000
61
9
Parker Talbot
Canada
594,000
59
10
Aliaksei Boika
Belarus
584,000
58
PokerStars Team Pro Parker Talbot did a lot of talking and a lot of winning on Day 1a as he finished with 594,000. Aliaksei Boika (584,000), Farid Jattin (570,000), Pablo Brito Silva (332,000), and Leo Margets (211,000) also made it through to Day 2, as did David Lappin (137,000) and his table nemesis Tom Vogelsang (140,000).
Parker Talbot
Notables to miss out on a payout today included PokerStars team members Alejandro Lococo, Ramon Colillas, Benjamin Spragg, and Fintan Hand as well as Maria Ho, reigning EPT Paris champion Razvan Belea, Jesse Lonis, and Maria Konnikova.
The 187 remaining players will be joined by the survivors from the Day 1b flight tomorrow at noon local time. Action ended with just 13 seconds remaining in Level 18 with blinds of 4,000-8,000 and a 8,000 big blind ante, after which they increase to 5,000-10,000. The field reached 1,794 total entries, smashing last year’s total. The official prize pool will be announced near the start of the day.
PokerNews will be back to follow the action as the field prepares to play down to a champion tomorrow.
