September 11 2012, Rich Ryan

Season XI of the World Poker Tour continued on Monday with the start of the Grand Prix de Paris, hosted by the world famous Aviaton Club de France. A total of 96 runners paid the “7,500 entry fee to play on Day 1a. After seven one-hour levels of play, Jacques Enjoubault and his 225,200 chips lead the other 5 players who made it through to Wednesday’s Day 2.

Enjoubault, who only has $8,390 in career earnings according to the Hendon Mob Database, won a massive pot at the end of the evening against Mickael Layani. Layani, Enjoubault, and Tony G all saw a flop of . Tony G led out for 5,000, Layani moved all in for 29,100, and Enjoubault made a quick call. Tony G got out of the way, and the hands were opened.

The turned, giving Enjoubault a straight, and the completed the board. Layani was eliminated, while Enjoubault saw his stack rocket to over 200,000 chips.

Other high-profile casualties on Day 1a included Aubin Cazals, Vanessa Selbst, Will Failla, Samuel Chartier, David Benyamine, Guillaume Darcourt, and Roberto Romanello. Failla, a WPT Championship Club member, ran into Jason Mercier‘s quads on a board. Failla nearly folded to Mercier’s shove on the river, but he called and Mercier tabled two sevens for quads. Failla will have to re-enter on Day 1b if he wants to win another WPT event, while Mercier progressed to Day 2 with 70,000 chips.

Joining Mercier and Enjoubault on Day 2 are Antony Lellouche (178,000), Basil Yaiche (142,475), Kara Scott (67,200), Tristan Wade (64,000), Marvin Rettenmaier(37,900), Marko Neumann (69,000), Andrew Seidman (69,875), Justin Bonomo (69,725), and the winner of this event in Season X; Matt Waxman (37,900).

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team is in Paris covering the event so be sure to follow their excellent live updates from 3 p.m CEST on Tuesday.

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September 10 2011, Donnie Peters

The final table of the 2011 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris was set after the completion of Day 4 on Friday at the Aviation Club de France. Leading the final six players is Byron Kaverman with 2.079 million in chips. He’ll be joined by Huge Lemaire, Mikko Sundell, Frederic Magen, Matt Waxman and Martin Jacobson.

Coming into the day, Waxman led the charge of the final 18 players. The first player to be eliminated on Day 4 was Ahmed Debabeche. According to the WPT Live Update Team, Debabeche moved all-in for his last 51,000 over the top of a raise to 21,000 from Magen with the blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante. Jean Noel Thorel reraised all-in from the button and that isolated Debabeche, who held pocket eights. Torel held . Debabeche’s eights ended up going down in the battle and he was sent to the rail first on the day.

Next to go was Guillaume Darcourt. First, Darcourt ran his pocket kings into Andras Kovacs’ pocket aces for half of his stack and then he was eliminated by Lameire shortly thereafter. On his final hand, Darcourt got the money in with a flush draw holding on a board of . He was up against a pair plus a better flush draw for Lemaire who was holding . The turn brought the and the river the to finish things off.

Joe Cassidy finished in 13th place and took home “44,445. With the blinds at 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante, he moved all-in for 126,000 over the top of Sundell’s opening raise of 22,000. Action got back to Sundell and he made the call with the . Cassidy, holding , was dominated. The flop, turn and river ran out to leave Cassidy second best.

The last woman standing was Nesrine Kourdourli and she hit the rail in 10th place. Following her out the door was Alain Goldberg in ninth, Dmitry Stelmak in eighth and then Dori Yacoub in seventh to officially set the WPT final table.

With the blinds at 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 ante, Lemaire raised to 40,000 on the button and Yacoub called out of the big blind to see the flop. Yacoub instantly moved all-in for 203,000, holding , and Lemaire made the call with . The hit the turn and the fell on the river leaving Yacoub with just jack high. That was unable to best the Lemaire’s pair of fives and Yacoub was out the door in seventh place for “77,700.

Final Table Seat Draw

The final table will commence on Saturday at 1600 CEST (1500 BST). There will be a live stream of the event on a 30-minute delay beginning at 1030 EDT (1530 BST) on the WPT website if you’d like to watch. Someone will be walking away with “518,750 in first-place prize money, so be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the recap to find out who earned it.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour

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