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.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for all your up-to-the-minute poker news.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters

September 09 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

Even though it was a short week for us, we couldn’t be more happy that it’s the weekend. And even though it’s Friday, there’s no shortage of news to talk about. It seems there’s another class-action lawsuit brewing for Full Tilt Poker. We’ll tell you about that, what you can expect from the World Series of Poker Europe Caesars Cup, and more.

In Case You Missed It

If you can’t wait for the Weekly Turbo, or hearing is more your speed than reading, then Sarah Grant has you covered. She covers the new EPT stop, the Epic Poker League and more in the latest edition of the PokerNews Weekly.

The World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris began with 61 players on Thursday, but by day’s end, the field was left with 18. Matthew Waxman led the field into Day 4 as one of two players who crossed the 1 million-chip mark.

After Thursday’s day of action at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, the Epic Poker League Main Event was down to its final eight. Erik Seidel made his way to the final table, marking his second EPL final, but leading the way into play was David Steicke.

More bracelets were handed out on Day 5 of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. Read our daily WCOOP recap to find out who added more bling to their wrists.

The high-stakes cash games on PokerStars have really been heating up the last few weeks. In this week’s edition of the Online Railbird Report, we’ll tell you which player claimed the largest pot ever recorded on PokerStars.

The first game of the 2011-2012 NFL regular season kicked off Thursday. Rich Ryan gave you his pick on that game earlier this week, but what about Sunday’s games? The Pigskin Diaries breaks it all down for you.

*Photo courtesy of WSOP.com

They’ve Been Served

Yes, we’re watching the US Open while we work on this, but unfortunately we’re not talking tennis serves. Full Tilt Poker has another class-action lawsuit on its hands. Canada’s Consumer Law Group filed a national class-action lawsuit against the online poker site on Sept. 8 in the Superior Court of Quebec. The suit was filed “on behalf of individuals who have funds being held in their Full Tilt Poker player accounts.”

According to the Montreal Gazette, CLG’s Jeff Orenstein said that “Canadian patrons could have lost anywhere from $5 to $10 million when Full Tilt shut down its online site to all players on June 29.”

Mitchell Schnurbach is the lead plaintiff in the class action suit. The Montreal Gazette is reporting that Schnurbach had between $1 to $5 in his player account. Yes, you read that right, and yes, we’re scratching our heads too.

Orenstein has been contacted by other players regarding the suit and says that one player had $250,000 in his account, while another had $10,000.

The suit needs to be approved by a Quebec judge before moving forward, and if it is, Orenstein plans to go after Full Tilt’s U.S. and Canadian assets.

If you want to contact CLG, you can do so at CLG.org, and if you want to read more, check out MontrealGazette.com.

Brat v. Bling

Over the last few days, Phil Hellmuth tweeted about his captain status in the 2011 Caesars Cup. The last Caesars Cup was held at the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe, where Annette Obrestad’s Team Europe defeated Team Americas, which was captained by Daniel Negreanu.

This time around, Hellmuth is captaining Team Americas and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier will be leading the charge for Team Europe. The event will take place Oct. 19 in Cannes, France, during the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe.

“Team Americas has a score to settle after what most considered a colossal upset in London,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “You see a real rivalry developing as European players continue to win more tournaments around the world.”

Two teams of five will battle in the no-limit hold’em tournament that will feature partner and heads-up formats. Points will be awarded for different elements and the first team to three points wins.

As for who will be on the teams, that hasn’t been decided yet. Hellmuth has tossed out some of his picks though, tweeting:

WSOP.com has more information about the Caesars Cup.

World Poker Tour Live Stream

The World Poker Tour debuted its live streaming final tables with the WPT Legends of Poker last month. On Saturday, the WPT will be live streaming again – this time from Paris. The final table of the Grand Prix de Paris will begin streaming at 1000 EDT (1500 BST) from the Aviation Club de France. Tony Dunst will host the live stream along with Roy “The Boy” Brindley.

The remaining six players will compete not only for the $701,573 first-place prize, but for a seat to the Season X WPT World Championship, entry into the WPT Champions Club, a Champion’s Cup, and Tiffany card protector.

You can catch the live stream at WorldPokerTour.com.

Internet Poker in Massachusetts?

According to MetroWestDailyNews.com, Massachusetts State Rep. Dan Winslow will “file an amendment to the Massachusetts gaming legislation to allow for Internet poker.”

The state would become the first in the U.S. to regulate Internet poker if the gaming legislation is approved. “This one, I think, is a great opportunity for Massachusetts to take the lead. No state in the country has yet enacted legislation to authorize and regulate Internet poker,” said Winslow.

Wilson pointed out that if the state regulated Internet poker, players “would have confidence that it is a fair game.”

He believes that adding Internet poker “would maximize total revenue while also expanding job creation into areas untouched by the addition of casinos and slots in the state.”

MetroWestDailyNews.com has more.

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Follow Elaine Chaivarlis on Twitter – @LaneyLV