September 14 2012, Rich Ryan

On Friday, the World Poker Tour Season XI Grand Prix de Paris continued with Day 4 of the six-day reentry event. After nearly nine hours of play, the chip leader at the official final table is the executive producer of Showtime’s Weeds Matt Salsberg with 1.757 million chips. Joining him at the final table are Mohsin Charania, Timothy Adams, Theo Jorgensen, Philipp Gruissem, and Fabian Quoss.

At the beginning of the day, 24 players had their sights set on the official final table, but only six could survive the day. There was a flurry of eliminations during the first level of play. The first player to bow out was Nicolas Cardyn, who ran into Kyle Cheong’s . Cheong held, and Cardyn was out in 24th place.

Following Cardyn out the door were Andrew Lichtenberger, Dan Djorno, and Bruno Lopes. Djorno open-jammed with from under the gun, Jérome Douieb re-shoved on his direct left with , and Bruno Lopes also shoved with . Douieb won, eliminating Djorno and crippling Lopes, who was eliminated shortly thereafter.

The next two players eliminated were Juha Helppi and Jean-Philippe Rohr. Both players were busted by Salsberg, who held aces against Helppi and kings against Rohr.

After the two-table redraw, Kyle Julius was the first to bust. Julius open-jammed his last 70,000 or so with , and Jorgensen called on the button with . The board ran out , and Julius hit the rail.

Florian Leconte, Michael Kwierk, and Bryan Colin were eliminated in 17th, 16th, and 15th place respectively, and then things started to slow down. In fact, the next elimination didn’t come for a full hour.

In one of the final hands of Level 19, Jacques Enjoubault opened in early position, and the action folded to Salsberg, who moved all in from the big blind. Enjoubault called with , which dominated Salsberg’s , but the board ran out and Enjoubault was eliminated in 14th place.

Daniel Amara and Raphaël Abitbol were the next two players eliminated. Amara was all in preflop with against Charania, who held two tens and flopped quads. Charania then won a race to bust Abitbol, who was all in and at risk with . Charania had , and the board ran out .

Grégoire Boissenot was eliminated in 11th place when he made a pot-sized shove on a board of . Adams called the jam with , which dominated Boissenot’s , and the turn and river came , respectively.

Hand-for-hand play stretched out for nearly an hour, until Joe Serock busted in 10th place. Serock four-bet most of his stack preflop, and was called be Jorgensen. The flop was , and Serock checked to Jorgensen who put him all in. Serock tanked for a bit, then called with . Jorgensen was ahead with , and the turn and river came , .

At the beginning of Level 21, the unofficial final table was set:

On one of the first hands at the final table Cheong three-bet jammed with deuces, and Salsberg iso-jammed with jacks. The jacks held and Cheong was out in ninth.

A few hands later, Idris Ambraisse was eliminated in eighth place. Ambraisse opened from under the gun, and was called by Charania, Gruissem, and Douieb. The flop fell , and when checked to, Ambraisse moved all in. Charania re-shoved, the action folded around and the hands were opened:

Charania faded an ace and diamonds as the turn and river came , , and Ambraisse was out.

Play slowed considerably on the official final table bubble, and for the next two hours the seven remaining players battled long and hard. One of the players who benefited the most from the bubble was Charania. In one particular hand, Charania opened to 24,000 from under the gun, and Gruissem and Adams called. The flop fell , and the action checked to Charania who continued for 33,000. Gruissem raised to 90,000, Adams cold-called, and Charania reraised to 233,000.

Gruissem and Adams folded, and Charania picked up the pot.

Quoss nearly busted on the final table bubble. Quoss found himself all in and at risk holding against Salsberg’s , but the board ran out , doubling Quoss.

Unsurprisingly it was Salsberg who busted the eventual bubble boy; Douieb. In the final hand of the evening, Quoss opened to 35,000 from under the gun, Douieb moved all in for 281,000 on his direct left, and the action folded to Salsberg, who reshoved having both players covered. Quoss quickly folded, and the hands were tabled:

Salsberg held as the board ran out , and Douieb was eliminated in seventh place.

Here’s how the final table looks:

To date, Salsberg’s biggest live score was for $108,412 when he finished 70th in the 2011 WSOP Main Event. All the other players have multiple six-figure scores, including Jorgensen who won this event in Season IX. If Jorgensen, the only WPT Champions Club member remaining, were able to win on Saturday, he would become the first player to ever win a WPT event at the same stop twice.

The final table will begin at 1600 CEST (0700 PDT) on Saturday. Be sure to follow the PokerNews Live Reporting Team as they provide up-to-the-minute updates straight from the Aviation Club de France.

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March 12 2012, Eric Ramsey

The ever-moving PokerStars.com European Poker Tour arrived in Spain’s capital this week for the second installation of EPT Madrid. One season ago, this destination was chosen as the host city for the Grand Final, but a return to Monte Carlo this year has pushed the Madrid stop up into the middle of the schedule. Monday marked Day 1a, and a small crowd of 125 turned up to the Casino Gran Madrid with the requisite “5,300 in tow. Some big Sunday action on PokerStars kept most of the notables off the live felt, but a fair smattering of them chose to kick off their Main Event on Monday. When the chip bags came out around 9 p.m., Sergiy Baranov had managed to amass the biggest stack of 152,500 chips.

As you’d expect of an event carrying their banner, the Team PokerStars Pros hit the felt hard on Day 1a. The newest member of the team, the Czech Republic’s Martin Staszko, was cursed with a short day, as was Poland’s Marcin Horecki. Horecki was pot committed with on a board, and Juan Jose Chavez ran down a flush with to send him off. Pierre Neuville, was able to stave off elimination until the last level of the day before running his into Anton Ionel’s , to beat the end-of-day rush to the exit.

That left four surviving members of Team PokerStars: Alex Kravchenko (28,900), Henrique Pinho (25,100), Toni Judet (20,100), and Arnaud Mattern (18,500). Although Mattern’s stack is the shortest of the bunch, his effort is not to be overlooked. Mattern quite possibly broke his foot on the way to the casino this morning, and he was forced to spend the day heavily medicated with his foot propped up on ice.

Marcel Bjerkmann was one of the very first players to be eliminated when he ran pocket kings into pocket aces early in the first level. Roberto Romanello fell a couple of hours later when an opponent hit a gutshot on him, and Juha Helppi’s suited was no match for Ronald van de Berg’s pocket kings, ending the Finn’s day around the midpoint.

Also failing to survive the day was EPT Loutraki champion, Zimnan Ziyard. His fall came in a monster pot with fellow EPT regular, Martins Adeniya. The latter shoved the river after taking control of the action, and Ziyard spent a long while in the tank before making a hero call with just bottom pair, sixes with a four kicker. Adeniya had turned a full house with ace-ten, though, and that knockout pot vaulted him into a massive early chip lead. The evening session was a bit more tepid for Adeniya, and he finished up the day with a respectable 95,000 chips to more than triple his starting stack.

Other notables who survived Day 1a include David Gent (81,400), Javier “El_Cañonero” Dominguez (61,500), Barny Boatman (53,300), Chris Moorman (51,900), Dermot Blain (41,500), and Alain Roy (30,800).

Eight levels were booked on Day 1a, and a new batch of players will take their seats on Tuesday for the Day 1b flight. Foremost among those we’d expect to see registered are the two members of Team PokerStars Pro Spain, Ana Marquez and Juan Manuel Pastor, and we’ve also got the likes of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Johnny Lodden, and Leo Fernandez set to join up, as well.

Day 1b kicks off at 1200 CET (0400 PDT), and our Live Reporting team will be back inside the ropes to bring you all of the action as it plays out.

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