September 11 2012, Rich Ryan

On Tuesday, the World Poker Tour Season XI Grand Prix de Paris continued with Day 1b at the Aviation Club de France. There were 132 registrants, creating a total player pool of 228, but only 92 survived the day. No player finished with 100,000 chips or more, but French singer Grégoire Boissenot ended with 95,000 chips. Biting at his heels are Peter Jetten and Matt Salsberg, both of whom bagged exactly 83,575 chips.

The overall chip leader in the tournament is Jacques Enjoubault, who finished Day 1a with 225,200 chips.

Other notables who survived the day include 2009 November Niner Antoine Saout (77,795), PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final Champion Mohsin Charania (72,250), two-time $50,000 Poker Players Championship Winner Michael Mizrachi (69,750), 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Fabrice Soulier (62,500), and Tony G (62,450), who finished runner-up in this event in 2004.

Tony G sat down and immediately won a nice-sized pot off of 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event runner-up Kyle Julius. Tony G opened to 1,100 from early position, and two players called, including Julius on the button. The flop was , and the action checked to Tony G who tossed out 2,000. Only Julius called. Tony G fired 3,000 when the turned, Julius called, and Tony G fired a third bullet worth 4,000 when the completed the board. Julius folded tens face up, and Tony G flashed a black eight, announcing that he flopped a set.

Salsberg got off to a rough start, losing more than two thirds of his stack in the first few hours, but doubled through Vanessa Selbst. Salsberg turned a set of queens and called an all-in bet from Selbst who held straight a flush draws. The river bricked, shooting Salsberg’s stack above 40,000 chips.

Dan O’Brien, Guillaume Darcourt, Guillaume Rivet, Roberto Romanello, and Selbst all busted on their second bullet, and JC Alvarado, Ludovic Lacay, and Darren Elias all busted in their only try.

Day 2 is scheduled for 1500 CEST (0600 PDT) on Wednesday, and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there providing up-to-the-minute updates from the Aviation Club de France.

Follow Rich Ryan on

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!

September 04 2012, Brett Collson

While one Europe-based poker tour is preparing to get off the ground, another is in full swing this week. We’ll touch on those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Aaron Massey won the WinStar World Casino Revier Poker Series Main Event on Monday. Read about his road to victory in our final table recap.

A massive $250,000 buy-in tournament flew under the radar last week. Rich Ryan discusses that and more in his latest Five Thoughts piece.

How did the first WCOOP events play out on PokerStars? Who took down the biggest score? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.

Did you miss Sunday’s World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.

How has Tristan Wade’s life changed since entering poker? Find out that and more in the latest Seat Open.

New Face of the ISPT

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) continues to add star power ahead of its inaugural event in London next May. On Tuesday, the tour announced the signing of poker pro Liz Lieu as an ambassador for the Europe-based tour. She joins Michael Mizrachi and Sam Trickett on the ISPT team.

“ISPT is pioneering the world of poker in a bold and creative way. This event will create a lot of positive attention for this game,” said Lieu. “I am very excited by the concept and I’m sure that ISPT will be remembered in poker history. My role will be to act as an ambassador of the tournament and share my opinion on this event. I not only want players to know about the historic nature of the event, I want them to see that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of fun.”

The first ISPT event is scheduled to kick off on May 31, 2013. Organizers are expecting the tournament to begin with 30,000 players in the stands of Wembley Stadium playing an online tournament from their seats. From there, the top 3,000 players will advance to the live tournament, which will be played right on the Wembley Stadium field. The event has a “20,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and will be broadcast on television via six channels.

Read more about the event at ISPT.com.

Trickett’s Title Defense

The 2012 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event began Monday with the first of two starting days at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes. Day 1a had 325 entries into the “8,500 event, and after seven levels 155 had advanced to Day 2.

The chip leader after Day 1a was Marcello Marigliano with 187,300, but several notables finished with healthy stacks. Former WSOP November Niner Antoine Saout was fifth with 150,900, and Michael Mizrachi (144,800), Todd Terry (132,500), Davidi Kitai (129,100), Martin Jacobson (114,700), Joel Nordkvist (111,100), Thomas Wahlroos (103,500) and Vanessa Selbst (102,400) cracked the top 30.

Others still alive include Leo Margets, Justin Bonomo, Jonathan Duhamel, Pius Heinz and Jason Mercier. Here’s a look at the top stacks from Day 1a:

Among the players taking part on Day 1b were Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and defending champion Sam Trickett. Check back for daily updates right here in the Nightly Turbo.

iPoker Splits Player Pool

The iPoker Network’s new tiered platform has been successfully implemented as planned, dividing the player pool of the network’s 40-plus skins.

Among the skins residing on the top tier going forward include William Hill, Poker770, bet365, Titan Poker and Paddy Power Poker. Those sites each met the set of requirements introduced by iPoker owner Playech in June. Skins were required to maintain a base of at least 6,000 active players, as well as 850 new real-money players per month from July 1 through the end of August.

The top tier will offer larger player pools and more games to select from. While multi-table tournaments will be shared across the entire network, many ring game tables and sit-and-gos will be separated. The smaller sites which didn’t qualify for the top tier are expected to draw less recreational players and more sharks looking to maximize volume.

Get more information about the split at TwoPlusTwo.com.

Ivey Leads The Nuts … Again

The latest edition of ESPN’s The Nuts was released late last week. The monthly blog post ranks the best poker players in the world at the moment. The 10-person panel includes Elaine Chaivarlis, PokerNews’ editor in chief; Don Peters, PokerNews‘ tournament reporting manager; and ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.

Phil Ivey maintained the top spot, receiving all 10 first-place votes from the panel, but his reign is being threatened by two of the hottest players of 2012. Marvin Rettenmaier, winner of back-to-back World Poker Tour titles this year, entered the rankings at No. 4, and Dan Smith made his debut at No. 6. Smith has six wins this year and currently leads the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race.

John Juanda and Sam Trickett also returned to The Nuts rankings. Juanda is fresh off an eighth place finish in the EPT Barcelona Main Event ($93,500) and fifth place result in the Macau High Stakes Challenge ($1,645,753). Trickett also cashed in Macau, and his runner-up finish in the Big One for One Drop won’t soon be forgotten.

Here’s a look at the top 10 for September.

For more analysis on The Nuts rankings, check out ESPN.com.

Goodbye, Oklahoma

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team recently made its first trip to WinStar World Casino for the River Poker Series Main Event. Sarah Grant took a look back at the highlights from the five-day event.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Brett Collson on