The first of six €25,000 buy-in for NL Hold’em Tournaments on the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris The schedule attracted 38 of the world’s most renowned poker players The Palais des Congrès in the French capital.
Together, they had 51 entries on the clock by the end of post-registration, resulting in a prize pool of $1.5 million €1,199,520. They fought a war that lasted over 14 hours, but in the end it was Stephen Chidwick Who was the last one standing?
He defended Adrian Mateos During a heads-up battle that only lasted one hand, he won the top prize of €389,820 and another EPT trophy to add to his ever-growing collection. Meanwhile, Mateos had to settle for the consolation prize €257,900while players like Jesse Lonis And Mike Watson were also among the seven players who secured a prize in the tough field.
EPT Paris €25,000 NL Hold’em results
| Location | player | country | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Chidwick | Great Britain | €389,820 |
| 2 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | €257,900 |
| 3 | Jean-Noël Thorel | France | €173,900 |
| 4 | Mike Watson | Canada | €131,900 |
| 5 | Jesse Lonis | United States | €102,000 |
| 6 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | €81,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | €63,000 |
Early game
The tournament got off to a strong start: 25 players were already in their seats when the “shuffle and deal” sound sounded. Every player had a re-entry available and the like Tamas Adamszki, Arthur MartirosianAnd Timothy Adams had gone through both permitted balls before late registration closed at the end of the dinner break.
Notable players likeJoao Vieira, Santhosh SuvarnaAnd Ben Heath came a little further, but said goodbye shortly after dinner Steve O’DwyerPokerStars’ Sam Graftonand online phenomenon Niklas “Lena900” Astedt were among the players who bowed out at the last two tables.
At some point it happened Orpen Kisacikoglu who was the last to miss the final table and finished in tenth place after his queens failed to beat the kings of Alexey Ponakov.
Final table
Since only seven players were paid, two more title contenders had to leave before any money could be distributed. The first to go was Alex Kulevwho fell in Jean-Noel Thorels Preflop trap and couldn’t miraculously escape. The bubble game then lasted a while, but not for lack of all-ins. Chips flew back and forth across the table as various players doubled up and others lost large portions of their stacks.
But finally, after a relatively quiet period of play, it was the same Thorel who burst the bubble by eliminating Ponakovs. Thorel’s king-queen overtook Ponakov’s ace-queen, which spelled the end for him, even though he started the final table in second place.
Daniel Dvoress had gone critically short during the bubble phase and took the min-cash of €63,000 when he got his last few blinds in the middle with an inferior pocket pair that couldn’t catch up. Not much later, Watson won a flip and secured the remaining chip lead Sam Greenwood very short. Greenwood would be eliminated soon after, as he was almost forced all-in in the big blind and couldn’t turn it over.
Next up was Lonis, who hit a few payjumps before using his short stack in the middle with Queen-Ten. Watson called with a dominant ace-queen and won the pot to eliminate his opponent. His reign wouldn’t last much longer, however, as he lost a flip to Chidwick for the chip lead and was eliminated not long after when he went for value with two pair but was met with the higher two pair of Mateos.
France’s all-time money list leader Thorel bowed out in third place moments later when he mistimed to attack Chidwick’s open-raise and lost his king-three to Chidwick’s ace-queen. Chidwick and Mateos began heads-up play with near-even stacks, but after giving it their all in the first hand, it was Chidwick who emerged victorious by making two pair against Mateos’ ace.
