Throughout EPT Paris, there's a plethora of player experiences to take advantage of. See all the sites of the City of Love with the daily city sightseeing bus tours, or if you'd prefer, you can get a 360-degree view of Paris thanks to the daily hot air balloon experiences.
Thibault Reverdito opened from under the gun to 200,000. Roger Taieb shoved his last 760,000 chips in from the cutoff, and it folded back to Reverdito. Much to the surprise of Taieb, Reverdito needed some time to think before he eventually called.
Roger Taieb:
Thibault Reverdito:
Taieb faded the overcard and hearts on a board of to double his stack up over the million mark again.
Alan Goasdoue opened to 210,000 in middle position and Kenny Hallaert three-bet jammed a stack of 1,350,000 from the hijack. Goasdoue called with a bigger stack.
Kenny Hallaert:
Alan Goasdoue:
Hallaert was dominated and his elimination looked imminent until the flop incredibly landed to give him a full house with every queen in the deck accounted for.
"Oh wow. Nice flop," said Goasdoue before the board bricked out to earn Hallaert the double.
Action was caught on the turn with the board reading . Oleksii Natoptanyi checked from the big blind before Kenny Hallaert bet 750,000. His opponent called.
Natoptanyi then led out for 850,000 on the river and snap-called when Hallaert moved all in for 2,575,000.
Natoptanyi tabled and Hallaert couldn't believe his bad luck as he had the for a smaller flopped flush.
The table was stunned by the cooler and Natoptanyi became the chip leader as the Belgian departed the table.
Action was caught in the river with roughly 750,000 chips already in the pot. The board read and Oleksii Natoptanyi bet 850,000 chips into Jean Labryga. Labryga took a minute or so stacking a giant tower of T-25,000 chips before putting them in the middle.
The dealer counted the structure Labryga lovingly created, and it turned out that he counted out the exact minimum raise of 1,700,000 chips.
Natoptanyi called with a sigh and got shown the for the rivered straight by Labryga. Frustrated, Natoptanyi showed that he turned two pair with and got sucked out on.
Wuai-Cheng Tsang opened to 215,000 from the cutoff and Blaz Zerjav and Alexis Lucarini both called out of the blinds.
Zerjav and Lucarini both checked on the flop of and both also called a bet of 225,000 from Tsang. All three players then checked on the turn to see the river.
Zerjav and Lucarini again checked and Tsang fired a river bet of 475,000. Zerjav called and Lucarini folded. Tsang showed a bluff with for just king-high and Zerjav tabled to win the pot with a pair of aces.
After getting several complaints from players about the currently underway European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris festival, PokerStars issued a statement apologizing for "the subpar experience some of you have had at EPT Paris."
The festival is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile, a venue that hasn't been the most popular among players due to its limited space, tight hallways, and registration process. Many were startled when they went to register for the record-breaking €1,100 FPS Paris Main Event only to learn that the event was at capacity and they'd be unable to do so.
In a statement issued on Feb. 18, Cedric Billot, Head of Live Events Global Operations for PokerStars, personally apologized for the issues experienced by players at the first-ever EPT stop in France, a country with its own unique gambling rules and restrictions. The statement also provided information for players looking to register for the EPT Main Event to ensure the smoothest experience possible.