Play is now underway for the final five players in the EPT Paris Main Event. PokerNews coverage will continue on a 30-minute delay to accommodate the live stream.
2023 PokerStars EPT Paris
€5,300 EPT Paris Main Event
Dias: 6
Event Info
Resultados Finais
Event Info
Informações do Nível
Informações do Jogador - Dia 6
2023 PokerStars EPT Paris
Buy-in
€5,300
Premiação
€7,708,800
Entries
1,606
Nível
35
Blinds
200,000 / 400,000
Ante
400,000
Entries
5
Jogadores Restantes
1
Hometown: Târgu Jiu
Chips: 16.125 million
If you’re looking for a blueprint showing you how to become a professional poker player, look no further than Romania’s Razvan Belea.
The 34-year-old from Târgu Jiu discovered 5-card stud as a kid, then began playing no limit hold’em freerolls exclusively when he got older. Without investing any of his hard-earned money, he slowly built a bankroll while working as a bartender and eventually climbed so high up the stakes that he left the cocktails behind and turned pro.
Now he’s got $1.25 million in cashes online–where he plays as “razvyQQ” on PokerStars–and $112K in live earnings, prior to the EPT Paris Main Event. He plays poker roughly five days a week but says he studies even more, and that’s proving to be a recipe for success. In 2017 he finished fifth in the Sunday Million for almost $40K, and in 2021 he recorded his best career cash, finishing third in the WCOOP $109 Phase for $85K.
Whatever happens today he’ll have a new career-best score and with his winnings, Belea hopes to help his parents buy a new house. It’s even better: he qualified for this event in a $530 buy-in satellite on PokerStars.
Hometown: Stockholm (now lives in Marbella, Spain)
Chips: 10.775 million
Some people retire early and dedicate the rest of their lives to relaxing. But not Sweden’s Peter Jorgne. The 50-year-old Stockholm native has been an entrepreneur his whole life and sold his financial technology business–which automated currency trading for banks–in 2018. He then moved to Marbella, Spain to enjoy his retirement, but after a few years of sun and sea on the Costa del Sol, he decided to give poker a proper try.
For years, Jorgne had played poker at home games with friends and in Stockholm cardrooms. “It was just for fun,” he says, “I really knew nothing about it.” But around a year ago, a conversation with his friend–the Swedish poker player Peter Kvisthammer–changed everything. “He told me that if I really want to be good at this, I had to take it seriously,” says Jorgne. So with Kvisthammer and another Swedish player, Michael Bartov, as his coaches, the three got
to work.
They started at EPT Barcelona in August 2022, and Jorgne managed to cash in two events. “We’re like a team,” Jorgne says. “I was only going to do this for one year and the goal was to reach a final table in either an EPT or a WSOP event.”
Now, It’s just ten months later and on his third attempt, Jörgne has done it. He’s felt confident in his game all the way through EPT Paris and has enjoyed an above-average stack since Level 1.
“What you see here, if this was one year ago, wouldn’t have made it through Day 1,” he says. “So to be at the final table…it’s pretty cool.”
Hometown: London (lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico)
Chips: 10.425 million
You’d never have guessed that this was Brian Delaney’s maiden EPT Main Event…unless you looked at his Hendon Mob profile. The Londoner doesn’t have much in the way of live results (just one small hyper turbo cash from earlier in the EPT Paris festival) but what he lacks in live cashes, he makes up for in online longevity.
Known as “bdel123” on PokerStars, the 28-year-old has already been a poker pro for a decade. “I’ve never really had another job other than poker,” he says. He fell in love with poker during his teens and began playing low-stakes online multi-table tournaments (MTTs) professionally at the tender age of 18. In recent years he’s switched to online PLO cash games, with great success. He now lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where he shares a place with high-stakes MTT crusher “FishOnHeater”. “We talk about hands a lot,” Delaney says of his talented housemate. “And on Sundays, I’ll sometimes play MTTs with him.”
It was a challenge between Delaney, FishOnHeater, and the latter’s brother who was visiting them that led Delaney to Paris. They decided that if they could win $20K online between the three of them within a certain amount of time, then both Delaney and "FishOnHeater" would join him on the flight back to Europe.
They did it, and a few days later Delaney found himself snowboarding in Austria. The next stop on the Eurotrip was EPT Paris. And now Delaney’s next stop is the Main Event final table. “I’m actually surprised [I’m so relaxed],” Delaney admits. “I don’t play many tournaments anymore but I did play them online for many years, so I guess I still know a lot.”
Hometown: Tallinn
Chips: 1.725 million
Henri Kasper owns a PR company in Tallinn, and was formerly PokerStars PR partner in the Baltic region, responsible for bringing the EPT to Estonia. With the PokerStars Swedish execs, he arranged and promoted the PokerStars Baltic Festival in 2009, which then became the EPT in 2010 and 2011. He still runs the PR company, and is having to attend to some work during tournament breaks.
He describes himself as an amateur player, who plays mostly PLO cash games at home, but who goes on four or five poker trips per year. His best other EPT results have come in Monte Carlo, where he has run deep in the Main Event twice, and Barcelona, where he chopped the senior’s event last year. That was the first time he was eligible, having just turned 50, and it was his biggest tournament score before this run.
If he comes first or second, he goes to the top of the Estonian money list. He was due to be going on holiday with his wife and two kids tomorrow, but said they will fly here instead of Barcelona if he makes the final.
Hometown: Paris (now lives in London)
Chips: 9.625 million
The sole French player at the final table, Fabrice Bigot qualified online for €250. He won a full package to come to Paris, a city he knows well. The 28-year-old lives in London now but has Parisian origins. Known online as “SirFalcon”, he is an online MTT reg, playing poker as a pro since the end of 2018.
Bigot studied law at university and discovered poker at the same time. He also has a past in Esport competition and did military service after his studies. It is only since the Covid pandemic that he started to play live tournaments. His first cash was a victory in the UDSO Paris in July 2021. He also won another tournament in Paris in August 2022, and he now considers the city his lucky place.
After finishing 11th in the EPT Prague Main Event in December 2022 for €74,950, he won the WPT Prime in Club Circus Paris three weeks ago. Bigot is also a poker coach, and is known in the French community to be a really hard worker in all aspects of the game.
“I’m so grateful for this final table,” Bigot said. “Hard work has payed off. Coaching really helps of course. My number one motivation is to be able to play higher buy-ins. If I win tomorrow, I may play a 25k really soon!”
Welcome to the Day 6 finale of the EPT Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris. Cards go in the air at 12:30 p.m. for the final five players.
Romania's Razvan Belea leads the final group and Peter Jorgne trails him in second, while Brian Delaney is the only other player over 10 million in third. France's Fabrice Bigot is close behind the top three in fourth, while Henri Kasper rounds out the top five with the short stack.
2023 EPT Paris Main Event Final Table Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 6 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fabrice Bigot | France | 9,625,000 | 64 |
| 2 | Henri Kasper | Estonia | 1,725,000 | 12 |
| 3 | Brian Delaney | United Kingdom | 10,425,000 | 70 |
| 4 | Peter Jorgne | Sweden | 10,775,000 | 72 |
| 5 | Razvan Belea | Romania | 16,125,000 | 108 |
The table is set for the Day 6 finale after a penultimate day that saw 15 players play down to an unofficial final table that featured nine players from nine different countries. Morocco's Mehdi Chaoui, Denmark's Johan Schultz-Pedersen, Denzel Spekman of the Netherlands, and Germany's Konstantin Held all bowed out from the last table to set up the tournaments final five.
Local eyes will be on Bigot, who has accomplished a lot in his short time on the French poker scene. The Frenchman's first record score is a tournament win right here in Paris, and he recently took down the local edition of the WPT Prime Main Event for €177,240. Bigot qualified for just €250 and he is within striking distance of a million-euro payday.
The final five outlasted a field of 1,606 to have an opportunity to play for the lion's share of the €7,708,800 prize pool, from which today's winner will take home €1,170,000.
2023 EPT Paris Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €1,170,000 | ||
| 2 | €780,100 | ||
| 3 | €535,850 | ||
| 4 | €412,200 | ||
| 5 | €317,050 | ||
| 6 | Konstantin Held | Germany | €244,000 |
| 7 | Denzel Spekman | Netherlands | €187,650 |
| 8 | Johan Schultz-Pedersen | Denmark | €144,300 |
| 9 | Mehdi Chaoui | Morocco | €111,000 |
The final five players will return on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. and resume play at Level 31 with blinds at 100,000/150,000 with a 150,000 big blind ante. The PokerStars live stream will air all of the action on a 30-minute security delay.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the floor of the final day of the EPT Main Event and tune into PokerStars for a live stream of all of the action on YouTube and Twitch. For more information, including seat draws, schedules, and structures, download the PokerStars Live app.
€5,300 EPT Paris Main Event
Dia 6 Começado