Jacques Enjoubault Leads Grand Prix de Paris Day 1A

(Photo: Jacques Enjoubault)

On a beautifully sunny afternoon, the Aviation Club de France (ACF) opened its doors and welcomed the World Poker Tour (WPT) for the eighth Grand Prix de Paris. It was Day 1A, it was a re-entry event and 96 players each paid €7,500 for the pleasure of playing in this homeliest of homes. There has not been a French winner of the Grand Prix de Paris since Season II when David Benyamine won the title; so another French victory is long overdue. Maybe this is the year, after local boy Jacques Enjoubault finished the day as the runaway leader with 225,200 chips.

Here is a recap of the day’s events.

The field was stacked with members of the WPT Champions Club and we lost two of them in the first two levels. Roberto Romanello was sent tumbling towards the cash tables after suffering a death from a thousand cuts, before Guillaume Darcourt was eliminated at the hands of Casey Kastle. Kastle opened shoved on a [Qs] [8d] [4h] flop, in a three-bet pot, holding [Ad] [Kc] and the pink-haired French fancy made the call with [Ks] [Qh]. Kastle needed the deck to save his blushes and the [Ac] found its way to the turn to do just that. At the other end of the chip counts PartyPoker team pro, Kara Scott, was the early chip leader after doubling up pocket kings versus pocket tens.

(Photo: Casey Kastle)

After the first break we lost the hottest player on the planet. Dan Smith had decided to leave his red baseball cap and sunglasses in his suitcase and instead decided to opt for the more mature look. The unshaven Smith sauntering into the place with more chest hair on display than Scott Seiver. But the new look didn’t bring any good luck. Smith falling on the sword of Andrew Lichtenberger and as he walked out of the room Dan O’Brien shouted, "It’s just not your year."

(Photo: Dan Smith)

Also leaving the fray after the first break were three more WPT Champions Club members, and the greatest female poker player alive. Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi ran his pocket queens into the set of eights held by Micah Raskin, David Benyamine couldn’t win a hand all day, Will Failla’s full-house barged into the quads of Jason Mercier and Vanessa Selbst bluffed away her first bullet in a hand against Mickael Layani.

(Photo: Vanessa Selbst)

Level five saw the rise of the relatively unknown Jacques Enjoubault. He steamed towards the top of the chip counts like a tugboat, and two players hanging onto his coat tails were Jason Mercier and Igor Kurganov. Mercier would finish with an impressive looking 70,000, but it all went south for Kurganov who went from a century high to a 33,000 low.

(Photo: Jason Mercier)

The last two levels of the evening saw a spate of eliminations, double ups and in the words of Scott Seiver, "Sadness and absurdity." Former Grand Prix de Paris Season IX champion Theo Jorgensen was flushed with double-ups. Firstly, he flopped a flush to double through fellow WPT Champions Club member Davidi Kitai, before doing it again with clubs in one of the very last hands of the evening. Jorgensen finishing on 77,000 chips.

(Photo: Theo Jorgensen)

This was the time that Enjoubault really took a tight grip on this tournament, much to the chagrin of WPT Champions Club member Scott Seiver. Here is the hand that Seiver called both sad and absurd.

"Jacques Enjoubault limps into the pot, Seiver also limps before a third player makes a raise. Enjoubault calls, Seiver raises to 4,400 and both players make up the additional price. The flop is [8x] [5x] [4x] and the action checks to Seiver who bets 8,000 and just Enjoubault makes the call. The turn is the [2x], Enjoubault checks, Seiver bets 19,000, Enjoubault check-raises to 51,000, Seiver moves all-in and Enjoubault calls. Seiver turns over [Kx] [Kx] and Enjoubault has managed to find [6x] [3x]."

(Photo: Scott Seiver)

Just moments later and Enjoubault was at it again. This time the scalp of Mickael Layani found its way onto the belt of the Frenchman and he screamed past the 200,000 mark leaving everyone in his wake.

So that’s the story of Day 1A. Day 1B will start at 15:00 (CET) with a host of new names, and a few familiar faces hoping for more luck than they got today. Make sure you join the WPT Live Updates team for all of the action.