Matthew Salsberg Leads a Stacked Final Table

(Photo: Matthew Salsberg)

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris has reached its final table, and what a great final table it promises to be. When the day started there were so many potential story lines, all seemingly primed for the televised final table. Could Season IX Grand Prix de Paris champion, Theo Jorgensen, make it a second final table within two years? Would Philipp Gruissem maintain his chip lead for the third successive day? Would we have an American on the final table for back-to-back American victories? Would the American live grinder Matt Salsberg finally make the final table of a major event? Would the WPT POY Joe Serock finally break his WPT title duck? In fact, there were more stories than an evening playing cards with Devilfish. But when all was said and done, we had action, we had drama, we had our stories and we even had blood! I mean…come on…what more do you want!

Here is the action from today’s epic Day 4.

It all started way back in level 18. A 90-minute level that saw us lose nine players. Amongst the first casualties of war were WPT Champions Club member Juha Helppi, Global Poker Index (GPI) top ten ranked Andrew Lichtenberger, French rap star Bruno "Kool Shen" Lopes and the in form Kyle Julius. Two of those scalps were taken from the blade of Matthew Salsberg, who rightfully took his place at the top of the chip counts.

At the start of Level 19, we lost Bryan Colin in a pre flop encounter with Timothy Adams. Adams, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, starting to put his imprint on this tournament, and his rise to prominence was confirmed after spiking a set against Jerome Douieb; where he gained maximum value to haul himself into second spot behind Salsberg. At the same time Salsberg and Adams were rising, our starting day chip leader Philipp Gruissem started to slide south for the first time in three days. Two more eliminations to finish off the level. The Day 1A chip leader Jaques Enjoubault running into the red hot Salsberg. It was [Ac] [Kh] for Enjoubault and [As] [Qc] for Salsberg, but a [Qd] on the turn sent Enjoubault packing. Moments later and Mohsin Charania flopped quad tens to eliminate the rock that was Daniel Amara.

(Photo: Jacques Enjoubault)

Level 12 started with the elimination of Raphael Abitbol. Once again it was former European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final champion, Mohsin Charania, doing the damage [Jh] [Jd] v [As] [Kc]. Then we were ten, after Adams eliminated the French singer Gregoire Boissenot in 11th place, a hand that saw Adams take the chip lead for the first time in the tournament with 1.4 million chips. The 10th place finisher was WSOP POY Joe Serock. Once again a case of so near and yet so far for our POY; Theo Jorgensen removing Serock from the equation [Ah] [Kd] v [As] [3s] handing us our preliminary table of nine players.

The preliminary final table of nine was a preliminary final table of seven in a shake of a lambs tail. First Charania eliminated Kyle Cheong [Jx] [Jx] v [2x] [2x] and then Chicagocards1 eliminated the talented Frenchman Idris Ambraisse with a nice and slowly played pair of pocket kings. Ambraisse hitting the nut flush draw on [Td] [6d] [5c] but the diamond he yearned for never left the mine from whence it lay. So Mohsin Charania was sparkling like Ambraisse’s lost diamond, and he moved into the joint lead with Matthew Salsberg and Adams was a close third. All eyes were on Fabian Quoss to be the seventh place finisher and it oh so nearly happened. Quoss moving his short stack into the middle holding [As] [Jh], versus the man who hits more decks that a blind boxer, Matthew Salsberg holding [Ah] [Qs]. Quoss hit a jack on the flop and suddenly it looked like we were in for a long night.

(Photo: Fabian Quoss)

Then one of the most inspired plays you will ever see in poker. Timothy Adams was involved in a hand with Matthew Salsberg where he was facing a river bet. Suddenly, blood started to gush out of the nose of Adams and stream down his face and fingers. While the table rushed to his aid, Adams took the opportunity to use the diversion to bluff-raise Salsberg out of the pot.

"That’s the best move I have ever seen," declared Jorgensen.

(Photo: Timothy Adams)

As Adams walked around the table with his neck craned backwards. Matt Salsberg was recovering from that bluff the only way he knows how: by hammering an opponent. His latest and last victim was Jerome Douieb. Douieb moving all-in with [Ad] [Qd] and Salsberg called with [Ac] [Kc]. Five community cards later Douieb was out, and we had our final table six with Matt Salsberg leading the way with 1,575,000 chips.

So what stories do we have remaining?

Theo Jorgensen is still within a chance of winning his second Grand Prix de Paris, an American can still make sure that we have back-to-back country champions for the third time in a row (England/Denmark/USA), Matthew Salsberg can still realise his true potential and win his first major and Timothy Adam can win a WPT title whilst bleeding from every orifice.

The final table starts at 16:00 (CET) and the whole event will be streamed live on the Internet, alternatively you can join us right here for the live updates (albeit with a 30-minute delay).

Final Table

Seat 1: Matthew Salsberg – 1,575,000
Seat 2: Philipp Gruissem – 776,000
Seat 3: Theo Jorgensen – 1,169,000
Seat 4: Fabian Quoss – 570,000
Seat 5: Timothy Adams – 1,198,000
Seat 6: Mohsin Charania – 1,435,000