When I step back and look at the worldwide poker tour schedule I must confess that I sometime get a little irritated at the big three’s inability to see what is staring them in the face.
Next week I will be traveling to South Africa and heading on a safari. The lions, cheetahs, hyenas and leopards all manage to co-exist. They do not try to eat each other alive. They realize the importance of co-operation.
The same should be true of the poker world. Scheduling is so important not just for the players, but for the EBITDA of the tours also. Profit can sometimes be a dirty word, but it’s what we need the tours to create in order for all of us to have somewhere to play.
WPT Grand Prix de Paris is proof that creating the perfect schedule doesn’t always turn out as wonderfully as one would hope. What better timing to hold a WPT event in Paris just days after the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) ends in the same city of love.
Yet the winner of the Season XII event will be taking the title away from the third smallest field in the history of the event, and the smallest since Roland de Wolfe walked away with the title back in 2005.
With WSOPE numbers also down – prompting speculation amongst the French media that you won’t be seeing the tour in Paris again – is it once again evidence that the European poker money is running dry?
Food for thought.
Back to the tournament in hand and the WPT National Series Annecy winner, Hicham Hilmi, will be the Day Two chip leader when action starts in the Aviation Club de France (ACF) at 14:30 (CET).
The reason I started this article off with focus on the numbers, was because the Day 1B action was so sparse. Sometimes poker can be better than watching the Grand el Classico and sometimes it’s like watching paint dry. There were paintbrushes everywhere on Day 1B.
92 players started Day 1B and the clock showed 74 of them had survived when the last card was dealt. That means 171 players have entered thus far, and 132 remain, but that number can increase with the stipulation that allows players to re-enter on Day 2 if (a) they have not started any other starting flight (b) they have only used one bullet.
Hilmi’s rise to fame came on the back of three eliminations. The first was the elimination of Jeffrey Rossiter when Hilmi flopped a set at the same time the Aussie found top two. Then Hilmi eliminated WPT Champions Club member Sean Jazayeri and Yossi Ifergan in a double whammy. Hilmi finding aces to easily defeat the AQ of Jazayeri and A9 of Ifergan to take the chip lead.
Pocket aces were good for Hilmi…not so for the former WPT Champion Guillaume Darcourt. The only player to win both WPT Main Events and a National Series hitting the rail hard after his aces were cracked by the [5s] [4s] of Giuseppe Zarbo after two pair got there on the turn.
Brandon Cantu lost his second life when he ran AQ into the AK of Victor Chopeaux, and the amateur player Derrick Bessette eliminated both Bryn Kenney and Paul Volpe when his [Kh] [Qh] turned trips on Volpe’s [Ad] [Kc], and Kenney’s [Ks] [Jh], to send both players to the rail.
Two of the world’s greatest players out in one fell swoop. Bessette must have felt amazing?
“Who were they?” Came the reply.
Kenney and Volpe…I think that’s their names…will no doubt return on Day Two as will the likes of Marvin Rettenmaier, but it remains to be seen if Phil Hellmuth will grace the field with his presence after deciding to forgo his option for a re-entry yesterday after his Day 1A elimination.
Players are reminded that the clocks went back one hour, so you have an extra hour to burn on the PlayStation.
Action starts at 14:30 (CET).
