Matt Salsberg may be more known for his work as a producer for hit shows like Weeds and Entourage, but the man is also a very adept poker player and he proved his class by winning this year’s World Poker Tour Grand Prix De Paris, scoring $515,720 in top prize money. Clearly, his work in Hollywood hasn’t blunted his poker skills the least bit and it showed when he upended one of the tour’s best players, Dane Theo Jorgensen, in the heads-up final. Despite the runner-up finish, Jorgensen still had a pretty good tournament, pocketing $341,149 in runner-up money. Third place went to Philipp Gruissem, who scored $219,265 while fourth place went to Timothy Adams, who took home $162,162.
With the buzz surrounding Salsberg’s WPT Paris triumph, the World Poker Tour didn’t waste any idle time at all, opening Day 1A of WPT Malta with 64 of the best poker pros in the world, headlined by Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Duhamel, and Arnauld Mattern. Despite the relatively small field, the action was anything but tame, opening to some heated and fast-paced action that saw 30 players – almost half of the entire field of the day – hit the rail.
At the end of Day 1A, Casper Toft leads the pack with $123,600 in chips, followed closely by Dominik “AceOnTheRiver” Nitsche” with 91,400 in chips. Hellmuth finished the day in third place at 47,000 with Casey Kastle at fourth with 43,900 in chips. Rounding out the top 5 was Duhamel, who finished the day with 40,900 in chips. For the players who did bust out in Day 1A, there’s still some life for them in Day 1B, where they can re-enter the tournament and get back in the felt.
With one more starting day left in the books, we definitely expect more players to sign up and play in the €3,300 tournament, bringing more action to the tables and, suffice to say, adding even more drama to one of the best WPT location tournaments in the calendar.
