2023 PokerStars EPT Paris

Day 2 has come to an end in the €5,300 Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris, and Rostyslav Sabishchenko is the chip leader after the day's five and a half levels of play.

A total of 1,606 entries made for a prize pool of €7,708,000, making this the sixth-biggest EPT Main event ever in terms of entries. Of the total entrants, 174 remain and all players who return for Day 3 are now guaranteed at least €10,650. The prize pool is set and the eventual winner will walk away with €1,170,000.

Sabishchenko is the current chip leader with 900,000 chips and he'll be looking for his biggest live poker score yet when he returns on Thursday. Close behind is Harry Lodge, followed by Niklas Astedt.

Frederik Thiemer, Fabrice Bigot, and Omar Del Pino all have over 700,000 chips. Also in the top ten chip stacks are Alexandros Kolonias, who has over $4.1 million in live winnings and Andrew Lichtenberger, who has over $14 million in winnings.

2023 EPT Paris Main Event Top 10 Day 2 Chip Counts

Day 2 Notables

Lodge had an incredible run throughout Day 2, and he managed to spin up from his 18,000 starting stack to his current spot in second place. His turning point came when he found trip fours on the river to bust Andrew Hulme to join the big stacks. He later picked up a flush on the river to eliminate Pavel Plesuv on the bubble. Lodge will return with 845,000 chips and the chance to make a run at his first EPT title.

PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton had a decent run, doubling up just before the dinner break when he picked up pocket aces to beat Marc Uzan's Big Slick. Grafton ultimately made it into the money before he bowed out, but his fellow ambassadors Benjamin Spragg, Alejandro Lococo, Laurie Tournier, and Parker Talbot all fell before the bubble.

Among the other notables in the field with stacks above average are Manig Loeser and Teun Mulder. The latter started the day as the chip leader and he will be looking to climb back up to the top when play resumes on Day 3. Loeser is one of many former EPT champions that will return on Day 3—a list that also includes Adrian Mateos, Frederik Brink, Roberto Romanello, Simon Brandstrom, Piotr Nurzynski, and Mike Watson.

Remaining Payouts

Players will return for Day 3 at 12:00 local time with blinds at 2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 ante and approximately 45 minutes remaining in Level 16. Be sure to tune in to PokerStars for live streaming on YouTube and Twitch, and keep it with PokerNews for live coverage straight from the tournament floor.

Players in the €5,200 EPT Paris Main Event have reached the end of Day 2. Out of 1,606 players, 174 will return. Players have now locked up a minimum of €10,650.

Standby for a full Day 2 recap.

At the very end of the night, Fabrice Bigot raised from the hijack and called a three-bet by Alexandre Reard on the button, which led to the flop. Bigot check-called a bet to see the turn on which Bigot bet small and called the shove by Reard for 79,000 in a fraction of a second.

Alexandre Reard:
Fabrice Bigot:

The river was a formality already as Reard had been drawing dead, further boosting the stack of Bigot in the final stages.

"You are the best," Harry Lodge joked after they had exchanged some words. Lodge appears to be the chip leader with just over one million in chips.

On a completed board of , Estonia's Roope Tarmi was the at-risk player out of the big blind. He was looked up by €2,200 FPS High Roller champion Mohamed Mokrani on the button and the latter had the best of it with the for the bottom two pair.

Tarmi had flopped the top pair with and became one of the late casualties on Day 2.

Mourad Falfoul shoved for around 80,000 and Daniel Wilson called. Falfoul shoved over the top for 278,000 and Wilson folded. Two players flipped their cards for the race, with Falfoul at risk.

Mourad Falfoul:
Evaldas Aniulis:

The board ran out . Falfoul failed to improve and Aniulis held up with his pocket jacks to win the pot. Falfoul was eliminated from the tournament in 181st place, right as play has reached the end of Day 2.

The tournament director has paused the clock and it has been announced that four more hands will be played before the remaining players bag up for Day 3.

A short-stacked Arthur Thiriat flipped for his tournament life with the and was looked up by Alexander Ivarsson with the .

The runout gave Ivarsson trips nines and Thiriat a trip to the payout desk.