Title at EPT Paris (€324,500) Day 2 of the €25,000 No Limit Hold’em III at Poker Stars European Poker Tour Paris came to a close with Stephen Chidwick winning the series’ final high-stakes tournament after seven and a half hours of play. After a battle of attrition, Chidwick defeated Adrian Mateos in heads-up play to win the title, trophy, and €324,500 designated for first place.
Mateos started the day as the clear chip leader and used his monster stack a lot; However, Chidwick sprung to life and ended Mateos’ dominance when play reached four-handed.
Nine players chose to take advantage of the late registration window that remained open until Day 2 began, bringing the total number of participants to 22.
This brought the total number of entries to 40, and they put together the €940,800 prize pool, out of which the top six finishers would get paid.
Recap of Day 2
As previously mentioned, a few players, including Jonathan Jaffe, Nick Petrangelo, Mike Watson, Bruno Volkmann, and Kazuhiko Yotsushika, made the last-minute decision to join the fight. But they were only there for a short time, and they were quickly moved to the wrong side of the rail.
Andrew Lichtenberger, Motoyoshi Okamura, Thomas Muehloecker, Joao Vieira, Sam Greenwood, Galen Corridor and Teun Mulder were all players to pack from Day 1. But on the final day of EPT Paris, just like the names above, they didn’t win enough money.
Daniel Dvoress paired up with Aleksejs Ponakovs on the river to win the pot, leaving him short on the final table bubble. Felipe Ketzer, a competitor on Day 2, defeated Ponakovs shortly after.
Juan Pardo was eliminated from the final nine in twenty minutes when the table formed. The action continued to be fast and furious. Dvoress’ pair of tens beat his pocket nines, and he didn’t get any help on the runout.
After Mateos’ ace-queen paired up on the runout to defeat Ketzer’s pocket eights, ten minutes later, Ketzer fell on the wrong side of a flip. The money bubble began with Ketzer’s departure, and it was anticipated that play would slow down. Sirzat Hissou, on the other hand, followed Ketzer out the door, proving that this was not the case. Hissou had Big Slick all in preflop, but he was unable to beat Dvoress’ pocket queens.
On Day 2, Justin Saliba was another newcomer, and he managed to get the money. He was the player who won the min-cash after calling incorrectly for his tournament life on the river against Mateos. Saliba had a wonderful day of work because he worked on the felt for four hours and made a profit of €40,000.
After Steve O’Dwyer, Mateos was eliminated once more. To beat the Irishman, his pocket sixes flopped a full house. It was O’Dwyer’s third cash at EPT Paris. He finished in seventh place for €155,100 in the €50,000 Super High Roller. A few days later, he won another €25,000 buy-in event for €134,900.
Jean-Noel Thorel and Chidwick, who also bought in on Day 2, found double-ups through Mateos and Dvoress, respectively, during the course of four-handed play. After that, Chidwick doubled through Mateos and won several pots from Thorel, putting him second in chip counts.
Dvoress gave up in third place as his stack began to shrink. He was short-stacked after losing a flip to Thorel and then losing his jack-ten to Chidwick’s ace-nine.
After doubling through Mateos, Chidwick completed a stack that was equal to Mateos’. Chips were traded back and forth while stacks remained unchanged for a considerable amount of time. However, Chidwick’s nut flush river against Thorel’s flopped pair brought an end to his run.
With the chip lead, which changed hands several times after Chidwick entered heads-up, after setting a pocket jack-timed trap, Chidwick had one hand on the victory. Soon after, Mateos was holding nothing back with pocket fives and was facing the Brit’s nine-seven. Before Chidwick and Mateos paired up on the river to win his second EPT Paris title, Mateos was all set for another double.