Theo Jorgensen wins World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris

Jorgensen, who is the fourth Dane to win a WPT title, said as he embraced his father, ‘Wow, I’m on top of the world - it means so much to win a WPT title’. The 2008 WSOPE bracelet winner came to the final table as the chip leader and exploited that position. The turning point was when Jorgensen’s kings doubled through eventual runner-up Antione Amourette’s pocket sevens and by the time it got heads-up Jorgensen was 11-1 chip leader. Celebrations, which went on well into the early morning in Paris, were already being planned. Amourette was philosophical in defeat, and, making reference to the le PMU et le Cheval Français cart race the night before, said, “I won the race but I didn’t win enough races today. I’m still delighted though,” he added.

The finale of the €10,000 main event was filmed for worldwide television broadcast and started with a healthy total of 247 runners and total prize pool of €2,347,797 – a total of 27 players made the money. Theo Jorgensen had previously cashed twice before on the World Poker Tour for a total of $33,000. Both cashes were way back in season three, with a best finish of 22nd at the 2005 World Poker Open. For the other seven final table participants, which included French star Arnaud Mattern, it was their first cashes on the WPT.  Amongst others who made the money included French actor and poker player Patrick Bruel, Antony Lellouche and Russia’s Alexander Kravchenko. Bruel had a large supporting contingent on the rail and they were visibly deflated when he departed.

Those who hit the rail in this WPT 2010-2011 season kick-off event before the money included WPT Champions Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier, Guillaume Darcourt, Tommy Vedes, Freddy Deeb, Thomas Bichon, and Surinder Sunar (who took down this event in 2004), as well as other top names such as John Juanda, Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen, Aussie Millions champion Tyron Krost, Isabelle Mercier, Ludovic Lacay, David Steicke, Casey Kastle, Roberto Romanello and Remy Biechel.

In a first in World Poker Tour history, there was a very special event on Friday evening for the participants of the final table of the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris Main Event, presented by PartyPoker. Le PMU et le Cheval Français and ACF generously invited the players for a very special night of trotting at the superb state of the art Vincennes horse racing track. The main race, the ‘Finale du WPT Grand Prix de Paris’, took place at 8:48pm CET. At 10.30pm, however, the real fun started – all eight final table players took part in their very own televised horse and cart race! The winner on the night was Antoine Amourette, who dramatically passed Bruno Fitoussi on the line.

The second televised event, the ACFpoker €20,000 No Limit Hold ‘em High Roller Freeze Out tournament, saw glory for two time WPT champion Freddy Deeb after an intriguing heads-up battle with man of the moment Sorel Mizzi. The superb lively final table also featured the likes of Bruno Fitoussi, Andrew Feldman, Antony Lelouche and Roger Hairabedian. Deeb picked up €290,000, with Mizzi walking away with €120,000. Mizzi seemed to be in control throughout the final table but when his AK was out-flopped by Deeb’s AQ during an epic heads-up the balance of power changed. “I cannot believe I came back,” said Freddy , “he kept making me call but I changed my game and got a bit of a break.”

Bruno Fitoussi of ACFpoker said: “Congratulations to Freddy. Sorel Mizzi has been on an unprecedented run tearing up the online and offline felt - he’s the man to beat in world poker at the moment and if I had to pick someone to do it Freddy Deeb would be very high up on that list.”

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