The record-breaking €1,100 France Poker Series Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris will reach its conclusion today, as the final seven players remaining out of the starting 2,071 return to the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile. Play will start at 12 p.m. local time, and Jean-Luc Labryga, who started day 2 as the overall chipleader, once again comes in with by far the biggest stack.
Labryga has not slowed down since his Day 1a performance and bagged 20,350,000 chips (68 big blinds) for the final day, more than double that of his nearest contender, Ukraine's Oleksii Natoptanyi.
The French player will try to keep the trophy and accompanying €287,830 top prize on home soil, but his fellow countrymen Roger Taieb, Thibault Reverdito, and short stack Alan Goasdoue also still have a chance of achieving the same feat. Rounding out the final seven players are the Dutchman Elias Fisz and Ireland's Christopher Dowling.
€1,100 FPS Paris Main Event Final Table
SEAT
PLAYER
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Alan Goasdoue
France
3,350,000
11
2
Elias Fisz
Netherlands
9,225,000
31
3
Jean-Luc Labryga
France
20,350,000
68
4
Oleksii Natoptanyi
Ukraine
9,150,000
29
5
Roger Taieb
France
8,100,000
27
6
Christopher Dowling
Ireland
7,300,000
24
7
Thibault Reverdito
France
4,625,000
22
The final seven players will commence play with blinds of 150,000/300,000 with a 300,000 big blind ante. Levels will last 60 minutes until the final three players have been reached, or a deal as been made, at which point the duration of the level will be halved. All players have secured at least €44,990, but all will be gunning for the top spot.
PokerNews will be present to report the rest of play from this tournament as the players play down to a winner. Don't forget to check out the live coverage of other tournaments here at EPT Paris over at the EPT Paris tournament hub to not to miss any of the action.
The action folded to short stack Alan Goasdoue, who raised his button to 600,000. Chipleader Jean-Luc Labryga looked him up with a call in the big blind.
Goasdoue put out a minimum bet of 300,000 on after Labryga checked to him. Labryga quickly called and the two were off to the next street. On the turn Labryga checked again, and Goasdoue tripled his sizing to 900,000 this time. Once more, Labryga obliged with a call.
The river rolled off, and Labryga almost instantly announced he was all in, covering Goasdoue multiple times over. Goasdoue did not take much time to make the call for his tournament life.
Jean-Luc Labryga:
Alan Goasdoue:
Both players turned trips, but Goasdoue's kicker played, thus securing the double-up for him.
Jean-Luc Labryga opened from the hijack position to 700,000. Thibault Reverdito was in the big blind and defended with 2,125,000 in chips behind.
The flop saw Labryga bet 1,200,000 after Reverdito checked. Not long after, Reverdito announced ''all-in'' for the rest of his chips. Labryga was notably unhappy, looked to the sky, and agonizingly threw his hands in the air several times. After a minute or so, he decided he could not fold, and made the call.
Thibault Reverdito:
Jean-Luc Labryga:
Reverdito was in great shape to double up with his flopped top pair, as long as he avoided an ace or a runner-runner in the runout.
The turn came , which gave Labryga a gutshot to Broadway. The river disgusted Reverdito, while Labryga cheered audibly, as it brought in said gutshot.
A runner-runner straight for Labryga to bust Reverdito as the first player today, raising his tally to four knockouts in a row since the last ten players.
Alan Goasdoue open-jammed from the cutoff and Oleksii Natoptanyi called off in the big blind with around 3,200,000.
Oleksii Natoptanyi:
Alan Goasdoue:
"Ah," Goasdoue groaned when he saw he was dominated.
The flop then landed to give Goasdoue a big lead and Natoptanyi let out a sigh as the board finished out to end Natoptanyi's roller-coaster level and mark his elimination in sixth place.
Jean-Luc Labryga opened to 1,600,000 from the cutoff and Roger Taieb three-bet jammed a stack of 7,500,000 from the button.
"I can't fold this. I call," Labryga said.
Roger Taieb:
Jean-Luc Labryga:
It would indeed be hard for Labryga to fold as he held the best possible starting hand. The flop landed to have Taieb drawing to just runner-runner quads and the runout of confirmed the loud and energetic Frenchman's elimination in fourth place.
Elias Fisz was first to act on the button, and went all in for for 10,550,000, which equated to 20 big blinds. Jean-Luc Labryga folded his small blind, then big blind Alan Goasdoue asked for a count. When eventually the correct number was announced, he called to put Fisz at risk.
Elias Fisz:
Alan Goasdoue:
was the board runout. No ace or other shenanigans for Fisz, and thus he left the tournament in third place.
Meanwhile, Labryga and Goasdoue are getting ready for their heads up battle for the trophy and the grand prize of €287,830.
Jean-Luc Labryga open-jammed his stack of around 9,000,000 from the button and Alan Goasdoue peeked at his cards before calling to put Labryga at risk.
Jean-Luc Labryga:
Alan Goasdoue:
The flop landed to give Labryga plenty of hope with a pair and a backdoor flush draw, and the turn kept him afloat despite improving Goasdoue to a set. Unfortunately for Labryga, the bricked off on the river and he shook Goasdoue's hand before hitting the rail in second place for a career-best €179,950.
France's Alan Goasdoue is the winner of the €1,100 FPS Paris Main Event for €287,830 after he defeated fellow Frenchman Jean-Luc Labryga during a short heads-up match.
Stay tuned for a full recap and winner's interview.
The record-breaking €1,100 France Poker Series (FPS) Paris Main Event wrapped up after a relatively short Day 4 that saw Alan Goasdoue defeating fellow Frenchman Jean-Luc Labryga after a brief heads-up battle to take home the shimmering silver trophy and €287,830.
Goasdoue, a 23-year-old who has been playing poker since he was 18 and professionally for the last five months, had just $39,562 in Hendon Mob earnings when he decided to play his European Poker Tour (EPT) festival here in Paris after satelliting into the FPS Main.
Despite entering the day as the shortest stack, Goasdoue managed to ladder past several players — including fellow French natives Thibault Reverdito (7th - €44,990) and Roger Taieb (4th - €98,870) and fellow Europeans Oleksii Natoptanyi (6th - €58,490), Christopher Dowling (5th - €76,050) and Elias Fisz (3rd - €128,530) — before ultimately overcoming start-of-day chip leader Labryga.
“I'm pretty calm right now," Goasdoue said in a winner's interview. "Everything has been going well for me since the beginning of the tournament and I've always managed to survive with double-up when I was dominated. Even though I came into today's final with the last stack, I stayed focused. I figured out how my heads-up opponent was playing and I was also lucky to win."
€1,100 FPS Paris Main Event Final Table Results
PLACE
PLAYER
COUNTRY
PRIZE (IN EURO)
1
Alan Goasdoue
France
€287,830
2
Jean-Luc Labryga
France
€179,950
3
Elias Fisz
Netherlands
€128,530
4
Roger Taieb
France
€98,870
5
Christopher Dowling
Ireland
€76,050
6
Oleksii Natoptanyi
Ukraine
€58,490
7
Thibault Reverdito
France
€44,990
8
Vasyl Zabrodskyy
Ukraine
€34,610
9
Alexis Lucarini
France
€26,620
Final Table Action
The FPS Paris Main Event, one of the first events to kick off the inaugural EPT Paris stop, attracted a massive 2,071 runners and a prize pool of €1,988,160. The field likely would have been even larger if not for capacity limitations at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile.
Seven players returned to finish out the final table on Day 4 after the late-night elimination of Vasyl Zabrodskyy, whose pocket sixes couldn't hold up against the eventual runner-up's ace-jack.
Labryga was a Day 1 chip leader before entering Day 4 with the biggest stack and his run-good was just beginning. In the first level of play, Labryga got it in on the flop with just ace-high against the top pair of Reverdito, but a runner-runner straight sent Reverdito to the rail in seventh place.
After the respective eliminations of Natoptanyi and Dowling, Labryga picked up aces to be far in front of the nines of Taieb, who had playfully teased Labryga throughout the final table before his fourth-place exit.
Goasdoue stayed quiet throughout most of the day's action but that changed when he picked up pocket nines and looked up a shove by Fisz with ace-eight, who couldn't improve to fall in third and set up a French heads-up battle.
Labryga and Goasdoue, the oldest and youngest players at the final table, entered heads-up play nearly even in chips but Goasdoue quickly took a lead after making a few hands, including two full houses. Labryga was down to a short stack when he open-jammed on the button holding ace-eight and Goasdoue looked him up with nines, which proved to be the holding of the day as they once again held up to earn Goasdoue the victory.
The career-best score marked the PokerStars qualifier's first major live score just a few months after transitioning from online poker.
"My goal was to play more live events in the future," said Goasdoue. "I've known for a long time that I'm capable of a big performance. Now I've ticked the box, as they say! I said at the beginning of the tournament that I was going to put one bullet the FPS and win, then one bullet in the EPT (Main Event) and win. So I'm halfway there!”
That wraps up PokerNews' coverage of the record-breaking FPS Main Event. Be sure to check out the live reporting hub for the team's coverage of other events here at EPT Paris.