Tales From Paris

It's 3 p.m. on June 16 in Paris, and the always beautiful Champs Elysées is burning under the hot sun. Inside the Aviation Club de France, it's the final day of the World Poker Tour event. The club is packed with spectators, media reporters, TV crew, and staff members. Sabina Gadecki, the new hostess of the WPT, is standing in a corner, repeating her lines over and over again. Inside the tournament room, the air is hot and the action is tense while the finalists are quietly battling for the 700,000 euros first prize. Did I just say "quietly"? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. There was no taunting Tony G this year, and no George Paravoliasakis shouting "the Isle of Greece" after each pot won, either. No, instead, we're witnessing six extremely focused players.



A Scandinavian affair

That doesn't mean this year's tournament wasn't exciting. A total of 232 players showed up for the only European World Poker Tour stop, and after five grueling days, the final table was a Scandinavian affair. Look for yourself: two Danes, two Finns, and one Swede. As it has been said many times before, the Nordic players are taking over the game in Europe. The only non-Nordic player to make it to the final table, Frenchman Patrick Schuhl, was the first to be eliminated during the very first hands. The heads-up battle between Jani Sointula and Christian Grundtvig was especially good, with a lot of aggressive play. They traded the chip lead back and forth many times, and for what seemed to be hours, no one was willing to give up. In the end, Grundtvig got the best of it. Cheered by a large crowd of fans, the Danish player won a massive pot when his pocket sixes held up against Sointula's A-5. Seconds later, it was all over. Grundtvig was obviously ecstactic, but you can't say the same about "Hell Raiser" Sointula. When asked by Mike Sexton how he was feeling about finishing in second place, all the Finn could answer was, "Disappointed."



Where are the French?

There was only one French player at the final table. However, when you look closely at the event results, you'll notice that one-third of the paid spots were occupied by French players. Among them were talented players like Samy Torbay, Elie Marciano, Gilles Haddad, and the always dangerous Romain Feriolo. With the Scandinavians stealing the show, it almost seemed like a consolation prize for the French.

"The Brat" puts on a show

Phil Hellmuth was one of the very few American top pros who dared to make the trip to the old continent to compete against the best European players. To the pleasure of the audience, he displayed his usual antics and attitude at the table. All in all, "The Brat" played a good tournament and made a good finish, although probably a disappointing one for him: 16th place. Amir Vahedi was here, as well, along with a regular visitor of the Aviation Club, Freddy Deeb.

A little bit of trivia



The ACF is the only World Poker Tour venue where "plaques" are used at the table, along with regular chips, which makes the betting of the players unique compared to the other shows. (Remember Tony G two years ago? He was holding that big red plaque and shouting, "I'm the captain now!") Also, I've never seen any other place where the chips used for the TV final are real cash-game chips, which are worth their face value. However, to discourage any thieves, I have to add that they are old francs chips, which are no longer in use since the introduction of the euro currency.



Benjamin Gallen is a reporter for www.clubpoker.net.