Fabrice Bigot Wins World Poker Tour Prime Paris For $194,390The Frenchman Defeated A Field of 1,071 Entries To Secure His Largest Live Tournament Score Yet |
|
The World Poker Tour returned to Paris, France for the first time since 2020 for the WPT Prime Paris €1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The tournament ran from Jan. 31 – Feb. 5 at the Club Circus Paris, with five starting flights (including a turbo flight 1E on the same day as day 1D) and two more days of tournament action. In the end, it was France’s Fabrice Bigot who emerged victorious with the title, the trophy, and the first-place prize of $194,390.
This was the largest score yet for Bigot, topping his previous largest cash of $78,698 earned for an 11th-place showing in the 2022 EPT Prague main event. He now has nearly $572,000 in career live tournament earnings to his name.
Bigot was also awarded 960 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to see him surge up the standings and into 42nd place in the overall POY rankings presented by Global Poker.
The final day of this event began with Sabare Atmani in the lead and just eight contenders remaining. Bigot was in second chip position to start, but on the very first hand of the day he won a big pot with trip jacks to overtake the lead.
Bigot scored his first knockout at the final table when his A-Q held up against the A-9 suited of 2018 World Series of Poker main event final tablist Antoine Labat. The chips went in preflop and Bigot made top pair to send Labat packing in fifth place ($51,548). Labat now has more than $2.3 million in career tournament earnings thanks to this deep run.
Federico Cirillo’s pocket aces were cracked by the 10-7 of Atmani, who shoved from the big blind after Cirillo limped in from the small blind. Atmani flopped two pair and held from there to eliminate Cirillo in fourth place ($69,096).
Alexandre Le Vaillant got the last of his chips in with queen high, which needed running cards to best the flopped trip jacks of Bigot. The turn improved Bigot to a full house to leave Le Vaillant drawing dead. He earned $92,128 while Bigot took more than a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Atmani.
The blinds were 125,000-250,000 with a 250,000 big-blind ante when the final hand was dealt. Bigot raised to 600,000 on the button with AJ and Atmani called with 107. The flop came down J109 and Atmani checked. Bigot bet 800,000 with top pair and Atmani check-raised all-in for around 6.8 million with his middle pair and a gutshot. Bigot called to put Atmani at risk. The turn brought the 6 and the river the 2, securing the pot and the title for Bigot. Atmani was awarded $123,934 as the runner-up finisher.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
1 | Fabrice Bigot | $194,390 | 960 |
2 | Sabare Atmani | $123,934 | 800 |
3 | Alexandre Le Vaillant | $92,128 | 640 |
4 | Federico Cirillo | $69,096 | 480 |
5 | Antoine Labat | $51,548 | 400 |
6 | Manuel Coimbra | $39,483 | 320 |
7 | Hakim Chniyat | $30,709 | 240 |
8 | Timothee Scotti | $24,129 | 160 |
9 | Mohamed Mamouni | $18,645 | 80 |
Winner photo provided by WPT.