Mateusz Moolhuizen Wins Record-Breaking France Poker Series Paris Main Event

The field-size record for the France Poker Series has been nearly doubled thanks to a massive turnout for the FPS Paris €1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event held this week at Le Palais des Congrès. A total of 4,149 entries were made in the tournament, which was the kickoff event of the 2023 European Poker Tour Paris festival, blowing away the previous FPS main event field record of 2,138 entries set in Monte Carlo last year.

The huge turnout resulted in a prize pool of $4,292,921 which was paid out among the top 619 finishers. After six starting flights and three more days of combined-field action, it was 34-year-old Dutch poker pro Mateusz Moolhuizen who emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $508,496.

This was the second-largest score of Moolhuizen’s career, trailing only the
$597,362 he earned as the runner-up in the 2022 World Series of Poker ‘Monster Stack’ event. He now has more than $1.8 million in lifetime tournament earnings to his name.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Moolhuizen also secured 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2024, but it alone was enough to catapult him into 12th place in the POY standings presented by Global Poker.

The final day of this event began with just six contenders remaining, with Enis Rouissi in the lead and Moolhuizen virtually tied for second when cards got in the air. Moolhuizen had just six blinds when day 2 began but managed to spin his stack back up and survive to the final table.

He scored the first knockout of the day, with pocket nines holding against the pocket threes of the UK’s Scott Margereson (6th – $103,334). The 30-year-old World Poker Tour champion now has nearly $3.4 million in lifetime cashes under his belt.

Kacper Pyzara was the next to fall, with his A-10 unable to hold up against the A-7 suited of Rouissi. A seven on the turn left Pyzara in rough shape, and the river was no help. He earned $134,341 as the fifth-place finisher.

Despite starting the day atop the leaderboard, Rouissi was ultimately sent to the rail in fourth place thanks to a brutal preflop cooler. His pocket queens ran into the pocket kings of Blaz Zerjav. After an ace-high runout that improved neither player, Rouissi headed to the cage to collect his $174,647 payout. This was by far the largest score yet for the 44-year-old Frenchman.

Zerjav also ended Yassine Baqal’s run in this event, with KJ besting Q10 on an AJ2810 runout. The 36-year-old native of France was awarded $227,038 for his efforts.

Heads-up play began in a virtual dead heat, with Moolhuizen leading by less than a single big blind. Moolhuizen was able to jump out in front early, though, and extended his advantage to more than 3:1 by the time the final hand was dealt. In that clash he open-shoved from the button with A7 and Zerjav called off his last 12 or so big blinds with KQ. The board came down 105562 and Moolhuizen made a flush to lock up the pot and the title. Zerjav earned $318,092 as the runner-up. The 26-year-old Slovenian now has nearly $1.3 million in recorded scores to his name.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded on the final day:

Photo credit: Manuel Kovsca / Rational Holdings Ltd.

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