After seven and half hours of play, Day 2 of the €25,000 No Limit Hold’em III at PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris wrapped up with Stephen Chidwick taking down the final high-stakes tournament of the series. Chidwick overcame Adrian Mateos in heads-up play after a war of attrition to collect the title, trophy and €324,500 allocated for first place.
Mateos entered the day as the clear chip leader and put his monster stack to work for most of the day; however, when play got to four-handed, Chidwick sprang to life and ended Mateos’ dominance.
There were 22 players to kick off today’s proceedings, with nine players opting to take advantage of the late registration period that was open until Day 2 got underway.
This brought the overall entries to 40 and they created the €940,800 prize pool where the top six finishers would make the money.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | €324,500 |
| 2 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | €211,700 |
| 3 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | €145,800 |
| 4 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | €108,200 |
| 5 | Steve O’Dwyer | Ireland | €84,700 |
| 6 | Justin Saliba | United States | €65,900 |
Day 2 Recap
As mentioned, there were a handful of players such as Jonathan Jaffe, Nick Petrangelo, Mike Watson, Bruno Volkmann and Kazuhiko Yotsushika who decided to hop into the fray at the last possible moment. However, their attendance was brief and they were quickly sent to the wrong side of the rail.
Andrew Lichtenberger, Motoyoshi Okamura, Thomas Muehloecker, Joao Vieira, Sam Greenwood, Galen Hall and Teun Mulder were all players to bag from Day 1. But like the names above, they fell short of the money on the last day of EPT Paris.
On the final table bubble, Aleksejs Ponakovs was left short by Daniel Dvoress after the latter paired up on the river to take the pot. Day 2 entrant Felipe Ketzer finished Ponakovs off moments later.
When the final table formed, the action remained fast and furious, with Juan Pardo being ejected from the final nine in twenty minutes. His pocket nines were pipped by the pair of tens held by Dvoress and he found no assistance on the runout.
Ten minutes later, Ketzer fell on the wrong side of a flip after Mateos’ ace-queen paired up on the runout to best Ketzer’s pocket eights. Ketzer’s departure marked the start of the money bubble and play was expected to slow down. This was not the case, as Sirzat Hissou followed Ketzer out the door the following hand. Hissou was all in preflop with Big Slick but could not leapfrog Dvoress’ pocket queens.
Another fresh face on Day 2 was Justin Saliba and he squeaked into the money.
After calling incorrectly for his tournament life on the river against Mateos, he was the player to take home the min-cash. It was a lovely day’s work for Saliba, who netted a €40,000 profit thanks to his four hours on the felt.
Steve O’Dwyer was next to go and Mateos was again the eliminator. His pocket sixes flopped a full house to see off the Irishman. It was O’Dwyer’s third cash at EPT Paris as he racked up a seventh-place finish in the €50,000 Super High Roller for €155,100, which was then followed by a €134,900 result a few days later in another €25,000 buy-in event.
Four-handed play lasted a while, with Jean-Noel Thorel and Chidwick, who also bought in on Day 2, finding double-ups through Mateos and Dvoress, respectively. Chidwick then won several pots from Thorel and doubled through Mateos to put him second in the chip counts.
Dvoress’ stack began to dwindle and he bowed out in third place. He lost a flip to Thorel to leave himself short-stacked and then was ousted after his jack-ten fell to Chidwick’s ace-nine.
Chidwick then matched Mateos’ stack after doubling through the Spaniard. Stacks remained as they were for quite some time as chips were traded back and forth. However, Thorel’s run halted when Chidwick rivered the nut flush against his flopped pair.
Chidwick entered heads-up with the chip lead, which then changed hands several times. Chidwick then had one hand on the victory after laying a perfectly timed trap with pocket jacks. Shortly after, Mateos was all in with pocket fives and was up against the Englishman’s nine-seven. Mateos was set for another double until Chidwick paired up on the river to seal his second victory of EPT Paris.
This concludes PokerNews’ coverage of the €25,000 No Limit Hold’em III but be sure to check out the €10,300 High Roller finale.
Editor & Live Reporter
Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.