At the Palais de Congrès in the French capital, the action kicked off yesterday for EPT Paris 2026, with the classic ice-breaking events of the festival designed and produced by PokerStars: the PokerStars Open and the 10k Mystery Bounty. There were few traces of Italian players, but we are only at the beginning.
EPT Paris: 498 in the first two flights of the PokerStars Open
Ready, set, go: EPT Paris 2026 is a reality, with the 1.650€ PokerStars Open serving as the classic icebreaker. After a Day 1A with 287 entries and 43 qualifiers that saw no Italian players in the spotlight, Day 1B followed, where our players made an appearance instead.
The second flight of the day was scheduled to be “turbo,” meaning level durations were reduced from 40 to 30 minutes. 139 players joined with 21 qualifying, resulting in this top 10:
| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Geyer | United States | 976.000 |
| 2 | Paolo Gualano | Italy | 431.000 |
| 3 | Ariel Sebban | France | 286.000 |
| 4 | Laurent Polito | France | 256.000 |
| 5 | Michael Allen | United Kingdom | 250.000 |
| 6 | Nelson Renolds Michelet | France | 248.000 |
| 7 | Simon Wiciak | France | 202.000 |
| 8 | Rabah Hamiti | France | 179.000 |
| 9 | Hugues Girard | France | 159.000 |
| 10 | Samuel Bifarella | France | 143.000 |
Paolo Gualano is not the only Italian to emerge unscathed from Day 1B, as Gabriele Guerrini also features among the Day 2 qualifiers, 13° with 109.000 in chips. No luck for the other Italians, including Simone Andrian and Eros Calderone, who will surely try again in the subsequent flights.
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EPT Paris Mystery Bounty: Bradley chipleader, Ivarsson lurking
Another great classic of the early days of the EPT schedule also kicked off: the 10k Mystery Bounty. The tournament had the classic buy-in of 10.200€, with 5.000€ allocated to the mystery bounty prize pool. So far, 66 players have participated, but late registration closes at the start of Day 2, which is at noon today. There are currently 31 qualifiers, led by England’s Ian Bradley in a chip count that remains balanced, with a top 10 featuring several well-known faces. Among them is Sweden’s Alex Ivarsson, who has been at the top of MTTs both online and live for years and could make a big score on this occasion as well.
| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ian Bradley | England | 452.000 |
| 2 | Kazuhiko Yotsushika | Japan | 425.000 |
| 3 | Guillaume Nolet | Canada | 413.000 |
| 4 | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | 398.000 |
| 5 | Alexander Ivarsson | Sweden | 345.000 |
| 6 | Klemens Roiter | Austria | 317.000 |
| 7 | Boris Angelov | Bulgaria | 275.000 |
| 8 | Akin Tuna | Germany | 270.000 |
| 9 | Marcelo Bonanata Manfredini | Uruguay | 265.000 |
| 10 | Aren Bezhanyan | Armenia | 226.000 |
Among others, Mike Watson (134k) made it through, while Alexandre Reard (79k) and especially Aleksejs Ponakovs (13k) will restart as short stacks.
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Cover image: EPT Paris (Danny Maxwell & RHL)
