This is it. We have reached the final table of the 2013 World Poker Tour (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris Main Event at the famed Aviation Club de France. Just six players remain of the original 187 and leading the way is the same player who topped the chip counts going into Day 4, Vasili Firsau.
Firsau already had a hearty lead to start Tuesday’s play having created a 200,000 chip gap between himself and Peter Astopolou, but there are chip leads and then there are chip leads. Going into final table play, Firsau has 2,893,000 chips. The next closest player has 880,000. That’s a 2,000,000 chip difference between the top two spots. Firsau’s lead is one of the most dominant we have seen in a major even in quite some time; he has more chips than the other five players combined.
Firsau gathered chips in small bunches towards the end of Tuesday night as he eliminated several short stacks, but one of his biggest heists came right near the final table bubble. Opening the betting with a 26,000 pre-flop raise, Firsau watched Mohsin Charania call and Victor Choupeaux re-raise to 71,000. Firsau decided to four-bet up to 155,000, Charania got out of the way, but Choupeaux made the call, likely very confident as he turned over pocket Kings. Firsau, though, had him dead to rights with pocket Aces. An Ace landed on the flop and the rest was academic. Choupeaux was out in ninth place and Firsau added over 600,000 chips to his stack.
Aside from Firsau and his overwhelming lead, the other big story of the final table is the presence of Christina Lindley, currently sitting in second place. The young Californian is looking to become the first female to win a World Poker Tour Main Event. She has a fairly lengthy list of cashes in her live tournament career, but no wins of real note. Her most lucrative cash was for $32,871 for a 360th place finish in last year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. She also made a deep run at the 2011 WPT Legends of Poker, finishing in 15th place.
It is going to be a steep uphill battle for anyone not named Vasili Firsau on Wednesday, but this is poker, so anything can happen. If Lindley (880,000 chips), Elliot Smith (782,000), or Charania (644,000) can double-up through Firsau early, they will be right back in the match. Even with such a large deficit to make up, those three still have a little room to make some plays, as the big blind is only at 16,000. It’s not a lot of room, but perhaps just enough to wiggle.
2013 World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris Main Event – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Vasili Firsau – 2,893,000
2. Christina Lindley – 880,000
3. Elliot Smith – 782,000
4. Mohsin Charania – 644,000
5. Peter Astopolou – 269,000
6. Kimmo Kurko – 116,000
