Day 4 Ends: Final Table Set

Level 23: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Eighteen poker players returned to the world famous Aviation Club de France to retake their seats in the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, each with a common goal, to reach the televised final table. For 12 of them any hopes and dreams of glory and exposure to the poker world are now in tatters but six of them will sit down at 1600 local time knowing they are only five opponents away from the €518,750 first place prize and a place amongst poker's elite in the newly formed Champions Club.

Leading the way going into the final table is American Byron Kaverman who will start Day 5 armed with 2,079,000 chips. Kaverman has put in some impressive results this year and has more than $500,000 in winnings from live tournaments in 2011 alone. Can he take this event down make a great year a fantastic one.

Second in chips, with 1,962,000 of them is Hugo Lemaire who towards the latter stages of the unofficial final table seemed to be playing every single hand and taking full advantage of those simply trying to fold their way to the final six. A victory on Saturday would catapult him into 16th place in the all-time money listings for French players, putting him ahead of Nicolas Levi, Thomas Bichon and Lucien Cohen.

Third, fourth and fifth place at the start of the day go to Mikko Sundell (1,791,000), Frederic Magen (1,554,000) and Matt Waxman (1,423,000) and as you can see they are all very evenly matched when it comes to chip stacks, which makes a very interesting dynamic and should be great entertainment. At the other end of the spectrum is Martin Jacobson on 482,000, which is around 24 big blinds, but as he said to me when I congratulated him on his final table appearance, “I have been short and comeback so I'm not worried.” Jacobson has more than $2,500,000 in live tournament winnings, including €238,840 for finishing second in WPT Venice back in Season VIII.

Each of the players is now guaranteed at least €88,900 for their efforts over the past week but a massive €518,750 awaits the eventual winner of this prestigious event. Join us from on these very pages from 1600 local time for all the live updates as they happen and remember that there is also a live stream of the final table, albeit with a 30-minute delay starting at 1030ET / 0730PT on the World Poker Tour site. The players are not redrawing seats so they will be seated as follows:

Seat 1: Martin Jacobson: 482,000 chips
Seat 2: Mikko Sundell: 1,791,000
Seat 3: Matthew Waxman: 1,423,000
Seat 4: Frederic Magen: 1,554,000
Seat 5: Hugo Lemaire: 1,962,000
Seat 6: Byron Kaverman: 2,079,000