Roles have reversed for TV producer Matthew Salsberg, whose past credits include the Showtime series Weeds and HBO’s Entourage, who took a star turn by winning the prestigious WPT Grand Prix de Paris. The victory earned Salsberg a €400,000 ($525,920) first prize, including his seat into the $25,000 WPT World Championship at Bellagio, and the honor of having his name added to the accomplished roster of players celebrated on the WPT Champions Cup.
It was a rollercoaster day for Salsberg who started the day as the chip leader, but who had to fight for every last chip in play against a talented final table that included eventual runner-up and previous WPT Grand Prix de Paris champion, Theo Jorgensen, who was looking to become the first player ever to win two WPT tournaments at the same venue. Fabian Quoss was the first player eliminated from today’s play, but he rebounded quickly by late-registering into the €15,000 High Roller tournament, which he then went on to win.
With deep stacks around the table, it took more than seven hours for the tournament to reach heads-up play between Salsberg and Jorgensen. The Dane held a slight chip advantage at the start of heads up, which he quickly extended to a 4-1 advantage after just a few hands. Salsberg wouldn’t go quietly, however, as the Hollywood producer reclaimed the lead after two painful suck-outs where his A-4 bettered Jorgensen’s A-5, and his Ad-10c made an Ace-high flush against Jorgensen’s Ah-Qs.
As one of the longest running and most popular events on the World Poker Tour, the WPT Grand Prix de Paris never fails to draw a diverse field of both professional and amateur players to the beautiful Aviation Club de France on the Champs-Élysées. This year’s €7,500 tournament, with re-entry, was presented by WPTPoker.fr and generated a prize pool worth more than€1.6 million with a total of 228 entries, including WPT Champions Club members David Benyamine, Guillaume Darcourt, Scott Seiver, Juha Helppi, Roberto Romanello, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Will Failla, and Michael Mizrachi. Other recognizable faces in the field included WPT Season X Player of the Year Joe Serock, Faraz Jaka, Erik Cajelais, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, Tobias Reinkenmeier, Jonathan Duhamel, Eugene Katchalov, and Jason Mercier.
Final Table Pay-Outs
1. Matthew Salsberg – €400,000, including entry into the $25,000 WPT World Championship
2. Theo Jorgensen – €264,600
3. Philipp Gruissem – €170,065
4. Timothy Adams – €125,775
5. Mohsin Charania – €94,615
6. Fabian Quoss – €75,765
Salsberg isn’t taking a break between World Poker Tour appearances as he immediately winged his way toward Atlantic City to play in Day 1B of WPT Borgata Poker Open, which kicks off today. This tournament will feature as tough a field as Salsberg saw in Paris, with the prizepool expected to reach into multiple millions. Last year’s event saw a prizepool of $4,220,161 and eventual champion Bobby Oboodi walked away with $922,441.
Can Salsberg take down back to back WPT events in the span of a week? Tune into WPT Live Updates to see if the TV producer can accomplish the unthinkable and for all of the action from the Borgata.