Poker: Small space, big stakes In Paris

The Grand Prix de Paris on Wednesday night was a big occasion since it was the first time an outside organization was allowed to be inside the famed Aviation Club de Paris.

By the end of the night, the match would be infamous for entirely different reasons.

Play on the World Poker Tour is oft unpredictable, but the circus act going on in the legendary hangout was bordering on insane.

Here's how we started the night (all amounts this time are in Euros):

1. David Benyamine (France) -- 366,000 2. Jan Boubli (France) -- 233,000 3. Erick Lindgren (US) -- 123,700 4. Jamie Posner (England) -- 123,600 5. George Paravoliasakis (Greece) -- 77,500 6. Lee Salem (US) -- 39,000

The Grand Prix de Paris was shaping up to be an atypical match.

To give you an idea, pro player Daniel Negreanu finished "on the bubble" -- in seventh place, one step away from the final table.

Erick Lindgren, aka "E-Dog," is part of the Rat Pack of Poker along with Negreanu, Phil Ivey and other up-and-comers, so he brought talent to the table.

David Benyamine is a well-respected pro.

Other than those two, though, the entire table received this week's "Kevin Walker Award for Person I've Never Seen Before In My Life."

And I hope I never see George Paravoliasakis again, but we'll get to that.

Normally it takes a while for the action at a WPT table to heat up, but not this time.

Only 16 minutes in, Lee Salem was gone when he sent his pair of 3's head-to-head with David's pair of queens.

To add insult to injury, the community cards went 4-Q-6-A-8, giving David a set of ladies and ending Lee's night extremely early.

Maybe he could go down to the salon and get a drink with the ton of spectators that were watching via closed-circuit TV's.

Somewhere around this point, Erick and David were playing a pot together.

A camera angle of the two of them allowed me to see a familiar-looking guy sitting against the wall in the background.

Who might it be but poker legend and my number-two favorite player, Howard "Mr. Poker Face From Hell In A Very Good Way" Lederer!

Although later clips revealed he'd been beaten by Jamie Posner earlier in the tourney, it was still good to see him.

So, props to Howard. Hopefully, the next time I see him it will actually be at the table.

By the second hour blood had finally seeped into the drinking water.

Lindgren went home when he stupidly matched his 8-6 against David's A-Q.

The community cards went J-A-8-J-7 and the American idol's night was over, a shame since he was a fun personality at the table. In a few minutes I'd be missing Erick's good-humored nature.

By the way, memo to commentators Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten: If I hear one more Bond joke just because Jamie Posner happens to be British, I'm seriously going to scream.

Said jokes ended a mere seven minutes later when Posner's K-10 was beaten by Jan Boubli's mere pair of 3's and a community deal of 4-8-7-2-J.

This left the two Frenchmen at the table with the Greek tycoon.

Now, I know the French have a reputation toward arrogance and strong nationalism, but if that's the case, then something was backward in the Aviation Club.

Benyamine had poise, class and a good sense of humor, and Jan Posner was just sitting quietly.

They were very well-behaved poker players.

Now, George was on full tilt of attitude.

There weren't more than a few minutes between his outbursts yelling things about his home island of Crete and grandstanding around.

Even Mike and Vince were beginning to look pained.

I lost my own patience when a clip of earlier tourney events had him flashing around a pair of aces like he was God.

In the background is poor Negreanu, looking like he either wants to be shot or wants somebody to shoot George, and I couldn't blame him.

That same look grew to be mirrored on David's face as he started to look like he had a headache and needed some aspirin.

Maybe he did -- sitting in that claustrophobic little room (Mike and Vince were shoved into a corner that resembled a tiny closet) with that blowhard may very well have given him a migraine.

Finally, at 7:43, to quote Bob Ley, "our long national nightmare" was over.

George's A-2 didn't stand up against David's 10-3 after the community deal was 3-Q-3-6-J, and the room got a whole hell of a lot quieter.

A gentleman of poker delivered a smackdown to a man who was definitely not a gentleman.

Even drama queen Phil Hellmuth, Jr. is more well-behaved than that man.

He even left with chips from the table still in his hand, which I'm sure the tournament director will love when she realizes they're short-stacked.

The two Frenchmen went head-to-head, trading the lead back and forth in a matter of ten minutes.

Finally, at 7:57, Jan's pair of 8's was beaten by David's A-10 when the flop went Q-2-2, the turn was a 3 -- and David caught an ace on the river.

The unpredictable little game was in fact quite predictable: the chip leader most of the game won the match, the top two in chips at the start were the last two standing, and the French were victorious in the City of Lights.

Here are our final standings (again in Euros -- I'm also not sure on the numbers thanks to WPT's quickly giving both Euro and dollar totals and the headache I was getting from all George's yelling):

6. Lee Salem -- 35,700 5. Erick Lindgren -- 53,600 4. Jamie Posner -- 104,000 3. George Paravoliasakis -- 134,000 2. Jan Boubli -- 178,000 1. David Benyamine -- 375,000

If there's anything to be learned from the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, it's that you should shut up and wait for the deal.

Thus goes another week on the World Poker Tour.

Check in next week for a classic scorcher from last year's circuit, as the WPT heads to Aruba.

The table includes one of poker's winningest women, Jennifer Harman -- and my own favorite player, the impossibly tall Phil Gordon.

With Phil at the table, it's going to be a dynamite match on the beach.

Until then, as Kevin Pollak says, it's not the size of your stack, it's how you play your chips.