The 2026 WSOP Circuit Paris wrapped up on Sept. 14 at Partouche Pasino Club on Avenue de la Grande-Armée, steps from the Arc de Triomphe, with Pierre Chevalier winning the €1,500 Main Event for €260,000 and announcing he planned to retire from poker immediately after.
Thirteen rings were awarded across two weeks of competition at the new venue, which opened in May 2026 and hosted its first major poker series to a record-breaking response. The Main Event drew 1,282 entries, the largest field ever recorded for a WSOP Circuit Main Event in Europe, generating a €1,661,472 prize pool. Every ring winner also received a $5,000 package to WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas.
The Venue: A New Home for Paris Poker
The Partouche Pasino Club is a new five-floor gaming complex near the Arc de Triomphe, nearly 5,000 square meters across four levels with dining zones and a dedicated poker room. It opened in May 2026 and the WSOP Circuit Paris was its most significant test to date. The tour last visited Paris in 2024, running a €1,200 Main Event at Stade Jean-Bouin that drew 1,056 entries. The move to Partouche Pasino Club and the jump to a €1,500 buy-in produced a 21% increase in the Main Event field and a 56% increase in prize pool. The venue passed the test without difficulty. Texapoker and PMU Play co-organized alongside Partouche.
Pierre Chevalier Bests Star-Studded Final Table
Pierre Chevalier entered the final table not as the obvious favorite but as a player who had spent three days alternating between aggressive accumulation and careful patience.
“When I had chips, I was extremely aggressive,” Chevalier shared with PokerNews after his victory. “When I didn’t have chips, I was quite patient. I think I managed to alternate between the two really well.”
He arrived at the final day as one of 11 returning players, and the table he sat down at carried genuine weight: Davidi Kitai, the Belgian three-time bracelet winner who has claimed poker’s unofficial Triple Crown; Luca Bernardi, who had won the Unibet Open Paris at this same venue in May; and Natasha Mercier, one of the most experienced players in French-speaking poker.
Maxime Doki-Thonon ran ace-queen into ace-jack and was eliminated 11th before the final table was reached. Ankit Ahuja bubbled the final nine in 10th. At the final table proper, Gouzil opened with one of the day’s early pivotal hands, cracking aces with jacks to double his stack and take a chip lead that he would carry deep into the session. Mercier, however, picked the wrong moment to apply pressure. Her river bet into Chevalier found a full house and she was eliminated ninth for €20,500.
Alberto Ah Line went eighth when ace-queen failed to beat pocket eights. Valentin Blot fell seventh against Bernardi, who was building the chip lead that briefly made him the most dangerous player at the table. Tristan Clemencon went sixth with king-jack against ace-king. Kitai needed a flip to survive and did not get one, his queens losing to Chevalier’s ace-king when top pair flopped, sending the Belgian out in fifth for €63,000. Chevalier then eliminated Mathieu Selides in fourth for €87,000 before accounting for Bernardi in third for €123,000, denying him the back-to-back at the same venue.
Heads-up, Chevalier began slightly behind Gouzil. He closed the gap, hit a massive double-barrel flush, and took a commanding chip lead. The final hand came quickly after. A king on the river gave Chevalier two pair and the ring. Gouzil, who had played the week as well as any player in the field, collected €175,000 for second.
Chevalier’s win was the product of a lifetime that has included only 15 or 16 tournaments by his own count, cashing in almost all of them without ever reaching a title. He is a former professional handball player. He arrived on the final day, changing his train home to be there.
“I’m happy with my friends and my little family,” he said. “I think it’s time to stop, and I was looking for this win to do it.”
He entered the week with $191,942 in career earnings and a previous best cash of $40,834. The win more than doubled his lifetime total in a single afternoon.
Who Is Pierre Chevalier?
Chevalier is French, lives in France, and is not a poker professional in any conventional sense. He is a former professional handball player who plays poker once or twice a year on his own account, and his Hendon Mob profile reflects exactly that.
He had 16 recorded live cashes before this week, totaling $191,942, and ranked 803rd on the France all-time money list. His previous best cash was $40,834, earned for finishing 14th in the WSOPE 2015 Main Event in Berlin. His results since have been scattered across EPT Main Events at Monte Carlo and Malta, where he has cashed without breaking through. The €260,000 he collected at Partouche Pasino Club more than doubled every dollar he had ever made from poker tournaments in a single afternoon.
He said afterward that he had changed his train home to make the final day, that he has a young family he plans to spend more time with, and that he had been looking for a win to retire on. He got it.
“Of the 15 or 16 tournaments I’ve played in my life, I think I’ve cashed in 13 or 14 of them,” Chevalier shared with PokerNews. “But I think it’s time to stop.”
Whether he keeps that promise is between him and his family. The ring is real either way.
Main Event Final Table Results
€1,500 buy-in | 1,282 entries | €1,661,472 prize pool
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Pierre Chevalier | €260,000 |
| 2nd | Hervé Gouzil | €175,000 |
| 3rd |  Luca Bernardi | €123,000 |
| 4th | Mathieu Selides | €87,000 |
| 5th |  Davidi Kitai | €63,000 |
| 6th | Tristan Clemencon | €46,500 |
| 7th | Valentin Blot | €35,000 |
| 8th | Alberto Ah Line | €26,500 |
| 9th |  Natasha Mercier | €20,500 |
The Double: Omar Lakhdari Wins Two Rings
The story of the series before the Main Event was Omar Lakhdari, who won two rings across 14 days. He first took the €500 WSOP-C Mystery Bounty, collecting €119,340 in total prize money, then returned to win the €2,500 WSOP-C High Roller for €110,000. Two different buy-ins, two different formats, two rings. Lakhdari was the only player at the festival to claim more than one piece of hardware.
Lakhdari is Algerian by nationality, born in Algeria and based in Morocco, but his poker life is almost entirely French. He has been a fixture of the Paris circuit since at least 2009, grinding through the Barrière, Texapoker, Circus and Unibet ecosystems for nearly two decades. He now has $4,319,675 in recorded live earnings across 269 cashes, ranking first on the Algeria all-time money list and 688th globally.
His biggest single cash remains the €206,000 he collected for winning the Belgian Poker Challenge Main Event in Namur in May 2023. Before that, he won the Unibet Open Paris in November 2019 for €89,070 and the WPT DeepStacks Brussels Main Event in February 2020 for €92,000. More recently, he has won the WPT Prime Cyprus in March 2025 for $200,830, the Chamada Main Event twice in the space of seven weeks in 2025 for $140,000 and $148,000, the WSOPC Middelkerke Main Event in November 2025 for €118,000, and the BPT Deauville Main Event in April 2026 for €50,512. The Paris festival two rings are among the largest payouts of his career and the first time he has won two rings at a single series.
The Ring Events
The series opened on Sept. 1 with the €500 Mini Main Event, which drew a massive 1,118-entry field. Emmanuel Barre of France won the ring and €76,000 in what was one of the largest fields of any side event at the stop. Juliane Papazian took the €550 Senior Event for €28,000, a strong result in one of the more competitive fields for that format at a European Circuit stop.
Lakhdari’s Mystery Bounty win followed, with a total payout of €119,340 that made it one of the highest individual payouts of any non-Main Event ring event at the festival. Margaux Ponnelle won the €300 Ladies event for €7,350, Kamel Atoui took the €500 Omaha for €25,500, and David Guetta won the €750 Knockout for €20,300. The Colossus ran across seven starting flights from Sept. 3–10, one of the broadest fields in the schedule by design.
Lakhdari then returned to win the €2,500 High Roller for €110,000, adding a second ring to his collection and producing one of the more unusual double-winner results in recent Circuit history. Carledj Boudaoud won the €1,000 Deepstack, Brazil’s Felipe Gonsalves took the €3,500 Super High Roller for €58,500, and Yves Hallague closed out the live side events with a win in the €500 Bigstack. Online, Raphaël Bsiri won the PMU Play ring event on the final day of the festival.
| Event | Tournament | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €500 Mini Main Event | Emmanuel Barre | €76,000 |
| 2 | €550 Seniors (50+) | Juliane Papazian | €28,000 |
| 3 | €300 Colossus | Thibaut Picard | €53,000 |
| 4 | €500 Mystery Bounty |  Omar Lakhdari | €119,340 |
| 5 | €1,500 Main Event | Pierre Chevalier | €260,000 |
| 6 | €250 Online (PMU Play) | Raphaël Bsiri | €19,373 |
| 7 | €300 Ladies | Margaux Ponnelle | €7,350 |
| 8 | €500 Omaha | Kamel Atoui | €25,500 |
| 9 | €750 Knockout | David Guetta | €20,300 |
| 10 | €2,500 High Roller | Omar Lakhdari | €110,000 |
| 11 | €1,000 Deepstack | Carledj Boudaoud | €75,500 |
| 12 | €3,500 Super High Roller |  Felipe Gonsalves | €58,500 |
| 13 | €500 Bigstack | Yves Hallague | €34,500 |
FAQ
- Sources: PokerNews, The Hendon Mob, WSOP.com
- Images courtesy of texapoker
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
