The Grand Prix de Paris took place between July 25 and July 29 2005. The fixed Buy-in was at the rate of 12,250 Euros and 160 participants entered the tournament. The prize pool totaled to 1,520,000 Euros with the winner of the first prize bagging home a grand sum of 599,600 Euros.

While poker players have been accustomed to playing at great poker ballrooms, the Grand Prix de Paris took place in an unusual venue: The club which is meant for the people related to aviation, The Aviation Club.

With 160 players in the starting field, the prize pool climbed to $2 million. Towards the end, only six players remained with the chips stacked up as listed below:

Seat1 was occupied by Curt Kohlberg. He had 126,000 chips stacked. Alan Goerhing had 327,000. The Seat no. 3 was held by Tim Dr. Hope Anders with 116,000 chips. With 728,000 Roland De Wolfe was on seat four. Juha Helppi was on seat five with 352,000 figure and Seat 6 was held by Michel Zajdenberg with 758,000 chips.

In the beginning stages of the game, it seemed like De Wolfe was on a strike such that it seemed almost impossible for Helppi to defeat him. However, during the course of the game, he fumbled and gave in to Alan Goehring.

Soon after, lady lucked walked out of Goehring as well and De Wolfe found himself in good standing once again. Goehring walked out of the game in sixth place, bagging for himself $93,688.

De Wolfe emerged top, winning for himself $599,600. Helppi came in second with a handsome amount of $318,538. Zajdenberg came in third with $224,850, Anders in fourth place with $$149,920 and Kohlberg in fifth place with a sum of $112,425.

Poker writer turned successful poker player De Wolfe rose to fame after winning the first prize in the Gunshot Poker Festival and also went to make his mark in the $1,000 No Limit event of the 2005 World Series of Poker. What is noteworthy is that De Wolfe defeated Helppi who was the World Poker Tour Season 1 Aruba Champion.

De Wolfe is also the first player to win both the championships of the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour. It is also worth mentioning that De Wolfe had won a tournament where the other two players in the final three were poker professionals Sir Clive Sinclair and Al Alvarez.

- Thomas Hardy