The World Poker Tour Gran Prix de Paris has entered Day 2, with 167 players surviving the two preliminary days to make a return today.

The tournament saw a remarkably large turnout for Day 1a and 1b, with a full 312 players putting down the €7,500 buy-in, making this year's Paris event one of the biggest regional WPT events to be played to date.

A large number of star players were among the starters, including both American pros and European tournament regulars.

Among the biggest names to make into Day 2 are Mike Sexton, Max Lykov, Juha Helppi, David Vamplew, Joseph Cheong, Per Linde, Tony Dunst, Martin Jacobson, Sorel Mizzi, and Freddy Deeb.

Chip leader, however, is Finland's Mikko Sundell, who reached the 200,000 chip mark yesterday in order to begin Day 2 as the chip leader with a total count of 203,800.

Second is Guillaume Darcourt with 198,500, followed by Jean Noel Thorel in third with 186,000 and Yann Dion in fourth with 185,000.

Jason Mercier was also among the survivors on Day 2, but with just 18,000 chips, the Team PokerStars pro had a mountain to climb if he was to make a result in Paris.

According to the WPT website, though, he failed to do so as he busted just minutes ago.

Mercier, however, has been extremely active in the cash games all week, and he is likely to return to these games, the star revealed in a video interview given to the PartyPoker Blog while he was still in the tournament.

As for the remaining field of players, play will now continue all day today before play is put on a halt ahead of Day 3 tomorrow.

The survivors will then once again return to the Aviation Club de Paris venue, ready to continue to battle for the WPT title, trophy and a $729,886 first prize.