The Championship Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe is underway in Cannes, France, as poker players from around the world are gathered to win the next to last bracelet (save for the Las Vegas “Octo-Nine”) on the 2012 WSOP schedule.
The Hotel Majestic Barriere became the latest battleground for poker’s elite and they came out in force on the first of two Day Ones. 215 players would work their way around the tables in Cannes, guaranteeing that each of those would have at least one elite player in the fight. Such names as Vanessa Selbst, Justin Bonomo, WSOP Player of the Year contender John Monnette, defending WSOP-E Main Event champion Elio Fox, 2012 Aussie Millions champ Oliver Speidel, Isaac Haxton, Juha Helppi and Erik Cajelais were just a few of the notables who plopped their €10,450 in the pool for a shot at the gold bracelet.
Early play would see Bonomo and JC Alvarado add to their 30,000 starting chip stacks, but no one made quite as big a leap as Henry Tran. On a flop and turn of 8♥ 4♥ 3♣ 7♣, Tran, Cajelais and Brandon Barnes got their stacks to the center with both Cajelais and Barnes holding 6-5 for the nut straight and Tran looking for another club with his A♣ 8♣. The river brought a 5♣ to cruelly crush both of the straights; after the chips were counted down, Tran had both Cajelais and Barnes covered to rocket up to 92,000 in chips to hold the lead as the first break occurred.
Over the next level, other top players would stake their claim towards the WSOP-E championship. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, befitting his nickname, slowly moved his stack upwards in crippling Konstantinos Mamaliadis after Mizrachi’s measly 8-6 off suit found two pair against Mamaliadis’ pocket Queens. Fox also seemed eager to get in the action, moving up to 55K through the second level, while Phil Ivey chopped chips out of the stacks of Leo Boxell and Matt Keikoan to move his stack over the 50K mark.
As the tournament moved into the third level of the day, an interesting hand played out that was well documented over Twitter. In a blind versus blind fight, Todd Terry and Dan Shak went to battle pre-flop, Terry with pocket Kings (and the shorter stack) and Shak with pocket Jacks. All was well for Terry to the river, when a Jack came to eliminate him from the event. “Out,” Terry reported over Twitter, “KK < JJ BvB (blind versus blind), Jack on river.” For his part, Shak responded to Terry over Twitter, chirping at Terry, “Sorry, Todd, hate to win that way. Thanks for not mentioning how bad I played.”
Shak would use Terry’s chips to eclipse the 100K mark, but he couldn’t keep up with the freight train that was Mizrachi on Saturday. The two-time Poker Players Champion quietly thundered up the ladder so that, as the players went to the dinner break, he held a sizeable 140K in chips to lord over such players as Shak and Alvarado. He would face a challenge, however, following dinner as not only did he have Selbst to deal with at his table but Ivey would also join in as the night wore on.
This didn’t seem to bother Mizrachi as he continued to crush his opposition as the last level of the night played out. After knocking out Selbst only moments before the end of Day 1A, he catapulted up to 295K in chips to hold a dominant lead over the field. Although he would give some of those chips back to Tom Bedell on one of the last hands of the night, he still will be sitting in good shape when he returns on Monday for Day Two play:
1. Michael Mizrachi, 234,500
2. JC Alvarado, 180,675
3. Stephane Girault, 172,850
4. Sergii Baranov, 152,000
5. Martial Blangenwitsch, 129,800
6. Denis Biscaldi, 122,625
7. Michael Moise Kolkowicz, 122,150
8. Henry Tran, 118,750
9. Dan Smith, 110,525
10. Joao Barbosa, 101,925
Other notables who are just under the Top Ten are Shak (100,875), Philipp Gruissem (90,500), Steve O’Dwyer (89,000), Joe Kuether (88,200) and defending champion Fox (83,025), while former WSOP POYs Frank Kassela and Jeff Lisandro, Dan O’Brien, Samuel Chartier, Will “The Thrill” Failla, Oleksii Kovalchuk, Jennifer Tilly and Victor Ramdin joined Selbst on the rail and perhaps on the basketball court in Cannes.
Day 1B action is already underway at the Hotel Majestic Barriere and it is expected that the final numbers for the 2012 WSOP-E Championship Event will eclipse 500 players. While that won’t be as big as last year’s record breaking field (593), it still will provide challenges for the surviving players as they strive for the cherished Championship Event bracelet and the million-plus Euro payday that will be handed out on Thursday.