Antonio Esfandiari is certainly enjoying himself at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) this year. Less than three months after his $18 million win in $1 million buy-in The Big One for One Drop at the WSOP in Las Vegas this summer, Esfandiari has taken the title in the €1,000 + €100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-entry event at the 2012 WSOP Europe (WSOPE). For outlasting 625 competitors in the four day tournament (two of the days were Day 1’s), Esfandiari won €126,207 ($164,656).
This is the third WSOP bracelet of Esfandiari’s career. His first came way back in 2004, when he won $184,860 for a victory in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. After eight years, he finally got that second bracelet in the Big One this past July. He is now the third player in history to win both a WSOP and a WSOPE bracelet in the same year. Only J.P. Kelly (2008) and Jesper Houggard (2009) accomplished the feat previously.
With the win, Esfandiari rocketed up into the top spot in the World Series of Poker Player of the Year (POY) standings. With 683.10 points, he now ranks ahead of Phil Ivey (568.70) and John Monnette (541.25). Not to be forgotten, though, is Greg Merson, a member of the 2012 WSOP October Nine. Should Esfandiari not earn any more points at the WSOPE, Merson can still pass him if he finishes in fourth place or better at the WSOP Main Event final table. Merson currently has 481.13 POY points; the 220 awarded for fourth place would put him over the top. Merson will begin final table play with the third largest stack.
Day 3 began with 15 players and went it got down the final table, Esfandiari was the chip leader by a substantial margin. With 393,000 chips, he was 150,000 ahead of the next closest player, Antonin Teisseire, who had 243,000. He was up and down after that, taking some chances with his big stack, but he never lost such a big chunk that he found himself in any sort of real trouble. By the time heads-up play rolled around, Esfandiari had a 1.075 million to 810,000 chip lead over Remi Bollengier.
Things were slow for a while as the players seemed to be feeling each other out, but as always happens, big moves were eventually made. Esfandiari extended his lead by 400,000 by making a big call on the river holding just middle pair. Bollengier must have been on bluff, as he mucked before even seeing Esfandiari’s hand. Bollengier got it back a few minutes later as it looked like he was going to be eliminated when Esfandiari sucked out after the players were all-in pre-flop, but Bollengier re-sucked on the river to stay alive and get both stacks to about what they were when heads-up play started.
Finally, though Esfandiari got his bracelet. He raised to 33,000 pre-flop and Bollengier called. After the flop of T♣-8♠-A♠, Bollengier checked, Esfandiari bet 36,000, Bollengier check-raised to 91,000, and Esfandiari made the call. Esfandiari bet 126,000 on the Q♦ turn, a bet which Bollengier called. The action was the same when the 5♦ landed on the river, but this time Esfandiari had gone all-in. By calling, Bollengier put himself all-in. Esfandiari showed Q♣-8♦ for two pair, dominating Bollengier’s Q♠-7♠. The tournament was over and Antonio Esfandiari had his third WSOP bracelet.
2012 WSOP Europe Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-entry Final Table Results
1. Antonio Esfandiari – €126,207
2. Remi Bollengier – €78,059
3. Salvatore Bonavena – €57,079
4. Antonin Teisserie – €42,356
5. Valentin Detoc – €31,869
6. McLean Karr – €24,309
7. Ashly Butler – €18,798
8. Jamel Haddad – €14,736
9. Florian Ciuro – €11,707
