Although it might have been lost amid the clamor over Phil Hellmuth extending his record with his thirteenth bracelet win in the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe Championship Event, Canada’s Mike “SirWatts” Watson had a nice evening in Cannes himself last night in winning the €50,000 Majestic High Roller.
51 players gathered earlier this week to take on the challenge of the High Roller and, with an additional nine rebuys, created a prize pool of €2.88 million for the event. The nine men who came back on Thursday for the final day of play in the event had the task of determining which one of them wouldn’t get any reward for playing in the tournament as it only paid the top eight players. John Juanda would lead those players, including Philipp Gruissem, Tobias Reinkemeier and Watson back to the felt yesterday afternoon to decide the champion.
Befitting a table where there was some significant cash being played for, the early action was a bit tenuous as the players looked to eliminate the “bubble boy.” Watson would get perilously close to the felt over the first hour of play, getting down to 135K in chips, but he would find a double up through Juanda (his pocket sevens holding over Juanda’s A-8) to get back to a reasonable state of health. It would take over two hours of play before the first elimination was made, which would also bring the players into the money.
Gruissem would open up the betting to 500K in the hijack and only Winfried Yu, calling all in, would come along to see the flop. Yu’s pocket eights were ahead of the A♠ 10♠ of Gruissem, but the flop would bring some openings. On the K♠ Q♥ 2♠ flop, Gruissem took a statistical edge in the hand but would lose that once the 6♦ came on the turn. Needing to dodge a spade, ten or Ace, Yu instead saw the 10♣ hit the river to give the hand to Gruissem and eliminate Yu in ninth place (€0).
Gruissem would continue to rise up the leaderboard, looking as if he would be a contender for the title. He would take chips out of both Juanda and Reinkemeier’s stacks to push him over a million in chips while Richard Yong bounced David Benefield from the tournament in eighth place. Following that elimination, Juanda still held the lead but Gruissem was on the charge in second place.
Juanda continued to apply the pressure to his opponents, knocking off Steve O’Dwyer in seventh place to push his stack just short of the three million mark. At this point, Watson began to surge up the leaderboard, doubling through Gruissem and liberally using the “all in” move to grow his stack. Once he doubled up again through Gruissem, Watson was sitting in the second place spot behind Juanda as play rolled into the night.
Although Gruissem looked to be back on track with his elimination of Jani Sointula in sixth place, Watson was the most active player on the felt. He would take over the lead from Juanda when the latter couldn’t call a turn bet on a K♥ 9♠ 7♦ 10♠ arrangement. Gruissem continued to work the table also, taking down fellow countryman Reinkemeier in fifth place, before a hand that could arguably be stated decided the tournament played out.
After a raise to 125K from Gruissem on the button, Watson pushed out a three bet of 335K out of the small blind. Gruissem, after some thought, made his stand and moved all in for his 1.7 million in chips. Watson had no hesitation in making the call, tabling his A♥ J♥ against Gruissem’s pocket deuces, and the race was on. The 9♦ 8♥ 5♥ flop brought flush outs to Watson, but the A♦ on the turn pushed him into the actual rather that statistical edge. Looking for one of his two outs, Gruissem instead saw a 6♣ on the river to leave the tournament in fourth place.
The final three would take a dinner break and, following that, the action ramped up even more. Yong had been biding his time during the pre-dinner action but, in the first hand after dinner, found himself all in pre-flop against Watson. Watson was pushing with an A-5 against Yong’s pocket treys and the board cooperated with him; coming down King high, it pushed Yong’s stack over 3.4 million and left Watson with only 2.5 million to continue the fight.
Yong caught fire at this stage of the match, taking the battle to Juanda and Watson to eventually grow his stack to 4.4 million chips, but Watson eventually would fight back to take over the lead, sucking out with an A-J over Yong’s A-K to complete the feat. Juanda would further put the brakes on Yong’s run, first doubling through him then eliminating Yong in third place to move the battle to heads up play.
Juanda held a slight lead over Watson as that heads up fight began, but it would only take about twenty minutes for that to change. In a key hand, Watson raised pre-flop with his A-J only to see Juanda three-bet the action with his A-K. After some thought, Watson four bet all in and was quickly called by Juanda, who was holding a strong lead. The 9-5-4 flop kept Juanda in front, but the Jack on the turn switched the tables and gave Watson the edge. After an innocent six on the river, Watson had doubled up to take a commanding 7:1 lead in the match.
On the final hand, Watson bet out enough to put Juanda all in if he called and, after Juanda did so, tabled a K-J over Juanda’s K-10. A Jack on the flop furthered Watson’s lead, but a nine on the turn gave Juanda a gut shot draw to the straight. That didn’t come home, however, once an eight fell on the river, knocking Juanda out in second and allowing Watson to seize the “High Roller” championship.
1. Mike Watson, €1,000,000
2. John Juanda, €600,000
3. Richard Yong, €400,000
4. Philipp Gruissem, €275,000
5. Tobias Reinkemeier, €200,000
6. Jani Sointula, €160,000
7. Steve O’Dwyer, €130,000
8. David Benefield, €115,000
Although he took down a seven figure payday for his efforts in the “High Roller,” Watson unfortunately doesn’t get a bracelet for winning this tournament (it was deemed an “unofficial” event by WSOP brass). Still, the achievement of a difficult final table will sit well with “SirWatts” as will the bankroll boost from the tournament.
