The best poker players in the world have convened on the grounds of the Hotel Majestic Barriere and the Le Croisette Casino Barriere in Cannes, France, for the final World Series of Poker events of 2012. Seven events are awarding bracelets (along with a special “Super High Roller” event that isn’t a bracelet tournament) between now and October 2, with the first bracelet set to be awarded this afternoon (evening Cannes time).
Event #1 – €2700 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em – Day Two
227 players showed up for this event on the opening day of the WSOP-E, working their way down to only 50 players for the action on Saturday. Matan Krakow was at the head of the pack (following his fourth place finish in last year’s version of this tournament) at the start of play and WSOP Player of the Year contender Greg Merson, Brandon Cantu and 12-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth were among those trying to chase Krakow down.
With only 24 players taking home the minimum cash for this tournament (€4887), the players were a bit measured in the early going. Merson would be an early casualty of the day’s play, however, when he pushed his K-Q against John Tabatabai’s Big Slick. A non-helpful King came on the flop, but Merson couldn’t find a Queen to go along with it and was gone within about an hour of the start of play.
Krakow maintained the lead as play entered the late afternoon hours, but he was facing some stiff challenges to his 84,000 chip stack. David ‘ODB’ Baker was nipping at his heels with 78K in chips and WSOP bracelet winner Jennifer Tilly was in the mix also with her 73K in chips. Krakow would extend his lead with the elimination of Mikko Turtiainen to become the first player over the 100K mark in chips.
Hellmuth had a roller-coaster of a day, especially when he decided to challenge British pro Roberto Romanello. On several occasions, Romanello would cut some chips from Hellmuth’s stack, prompting several verbal barrages from “The Poker Brat” as his stack slipped down to only 15K. He would make the money, however, as Krakow continued his symphony of destruction in knocking out Jeff Rossiter on the money bubble.
It would be Romanello once again who would administer the coup de grace to Hellmuth’s shot at a thirteenth bracelet. In a battle of the blinds, Romanello raised and Hellmuth (in the big blind) popped his remaining chips to the center of the table. Romanello made the call, unveiling the A♠ Q♣ to go to the races against Hellmuth’s pocket tens. The flop came J♣ 3♣ 2♦ to open up some more outs for Romanello and the end would come cruelly for Hellmuth. A 6♣ on the turn would open the backdoor for Romanello and, once the 8♣ hit the river, Hellmuth was out in 24th place and spewing more oral dissertation as he headed for the door.
Baker would also hit the rail as the hour grew late, joined by Cantu and Tilly, and once the chips were bagged for the night with eight players remaining, Yannick Bonnet had blasted into the chip lead:
1. Yannick Bonnet, 476,000
2. Senh Ung, 289,000
3. Matan Krakow, 250,000
4. Sylvain Ribes, 212,000
5. Roberto Romanello, 200,000
6. Imed Ben Mahmoud, 184,000
7. Demis Hassabis, 88,000
8. Romain Chauvassagne, 7,000
The remaining players are currently on the tables in Cannes to determine the first champion of the 2012 WSOP-E, with the winner taking the bracelet and the €147,099 first place prize.
Event #2 – €1100 No Limit Hold’em (with re-entry) – Day 1A
In what may be one of the larger events on this year’s WSOP-E schedule, the €1100 NLHE event held its first of two Day Ones on Saturday, drawing out a field of 295 players. By the time play had concluded for the night, only 45 of those players were left standing with the option (for those eliminated) to come back again today to fire a second bullet at the event.
There are a host of strong players with verifiable pedigrees who will be facing that “re-entry” decision as they were cast away from the tournament on Saturday. Vanessa Selbst, Davidi Kitai, Marvin Rettenmaier, Michael Mizrachi, Jeff Lisandro and John Juanda were just a few of the casualties as the players dropped like flies around the tables. With that said, the leaderboard was crowded as the chips were bagged for the night:
1. Ashly Butler, 48,125
2. Antonio Esfandiari, 47,275
3. Antonin Teisseire, 43,750
4. Jamel Haddad, 41,900
5. Ran Azor, 41,150
6. Duncan Mouche, 33,825
7. Guy Pariente, 31,050
8. Emil Eriksson, 29,825
9. Douglas Gray, 29,600
10. McLean Karr, 29,575
Day 1B is underway at this moment and the players have come out in droves. There are a total of 626 entries for the tournament, building a prize pool slightly over €600,000, but the eventual winner’s take (once the event closes on Tuesday) hasn’t been announced.
These are the only two events running today, with Event #3, the €5300 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, scheduled for its first day tomorrow. The Championship Event of the WSOP-E will begin next Saturday with the first of two Day Ones being contested.
