Rumored to have won an undisclosed amount at a cash game this weekend in the French city of Cannes, Dan "jungleman" Cates celebrated his victory by surrounding himself with nude Playboy-style bunnies!
A big congratulations to Phil 'The Poker Brat' Hellmuth who outlasted a field of 420 players in the 2012 WSOPE Main Event in Cannes, France! This was the poker legend's bracelet victory number 13, and it occurred only three months after his 12th win at the WSOP (Event #18: $2,500 Seven Card Razz)!
Today the WSOP Europe Main Event final table will be played, and guess what? It will be one of the best final tables in a very long time! Phil Hellmuth has the lead with 3,434,000 chips and the chance of winning his 13th gold bracelet! Joseph Cheong (1,966,000 chips - ranked 3), the third-place finisher in the WSOP Main Event in 2010, is looking for his first gold bracelet victory! Jason Mercier (652,000 chips - ranked 7), the man who's widely considered one of the world's best tournament players, is on the hunt for a third gold bracelet. Below is a brief introduction of the 8 finalists who will be fighting for a first place prize of €1,022,376!
There are now 77 remaining players of 420 in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Michael Mizrachi held a significant lead over his next closest competitor, Day 1b chip leader Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier when Day 2 started. "The Grinder" played loose-aggressive game that took him, and his opponents, for a wild rollercoaster ride. Eventually he was eliminated in in Level 11 where he joined Vanessa Rousso, Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari and many other big names on the rail.
Last week we reported that Brandon Cantu had a massive chip lead and was about to face Phil Hellmuth heads-up in Event #5: Mixed Max - No-Limit Hold'em. Cantu won the heads-up match against Hellmuth after some struggle, then he defeated Martin Jacobson from Sweden in the "quarter-finals" and Roger Hairabedian in the "semi-finals". In the final heads-up match he was up against Jonathan Aguiar, the man who bubbled in the very same event in 2011.
On Wednesday, France finally got its first World Series of Poker Europe bracelet winner and, even better, it occured on home soil. Roger Hairabedian outlasted a field of 96 players in Event #3: €5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha in Cannes, France. Besides the title and becoming a part of history, he received a cheque of €142,590!
His name might not be a familiar to many, but he has been around the poker scene for many years and cashed in several major tournaments. His biggest cash was back in 2008 when he won Grand Prix de Paris for €419,520. In 2010 he finished 7th in the EPT Grand Final Main Event for €200k, and about a year ago he placed 5th in Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for €230k. In total, his lifetime live tournament winnings are $3.5 million.
Event #5: €10,450 Mixed Max (nine handed on Day 1; six handed on Day 2; and then heads-up for the final 16) kicked off yesterday with 96 players. After eight levels of play, 52 of them had chips left and Jennifer Tilly had the largest pile of chips in front of her. In total, she accumulated an amazing 218,500 chips during the day - about 90k more than her closest opponent, Faraz Jaka. Apart from Jaka and Tilly, big names such as Marvin Rettenmair (109k), Michael Mizrachi (89,7k) and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (82,5k) finished Day 1 with plenty of chips as well.
Day 2 of the tournament starts later today and it will defintely be a very exciting day of poker because only 16 of the remaining players will receive their share of the €921,600 prize pool. The winner will take home €258,047 while the runner-up will get €159,459. We will be back with another update tomorrow morning.
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