On Friday, the final table of Event #5: €2,200 No Limit Hold'em began with 7 players and Erik Seidel was the chip leader. The American poker legend was looking to win his 9th WSOP bracelet and got the best possible start as he eliminated Max Greenword and Mike Watson within the first 15 hands.
However, Seidel's winning streak slowed down after that and he was falling lower and lower in the chip counts. In fact, Roger Hairabedian of France almost had him eliminated in 3rd place...
Seidel four-bet all in with 6
6
and Hairabedian called with A
Q. The flop rolled out A
8J. The 10 on the river was to no help for Mr. Seidel, but luckily the 6 spiked the river to give him a set. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Seidel was back in the chip lead with three remaining players.
Kevin Song was not as lucky with his pocket sixes (all in pre-flop) given that he was eliminated in 3rd place by Seidel with pocket queens shortly after. Seidel brought a 2-1 chip advantage to heads-up and could smell victory. But unfortunately for Erik Seidel, the poker gods sided with Roger Hairabedian in all of the big pots, including the final one....
Seidel called a four-bet shove from Hairabedian with 88, but he needed to get lucky on the board as the Frenchman turned over KK. The flop of 659 and gave Seidel a gutshot draw as well, but the turn and river bricked J and 2 and the match was over.
This was the third time Erik Seidel finished runner-up in a bracelet in his career. Roger Hairabedian became the first player in WSOPE history to win multiple bracelets and he's the only player of the 13 French bracelet winners to have more than one bracelet! Hairabedian now has over $4.4 million in tournament earnings and is ranked third on the country's all-time money list.
Here are the final table results for the €2,000 No Limit Hold'em:
1st: Roger Hairabedian - France - €148,820
2nd: Erik Seidel - USA - €92,003
3rd: Kevin Song - United States - €67,118
4th: Matan Krakow - Israel - €49,784
5th: Erwann Pecheux - France - €37,502
6th: Mike Watson- Canada - €28,683
7th: Max Greenwood - Canada - €22,258
8th: Ariel Silveira - France - €17,521
9th: Arnaud Peyroles - France - €13,989
