2012 World Series of Poker Europe

Event #5: €10,450 Mixed Max - No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 2
Event Info

2012 World Series of Poker Europe

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
ak
Prize
€258,047
Event Info
Buy-in
€10,450
Prize Pool
€921,600
Entries
96
Level Info
Level
23
Blinds
10,000 / 20,000
Ante
3,000

Event #5: €10,450 Mixed Max - No-Limit Hold'em

Day 2 Completed

Day 2 Concludes; Welcome to the Brandon Cantu Show

Level 14 : 1,200/2,400, 400 ante
Brandon Cantu - The Man To Beat
Brandon Cantu - The Man To Beat

The six-handed portion of the €10,450 Mixed Max - No-Limit Hold'em event has come to an end. A total of 52 players returned today from a starting field of 96. Now only 16 remain which means that winning four heads up matches will secure a World Series of Poker Europe bracelet. Brandon Cantu emerged as the clear chip leader by holding over 25% of the total chips in play by the end of the night.

Cantu ran incredibly hot all day and began his hot streak during a massive preflop three-way all in where two players were coolered. Cantu held pocket aces and managed to eliminate Ognjen Sekularac who held pocket kings and Andy Frankenberger who held pocket queens. Cantu continued his domination throughout the day, even after Phil Hellmuth was moved next to him. Hellmuth and Cantu went to war throughout the evening and were seemingly constantly bickering as play went on. Hellmuth vowed revenge on Cantu and he will get that chance as the two will play heads up together in Round 1. Hellmuth will have his work cut out for him as he is sporting a stack of 127,400 to Cantu's 738,100

Jennifer Tilly began play today as the chip leader and she has indeed progressed onto the heads up portion of this tournament. Tilly held her spot among the leaders in the tournament until the last few levels of play. Tilly lost several chips to recent World Series of Poker Europe bracelet winner Roger Hairabedian during the hand-for-hand portion of the evening. Despite the rocky patch at the evening's end, Tilly will be moving on to Day 3 with a stack of 163,300.

The day began with some interesting table draws that promised for heavy action early and these tables did not disappoint. Within the first twenty minutes of play both Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari were sent to the rail by the hands of Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. Mizrachi, who is the reigning champion of this event, will not be repeating his victory as he was also eliminated before play ended for the evening. Other players to leave empty handed today include: Justin Bonomo, Roberto Romanello, John Juanda, Brian Park, JC Alvarado, Chance Kornuth, and Jonathan Duhamel.

Players were finding the rail at a rapid pace up until the bubble hit. Hand-for-hand play lasted for several hours and everyone was anxiously awaiting the last person to be eliminated. Finally, Mori Eskandani fell by the hand of Marvin Rettenmaier, and each of the 16 remaining players were guaranteed a payday of at least €20,443.

After a random seeding, the heads up bracket is as follows:

MatchPlayerChips
1Paul Tedeschi278,600
 vs. 
 Roger Hairabedian225,600
   
2Kristijonas Andrulis142,000
 vs. 
 Mike Watson50,700
   
3Martin Jacobson164,900
 vs. 
 Joe Keuther37,100
   
4Brandon Cantu738,100
 vs. 
 Phil Hellmuth127,400
   
5Faraz Jaka258,100
 vs. 
 Vladimir Troyanovskiy66,300
   
6Konstantin Puchkov183,700
 vs. 
 Bertrand Grospellier18,000
   
7Jennifer Tilly163,300
 vs. 
 Marvin Rettenmaier191,100
   
8Jason Mercier16,800
 vs. 
 Jonathan Aguiar212,200

We will play two matches tomorrow which will leave us with the top four players. Be sure to tune at 2:00 PM CET for all of the heads up updates!

Tags: Brandon Cantu

Official End-of-Day Chip Counts

Player Chips Progress
Brandon Cantu us
Brandon Cantu
WSOP 2X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
738,100 59,100
Paul Tedeschi fr
Paul Tedeschi
278,600 2,700
Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
WSOP 1X Winner
258,100 6,100
Roger Hairabedian fr
Roger Hairabedian
WSOP 2X Winner
225,600 36,300
Jonathan Aguiar pt
Jonathan Aguiar
WSOP 1X Winner
212,000 -500
Marvin Rettenmaier de
Marvin Rettenmaier
191,100 1,100
Konstantin Puchkov ru
Konstantin Puchkov
WSOP 1X Winner
183,400 -32,000
Martin Jacobson se
Martin Jacobson
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
164,900 -25,100
Jennifer Tilly us
Jennifer Tilly
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
163,300 16,000
Kristijonas Andrulis lt
Kristijonas Andrulis
147,000 34,000
Phil Hellmuth us
Phil Hellmuth
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 17X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
127,400 -7,800
Vladimir Troyanovskiy ru
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
66,300 -13,600
Mike Watson ca
Mike Watson
WPT 1X Winner
EPT 2X Winner
50,100 -1,200
Joe Kuether us
Joe Kuether
37,100 -5,900
Bertrand Grospellier fr
Bertrand Grospellier
18,000 -11,600
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
WSOP 6X Winner
EPT 1X Winner
16,800 -11,600

Mori Eskandani Is The Bubble Boy

Marvin Rettenmaier raised to 5,200 from the cutoff and it folded to short-stacked Mori Eskandani's big blind. Eskandani moved all in for 18,700 and after some thinking, Rettenmaier called.

Rettenmaier: {J-Diamonds}{7-Hearts}
Eskandani: {A-Clubs}{7-Clubs}

Rettenmaier was crushed and it looked like the bubble would continue, but the board came {4-Hearts}{10-Clubs}{Q-Diamonds}{J-Spades}{5-Diamonds} and paired Rettenmaier's jack, sending Eskandani home as the last person without money.

Player Chips Progress
Mori Eskandani us
Mori Eskandani
Poker Hall of Famer
Busted

Tags: Marvin RettenmaierMori Eskandani

Jacobson Ate Spinach for Dinner

Martin Jacobson has had a great opening to this level after finding a way to deal with pesky neighbour, Kristijonas Andrulis.

They've played out two heads up pots and the Swede has won them both.

The first hand we witnessed saw Jacobson check-call a 19,300 bet on the turn before both players checked the river. The final board read {7-Hearts}{q-Hearts}{k-Spades}{a-Diamonds}{a-Hearts} and Jacobson opened {a-Clubs}{10-Spades} for trips. Andrulis mucked.

The next hand Jacobson raised to 4,800 from the button and called when Andrulis three-bet to 13,700 from the small blind. Jacobson called and called a 9,500 c-bet on a {6-Clubs}{j-Diamonds}{a-Clubs} flop. The turn was {3-Clubs} and Andrulis check-folded to a 16,000 bet from his opponent.

Player Chips Progress
Martin Jacobson se
Martin Jacobson
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
190,000 92,700
Kristijonas Andrulis lt
Kristijonas Andrulis
113,000 -83,700

Tags: Kristijonas AndrulisMartin Jacobson

Level: 14

Blinds: 1,200/2,400

Ante: 400

Official Chip Counts at the Dinner Break

Player Chips Progress
Brandon Cantu us
Brandon Cantu
WSOP 2X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
679,000 -71,000
Paul Tedeschi fr
Paul Tedeschi
275,900 175,800
Faraz Jaka us
Faraz Jaka
WSOP 1X Winner
252,000 52,900
Konstantin Puchkov ru
Konstantin Puchkov
WSOP 1X Winner
215,400 52,700
Jonathan Aguiar pt
Jonathan Aguiar
WSOP 1X Winner
212,500 18,400
Kristijonas Andrulis lt
Kristijonas Andrulis
196,700 41,700
Marvin Rettenmaier de
Marvin Rettenmaier
190,000 18,700
Roger Hairabedian fr
Roger Hairabedian
WSOP 2X Winner
189,300 -25,700
Jennifer Tilly us
Jennifer Tilly
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
147,300 -54,700
Phil Hellmuth us
Phil Hellmuth
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 17X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
135,200
Martin Jacobson se
Martin Jacobson
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
97,300 -18,900
Vladimir Troyanovskiy ru
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
79,900
Mike Watson ca
Mike Watson
WPT 1X Winner
EPT 2X Winner
51,300 -61,900
Joe Kuether us
Joe Kuether
43,000 -22,000
Bertrand Grospellier fr
Bertrand Grospellier
29,600 -8,100
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
WSOP 6X Winner
EPT 1X Winner
28,400 -8,700
Mori Eskandani us
Mori Eskandani
Poker Hall of Famer
26,700 -73,600

Dinner Break

Level 13 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

The bubble failed to burst in that level. The players are now on a 75-minute dinner break.

We'll have full chips counts when we return.

Dramatic Final Hand Before Dinner

Hand-for-hand play will resume after players return from their one-hour dinner break. However, the last couple of hands at Phil Hellmuth's table were filled with drama.

Phil Hellmuth open limped from under the gun and Vladimir Troyanovskiy moved his short stack all in. Action was on Joe Kuether who is also sporting a short stack. Kuether went into the tank for about two minutes before Troyanovskiy attempted to call the clock. Hellmuth objected and called the TD over explaining that Kuether needs more than just three minutes to make a decision for his tournament life on the bubble. The TD obliged but eventually Kuether relented and folded his hand.

The next hand was the final hand before the break and Troyanovskiy opened to 6,000. Kuether once again thought for a solid minute before folding his cards. Cantu called and Hellmuth made it 45,000 to go. Troyanovskiy called all in for 32,800 and Cantu folded.

Hellmuth tabled {A-Clubs}{K-Spades} but Troyanovskiy kept his cards face down while waiting for tournament staff to come over to the table. The other two tables had wrapped up their action at this point and were waiting to see the results of this hand before adjourning to their dinner break.

As Hellmuth showed Troyanovskiy his hand he inquired as to what Troyanovskiy was holding.

"Only one hand I can have" replied Troyanovskiy without showing his cards.

Another roughly fifteen seconds passed before Troyanovskiy triumphantly threw {A-Spades}{A-Diamonds} on the felt.

Hellmuth jumped up from the table.

"He f*ckin' slow rolled me!" Hellmuth yelled. "Only one hand you can have...you just moved in with f*cking fours! That's horrible Vladimir. You are in the wrong. You tried to call the clock on him and then you go and slow roll me."

The dealer dealt out {8-Spades}{6-Diamonds}{10-Hearts}{10-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds} and Hellmuth was forced to ship over 32,800 to Troyanovskiy.

A steamed Hellmuth will have time to cool off during dinner, after which he and the rest of the players will return to hand-for-hand play.

Player Chips Progress
Phil Hellmuth us
Phil Hellmuth
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 17X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
135,200 -44,800
Vladimir Troyanovskiy ru
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
79,900 46,900

Tags: Phil HellmuthVladimir Troyanovskiy

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Level 13 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
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