Partouche Poker Tour Cannes Main Event, Day 4: Alain Roy Wins Main Event

September 08 2008, John "Falstaff" Hartness

After four long days of play and 479 eliminations, Alain Roy took home the top prize of $1,426,645 in the Partouche Poker Tour Cannes Main Event. Roy defeated runner-up Claudio Rinaldi in an extremely short heads-up match. At the final table, Roy had been second in chips to Stephane Bazin, who had dragged a huge pot near the end of the previous day to send Gus Hansen packing on the final-table bubble. Going into the final table, the chip stacks looked like this:

Stephane Bazin: 2,387,000
Alain Roy: 2,225,000
Philippe Narboni: 1,456,000
Brice Cournut: 1,102,000
Jean Philippe Rohr: 750,000
Claudio Rinaldi: 749,000
Antonin Tesseire: 541,000
Michel Abecassis: 375,000

It didn't take long for short stack Michel Abecassis to become active, shoving all in preflop on just the third hand of the day. He picked up the blinds and antes on that hand, but moved all in again soon after that with , following a raise from Claudio Rinaldi. Rinaldi called with no hesitation, tabling . The board ran out , and Abecassis became the first casualty of the final table, picking up $112,278 for eighth place.

Brice Cournut bled chips for a little while at the start of the day, but picked a spot and stuck the remnants of his stack into the middle with . Chip leader Stephane Bazin called with 10-9, and made a straight on the board of to send Cournut home in seventh place ($143,378).

It took just minutes more for Jean Philippe Rohr to fall in sixthth place ($175,477). Claudio Rinaldi had raised preflop and everyone folded around to Rohr, who moved all in with . Rinaldi called with , and picked up top pair on the flop. The fell on the turn and sent Rohr to the rail as he was drawing dead to the river.

Next, Philippe Narboni moved all in over the top of Alain Roy's preflop raise with . Roy thought for a moment before calling with . Narboni lost his final coin flip after the board came , and was sent home in fifth place ($223,270).

Stephane Bazin came to the final table as the chip leader, but went home in fourth place after losing another coin flip to Alain Roy. Bazin moved all in from under the gun with , with action folding around to Roy, who peeked at and called. The flop of left Bazin in the lead, and his chances at a double up looked good after the turn. But the on the river was one of six outs for Roy, and Bazin was sent home with $321,709 for his four days' work.

Antonin Tesseire dodged bullets for much of the late stages of the tournament, but his luck finally ran out as he was eliminated in third place by chip leader Roy. Tesseire moved all in preflop, and both opponents called. Roy and Claudio Rinaldi checked it down to the river, where Roy tabled K-J for two pair on a board of -2--5. Both opponents mucked and Tesseire collected $477,926 for his finish.

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that the chip stacks were one-sided when heads-up play began. Roy held a massive chip lead going into heads-up play, as the chip stacks looked like this:

Roy - 8,020,000
Rinaldi - 1,640,000

It took only three hands for the last of Rinaldi's chips to end up in the middle, as he open-shoved with . Roy called instantly with , and Rinaldi was drawing thin. The flop brought no help as it came down , and the on the turn brought Roy one step closer to the championship. The on the river sealed the deal, and Rinaldi collected $729,158 for second place.

Alain Roy bested a field of 438 players, including some of the best poker players in the world, to claim the first Partouche Poker Tour Main Event championship. Along with the trophy, he collected $1,462,645 for his four days work at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France.

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