2012 World Series of Poker Europe Day 8: Jaka vs. Aguiar and Cantu vs. Hairabedian
The 2012 World Series of Poker Europe continued on Friday with Day 3 of Event #5: €10,450 Mixed Max — No-Limit Hold'em, and the second day of Event #6: €1,650 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha. Here are recaps from all of those events thanks to PokerNews' coverage sponsored by PartyPoker.
The Final Four is Set; Cantu vs. Hairabedian and Jaka vs. Aguiar
The final 16 players in Event #5: €10,450 Mixed Max — No-Limit Hold'em took their seats on Friday to engage in the final stage of the mixed max format — heads up. At the end of two rounds of play the final four emerged. Leading the way is Brandon Cantu who will be matched up with second largest stack Roger Hairabedian, the winner of Event #3: €5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha just a few days ago. In the second match, Jonathan Aguiar will face off against Faraz Jaka.
Each player moved into the heads-up portion of this tournament with the same chip stack that they earned throughout the rest of the levels. This led to many interesting draws that put small stacks up against large stacks with the hope of a major upset. Jason Mercier and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier were the two shortest stacks going into play and they were unable to run their stacks up to find a win in the round of 16.
Mercier came close to accomplishing this task with an early double up. Unfortunately for Mercier, he was forced to the rail when his pocket kings were cracked by Aguiar.
The other players who exited in the round of 16 include: Joe Keuther, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Watson, Jennifer Tilly, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and Paul Tedeschi. Each of these players received €20,443 for their efforts.
The round of eight saw the following matches:
| Match | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Hairabedian | 504,200 |
| vs. | ||
| Kristijonas Andrulis | 192,700 | |
| 2 | Martin Jacobson | 202,000 |
| vs. | ||
| Brandon Cantu | 865,500 | |
| 3 | Faraz Jaka | 324,400 |
| vs. | ||
| Konstantin Puchkov | 201,700 | |
| 4 | Marvin Rettenmaier | 354,400 |
| vs. | ||
| Jonathan Aguiar | 229,000 |
Martin Jacobson was able to give Brandon Cantu a run for his money and was actually able to overtake the chip lead. However, the two got all of the chips in the middle in a race situation where Cantu held J♦J♠ against Jacobson's A♣K♦. Jacobson failed to improve and the two were back to square one in chips. After roughly one more hour of play, Cantu finally sealed the deal and eliminated Jacobson.
Jonathan Aguiar was able to defeat PartyPoker Pro Marvin Rettenmaier in his second match of the day to secure the third spot among the final four. The match came to a head when Aguiar min-raised from the button and Rettenmaier three-bet all in. Aguiar snapped with A♥K♣ and was out in front of Rettenmaier's Q♠4♠. The board fell 5♠J♦10♠10♦3♦, allowing Aguiar to scoop up the chips and take the third largest stack into the final four.
Finally, rounding out the final four is Faraz Jaka, who was able to defeat Konstantin Puchkov. Jaka was able to double up three times against Puchkov before finally putting him to rest.
The bracket for the final four is as follows:
| Match | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Hairabedian | 702,500 |
| vs. | ||
| Brandon Cantu | 1,067,500 | |
| 2 | Faraz Jaka | 526,000 |
| vs. | ||
| Jonathan Aguiar | 586,500 |
The final four will take their seats at 1300 CET (0700 EDT) on Saturday to play to a winner. Follow the live updates on the PokerNews Live Blog.
Lichtenberger and Marquez Headline Event #6: €1,650 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table
The 2012 WSOP Europe continued on Friday with Day-2 action from Event #6: €1,650 Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha. After seven levels of play, the final table was set with five players including pros Ana Marquez and Andrew Lichtenberger.
The event began with 206 players, but was down to 26 at the start of the day, all but five of which would earn a payday. Narendra Banwari, Brandon Crawford and Dries Goyens were all among the early eliminations, as was October Niner and WSOP Player of the Year contender Greg Merson. However, no one went further and left empty handed than David Benyamine, who finished as the bubble boy.
It happened when Benyamine, who was the second-shortest stack behind Daniel Negreanu, raised under the gun to 3,500. Action folded all the way around to Antoine Pacaud, and he called from the the big blind. The A♦3♠5♠ flop saw Pacaud check, Benyamine move all in for 6,500 and Pacaud call immediately.
| [U]Showdown[/U] |
| David Benyamine: A♥Q♠J♦9♦ |
| Antoine Pacaud: 7♦6♦3♣3♥ |
The 10♠ turn and Q♣ river completed the board, and Benyamine was eliminated after starting the day second in chips.
From there the eliminations came fast. Jamie Pickering was the first to go in 21st place, and both John Eames and Negreanu followed him out the door a short time later.
Over the next few hours, Dan Smith, John Monnette, Dan Shak, Raul Paez and Mike “Timex” McDonald all hit the rail.
Late in the evening, with a board reading K♣2♦4♠5♥, Aku Joentausta fired out 22,500 only to have Andy Frankenberger move all in for 33,500 more. Joentausta didn't seem too excited, but he opted to make the call nonetheless.
| [U]Showdown[/U] |
| Joentausta: 2♥3♦4♣K♦ |
| Frankenberger: A♦A♥3♣9♥ |
The two-time bracelet winner held a wheel and had Joentausta in dire straits, but that all changed when the 6♥ spiked on the river to give Joentausta a six-high straight and the improbable win, sending Frankenberger to the rail as the final-table bubble boy. Amazingly, the players played one final hand in order to get to the end of Level 15, and Nikolay Volper ended up busting to bring the field down to the final five players.
| Seat | Player | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | empty | N/A |
| 2 | Petteri Kalenius | 62,000 |
| 3 | Ana Marquez | 176,000 |
| 4 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 256,000 |
| 5 | Aku Joentausta | 202,000 |
| 6 | Francisco Da Costa Santos | 233,000 |
Players will return to the Majestic Barrière on Saturday at 1400 CET (0800 EDT) to play down to a winner, so join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations from the last preliminary event of the 2012 WSOP Europe.
Be sure to check out our Live Reporting Section to follow our updates sponsored by PartyPoker. Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today!
PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.
