October 01 2012, Chad Holloway, Josh Cahlik

The 2012 World Series of Poker Europe continued on Monday as another gold bracelet was awarded in the postponed Event #5: “10,450 Mixed Max – No-Limit Hold’em. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi took a big chip lead into Day 2 of the “10,450 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event. How did he do? Find out below in our recap thanks to PokerNews’ coverage sponsored by PartyPoker.

Aguiar Defeats an Cantu to Win Event #5: “10,450 Mixed Max – No-Limit Hold’em

Redemption. That was the only word on Jonathan Aguiar’s mind as he played Brandon Cantu heads up for a bracelet in Event #5: “10,450 Mixed Max – No-Limit Hold’em on Monday night. Aguiar, who stone bubbled in this exact event in 2011, was battling to redeem what he referred to as “the worst day of his career.” After a six-hour heads-up battle on Day 4, at which point play was halted for more than 24 hours so that the players could take part in the Main Event, Day 5 lasted just 45 minutes as Aguiar was able to seal the deal and defeat Cantu heads up. Aguiar earned his first WSOPE bracelet, as well as the “258,047 first place prize.

The first day of the tournament began with nine-handed play and moved to six-handed on Day 2. Once the final 16 players were reached, a random bracket was drawn and heads-up matches were played until there was a champion The final bracket of 16 did not disappoint in terms of powerful players from the poker world. Phil Hellmuth, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Joe Keuther, Mike Watson, Jason Mercier, Paul Tedeschi, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and Jennifer Tilly were all among those who made it to the heads-up portion of this tournament, only to be eliminated in the first round. The aforementioned players earned a payday of “20,443 for their performances.

The next round saw the exits of Kristijonas Andrulis, Martin Jacobson, PartyPoker Pro Marvin Rettenmaier, and Konstantin Puchkov, all of whom took home “42,094. The eliminations of these players saw the formation of the final four.

Final Four

Aguiar took care of Jaka fairly quickly and was able to rest up for the final match. The match between Cantu and Roger Hairabedian, however, was a different story. The match lasted for roughly nine hours and had plenty of controversy. Tournament Director Jack Effel was called on two occasions to assess issues brought up by Cantu. The first involved Hairabedian moving to a different side of the table which Cantu did not think should be allowed. The second was ruled in favor of Cantu, and involved Hairabedian betting after he had already checked. These issues delayed play for about an hour total, but despite all of that, Cantu was able to clinch his spot in the finals.

Brandon Cantu

Cantu held the chip lead going into heads-up play with Aguiar and came out with guns firing. All of that changed, however, during a hand where both players saw a flop. Cantu led for 75,000 and Aguiar raised to 270,000. Cantu moved out a three-bet to 540,000 and Aguiar four-bet all in.

Cantu held the nut flush but Aguiar was drawing live with his set of eights. The on the turn was of no help to Aguiar and Cantu was one card away from the championship. It was not meant to be, however, as the fell on the river and gave Aguiar a full house.

From there the two players battled for another roughly three hours and by the end of the night, Cantu was able to overtake the chip lead once again. Due to scheduling issues and the casino closing at 5:00 a.m., the match had to be rescheduled to allow both players to play in the Main Event. Both Cantu and Aguiar busted from the Main Event on Day 1 and so they were back to the felt the next day.

The stacks were fairly close to even when play began on Day 5 with Cantu holding 1.52 million to Aguiar’s 1.361 million. Aguiar drew first blood in the match by taking the chip lead on the second hand and he never looked back after that. Aguiar won several big confrontations early on and Cantu was visibly upset. Finally, Aguiar raised to 40,000 before the flop and Cantu moved all in for roughly his last 600,000. Aguiar snap called and the hands were turned over:

The players were racing with Cantu’s tournament on the line. The flop came down and Aguiar was able to pair his ace and jump into the lead. The fell on fourth street and Aguiar was one card away from the championship and his first bracelet. The dealer put down the on the river and Cantu’s tournament was officially over.

Video: http://www.pokernews.com/video/wsope-2012-event-5-winner-jonathan-aguiar-7233.htm

“10,450 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Day 2 Comes to an End with Baranov Leading Final 77

The 2012 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event continued on Monday with Day 2 action from the Majestic Barrière in Cannes, France. The remaining 230 players, from a field of 420, returned for six levels of play. By the end of the night only 80 remained with Sergii Baranov and his stack of 607,000 leading the way.

In an early hand, Baranov and Micah Smith checked the river on a board reading with about 20,000 in the pot. Baranov was first to show and flipped over , which was good enough for Smith to toss his hand to the muck. It was a simple hand for Baranov, who began Day 2 seventh in chips, and one of many that helped him steadily rise to the top of the counts.

Sergii Baranov

Speaking of starting stacks, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi began the day as the chip leader (234,850), and held a significant lead over his closest competitor, Day 1b chip leader Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. Neither player was lacking in experience or success, but their Day 2s couldn’t have been more opposite.

While Grospellier played a patient game and slowly accumulated chips throughout the day, eventually bagging up 326,700, Mizrachi went the opposite direction. Mizrachi played a loose-aggressive game and his chip stack reflected that as it went for a wild up-and-down ride as described by Daniel Negreanu on Twitter. It soon became apparent that Mizrachi was taking one step forward and two steps back, and eventually it caught up with him and he was eliminated in Level 11.

Others who joined Mizrachi on the rail throughout the day were Vanessa Rousso, Joe Hachem, Faraz Jaka, Harrison Gimbel, Steve O’Dwyer, Greg Merson, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Tristan Wade, Phil Ivey, Scotty Nguyen, Roberto Romanello, Antonio Esfandiari and McLean Karr, just to name a few.

While there were scores of eliminations, a handful of notables managed to survive the day. Former November Niner Joseph Cheong; 2009 WSOP Europe runner-up Daniel Negreanu; 12-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth; October Nine chip leader Jesse Sylvia; recent WCOOP winner Jason Mercier; and the defending champ, Elio Fox, are just a few of the pros who’ll be returning to action on Day 3.

Here’s a look at the top 10 end-of-day-2 chip counts:

2012 WSOP Europe End-of-Day-2 Top Ten Counts

Six 90-minute levels are scheduled for Day 3 on Tuesday as the remaining 80 players look to make the money at the top 48. Play is scheduled to kick off at 1200 CET (0600 EDT) , and of course PokerNews will be on hand to bring you all the action and eliminations from the 2012 WSOP Europe Main Event.

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