September 28 2012, Chad Holloway, Josh Cahlik

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:

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 against Jacobson’s . 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 and was out in front of Rettenmaier’s . The board fell , allowing Aguiar to scoop up the chips and take the third largest stack into the final four.

Jonathan Aguiar

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:

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 flop saw Pacaud check, Benyamine move all in for 6,500 and Pacaud call immediately.

The turn and 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.

Andy Frankenberger

Late in the evening, with a board reading , 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.

The two-time bracelet winner held a wheel and had Joentausta in dire straits, but that all changed when the 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.

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!

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November 03 2011, Donnie Peters

Action moved forward at the 2011 World Poker Tour Amneville with Day 1b on Wednesday. With the 203 players who came out to the felt, a total of 379 came to play throughout both Day 1 starts. They generated a prize pool of “1,164,288 and first place is worth “310,633 plus a $25,500 WPT Championship seat. At the end of the day, about half of the field was left, as 105 players remained. Leading the way was Jean-Francois Rigollet, who bagged up 164,700 in chips.

Like Day 1a’s chip leader Nicolas Babel, Rigollet hails from Paris. He only has four career cashes and $46,576 in career tournaments earnings. The largest cash of Rigollet’s career was in March of 2011 when he placed second in a $1,000 Wynn Classic event for $27,315.

Plenty of notables were in action on Day 1b and, of course, a handful of them were eliminated. Some who to hit the rail throughout the day were Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Brandon Cantu, John Eames, Kevin MacPhee and Ludovic Lacay.

According to the WPT Live Update Team, Grospellier was eliminated during Level 5 with the blinds at 150/300/25. Bastien Faessen raised from the small blind after action folded to him and Grospellier reraised all-in from the big blind. Faessen made the call holding . Grospellier held . The flip went Faessen’s way as the board ran out in his favor to send Grospellier out the door.

Also eliminated on the day was defending WPT Amneville champion Sam El Sayed, opening the door for a new champion to be crowned this year. Last year, El Sayed bested the 542-player field to earn “426,425.

Rounding out the top five behind Rigollet from Day 1b are Thibaut Durand (147,300), Jamie Rosen (145,300), Erik Von Buxhoeveden (142,700) and Edouard Sadoun (125,500).

Notables Joseph Cheong, Arnaud Mattern, Marvin Rettenmaier, Paul Berende and Ilan Rouah all bagged up plenty of chips and will take their big stacks into Day 2. Cheong, Mattern and Rettenmaier all bagged up over 100,000 in chips. Joining them will be Ozzy Sheikh, Ilan Boujenah, Bruno Fitoussi, Liv Boeree and Roger Hairabedian.

With 218 players remaining in all, Day 2 will take place on Thursday where both Day 1 flights will combine to make a 218-player field. Action kicks off at 1200 CET (0300 PDT). Rigollet leads all players and Day 1a’s Babel comes sits in second place with 163,600 in chips. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the daily recap.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters