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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April 12 2012, Donnie Peters

The 2012 World Poker Tour Vienna continued on Wednesday with Day 1b. After Day 1a, David Breitfuss led the way with 185,500 in chips, but that number fell to fourth place overall after Darko Stojanovic (320,000), Carsten Jeppe (206,400) and Jan-Peter Jachtmann (190,600) all bagged up more chips on Day 1b.

The amount of chips Stojanovic bagged up was nothing to sneeze at. He has well over 100,000 in chips more than Jeppe in second place and will carry his big lead into Day 2. On one of the last hands of the day, Stojanovic sent former WPT champion McLean Karr to the rail.

According to the WPT Live Updates Team, the blinds were in Level 9 at 400/800/100. Second-hand information from Andy Black was that Karr had flopped a wheel with versus Stojanovic’s on an board. Karr was firing the entire way, said Black, but Stojanovic didn’t budge. After another club fell on the river, Stojanovic had made a higher flush and Karr’s shove was quickly called. Stojanovic tabled the winner and sent Karr out the door.

Karr wasn’t the only former WPT champion to head out the door on Day 1b. Scott Seiver, Mike Watson, Guillaume Darcourt and Sean Jazayeri also joined him. If a couple of those names seem repetitive, it’s because they are. WPT Vienna had a re-entry format and many players that busted on Day 1a were back for action on Day 1b.

Others who were eliminated on Day 1b included Govert Metaal, Arnaud Mattern, Ana Marquez, Tristan Wade and Sorel Mizzi.

Of those moving on to Day 2, Sam El Sayed bagged up 182,700 in chips and Yevgeniy Timoshenko ended his day on 69,400. David Peters, Michael Tureniec, Steve O’Dwyer and Andre Akkari all moved forward as well.

WPT Vienna Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Another 233 players were added to the field on Day 1b to bring to total field size to 396 entrants. Of those, 182 will be returning for Day 2, which kicks off at 1300 CEST (0400 PST) on Thursday. Be sure to check back to PokerNews for the recap.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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