The 2011 World Series of Poker Europe kicked off on October 7th with a €2,680 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event that saw a field of 360 players take a break from the best Euro poker sites for the chance at a bracelet. This sent the prize pool up to €753,600, leaving €215,999 for the eventual victor.
The big story going into Day 3 was the fact that Phil Hellmuth was 2nd in chips with just 12 players remaining. Already holding the record for 11 WSOP bracelets, Hellmuth was in prime position to increase that record to 12. On top of that, a final table appearance would allow him to overtake Ben Lamb in the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year rankings.
However, Hellmuth spent the majority of the day stuck in reverse as his stack dwindled leading up to the final table. He ended up the bubble boy and busted in 7th place. Perhaps he drowned his sorrows in some real money slots after collecting his pay cheque.
Marton Czuczor started the final table as the short stack with 24 big blinds, and the chip leader was Matan Krakow with 66 big blinds. Czuczor didn’t stick around too long as he got in the last of his chips with QT against Azusa Maeda’s AK and failed to connect, busting in 6th place.
Maeda was responsible for the next knockout as Adrien Allain chose a bad time to get aggressive with KT when Maeda held QQ. Allain didn’t hit his three outer and busted in 5th. It was from here that everything went downhill for Krakow. He lost a substantial pot to Maeda, then doubled up both Guillaume Humbert and Roy Finlay.
Not long after these hands Krakow made his stand with JT, jamming over Humbert’s button raise. Humbert made the easy call with AQ suited and managed to hold up for the big pot, knocking Krakow out in 4th place.
As three handed play wore on, Finlay found his stack heading south. He shipped his short stack from the button with KT and was called by Maeda’s A7 suited. An A84 rainbow all but sealed it with Finlay finishing in 3rd.
Maeda began heads-up play with a 1.6-1 chip lead over Humbert. The chip deficit didn’t discourage Humbert, however, and he came out of the gates ready to grind it out. Within the hour, Maeda found himself with a very short stack and made his move on a 967 flop bluffing with 34. Humbert had 58 for the goods, however, and Maeda lost to his flopped straight.
Congratulations to Humbert for winning the bracelet and €215,999. To make his win even more impressive, this was apparently his first major live tournament!
If you are interested in becoming a great poker player, try PokerStars. De PokerStars download installeert snel en gemakkelijk en geeft een nieuwe gebruiker een $600 aanmelding bonus!
