Thursday afternoon in Cannes will see the last eight survivors from an original field of 420 registered for the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe main event gathering for what promises to be an epic final table.
24 players started the day, but after only eight hours the final table of eight had been decided. Among those eliminated was David Benyamine, Joe McGowan, Liv Boeree, Max Silver and Andy Frankenburger.
American ace Phil Hellmuth – hunting his record 13th WSOP bracelet – currently holds the chip lead on 3,434,000, closely pursued by Sergii Baranov from the Ukraine on 3,339,000, with the rest of the table rated as follows:
Joseph Cheong – 1,966,000
Stephane Albertini – 1,162,000
Christopher Brammer – 851,000
Stephane Girault – 664,000
Jason Mercier – 652,000
Paul Tedeschi – 543,000
The Euro 10,450 buy-in has created a prize pool sufficient to guarantee the winner well over a million Euros, with generous pay days for the other members of the final table as well.
Hellmuth seems to be on a heater at present, and has cashed thrice at Cannes this week, augmenting his six Las Vegas successful cashes earlier this year.