Kanit Leads Final 18 at Partouche Poker Tour

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 17 September 2011 / Leave a Comment

Play is about to get underway for today's Day 5 at the Partouche Poker Tour's Main Event. Of the 579 players who started back on Tuesday in the €8,500 buy-in tournament, just 18 survived to make this fifth day of play, with the Italian Mustapha Kanit returning to the biggest stack among them with 2.357 million chips.

The big hand for Kanit came late in Day 4 when he managed to flop a set of kings against Guiseppe Pantaleo's set of eights, eliminating Pantaleo in 27th (€24,000) and pushing his stack to the top of the leaderboard.

Also near the top to begin play on Day 5 are Alexandre Coussy (2.136 million) and Roger Hairabedian (1.826 million), with Mads Wissing, WPT Legends of Poker champ Will "the Thrill" Failla, Alexander Dovzhenko, Sam Trickett, and Ludovic Lacay also among those still vying to make the final table which will be played in November and where a cool €1,000,000 awaits the winner.

Among the early eliminations on Friday were Tristan Clemencon (40th) and Massimiliano Martinez (39th), each of whom earned €17,000, and the Spaniard Juan Maceiras who earned €20,000 for finishing 36th. Maceiras had begun Friday as the chip leader with 47 left, but suffered a rough start to Day 4 to make an early exit.

Others cashing out on Day 4 included Claire Renaut (35th, €20,000), Guiseppe Pantaleo (27th, €24,000), Anton Ionel (26th, €24,000), Joe Cassidy (21st, €24,000), and Eric Qu (20th, €24,000).

Here are the counts for the final 18 heading into Day 5:

1. Mustapha Kanit -- 2,357,000
2. Alexandre Coussy -- 2,136,000
3. Roger Hairabedian -- 1,826,000
4. Oleksii Kovalchek -- 1,608,000
5. Ilan Boujenah -- 1,542,000
6. Mads Wissing -- 1,400,000
7. Matthew Tyler -- 1,073,000
8. Kamel Chhiti -- 806,000
9. Will Failla -- 775,000
10. Salman Behbehani -- 624,000
11. Emile Petit -- 552,000
12. Alexander Dovzhenko -- 536,000
13. Sam Trickett -- 512,000
14. Benjamin Chevalier -- 386,000
15. Juha Helppi -- 366,000
16. Ludovic Lacay -- 365,000
17. Mesbah Guerfi -- 341,000
18. Ben Vinson -- 232,000

Friday also saw the €5,000 buy-in Heads-Up tournament in action, with 32 players hoping to make the final four and the cash.

Phil Hellmuth was a first-round casualty, losing two out of three matches versus Sorel Mizzi. J.P. Kelly likewise took out Olivier Busquet 2-to-1 in the first round, and Davidi Kitai defeated recent WPT Grand Prix de Paris champion Matthew Waxman 2-0.

Others advancing to the round of 16 included November Niner Matt Giannetti, Daniel Cates, Jake Cody, Andrew Feldman, Matt Perrins, and James Bord.

The final eight were then comprised of Mizzi vs. Alexander Roumeliotis, Cates vs. Anders Rasmussen, Kitai vs. Basil Yaiche, and Cody vs. his friend Perrins. It looks as though Roumeliotis and Rasmussen both made it through to the semis and the money yesterday, with the other quarterfinal matches and the rest of the HU event to be played out today.

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