Partouche Poker Tour Main Event Final Table Set, Trickett Leads

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 18 September 2011 / Leave a Comment

The Partouche Poker Tour Main Event has played down to its version of the November Nine, having reached its nine-handed final table Saturday night. When play resumes a couple of months from now in Cannes, France, England's own Sam Trickett will be returning as the chip leader with a little over 2.6 million chips, with Alexander Coussy of France and Salman Behbehani of the U.S. not far behind.

Just 18 returned on Saturday, with Mustapha Kanit of Italy leading the way. Kanit would be responsible for the day's first elimination, knocking out Matthew Tyler in a big pot. Tyler, who began Day 5 in seventh place, got all of his stack in against Kanit following a 2s-Qd-6h flop. Tyler had As-Qc for top pair, but Kanit had 6d-6s for a set of sixes, and soon Tyler was out in 18th (€30,000).

Benjamin Vinson was next out in 17th (€30,000) after losing the last of his short-stack to Juha Helppi when his pocket eights failed to hold versus Helppi's A-J.

Soon after Helppi would be taking out another player, this time Mesbah Guerfi. After Helppi defended his blind against a Guerfi open, both checked the Jh-8h-10d flop. Helppi then led after the 4d turn, getting a call from Guerfi. The river was the Qs, and Helppi checked. Guerfi bet, then Helppi check-raised all-in, and Guerfi called with his remaining chips. Helppi showed Kc-9c for the king-high straight, good enough to send Guerfi out in 16th (€30,000).

Helppi wouldn't hang onto those chips for long, however, soon losing the bulk of his stack to Oleksii Kovalchuk in a set-over-set hand. And Kovalchuk soon grabbed the last of Helppi's chips as well when the latter's K-10 failed to catch up to the Ukrainian's A-8, eliminating Helppi in 15th (€45,000).

Kovalchuk claimed another victim shortly thereafter, Will Failla, when the WPT Legends of Poker champ's Ac-Js fell to Kovalchuk's Ah-Qd. Failla -- who joked afterwards that he had an appointment in November, anyway -- received €45,000 for his 14th-place finish.

Next Benjamin Chavalier open-shoved his short stack from the button with Jd-8d and got one caller in Trickett in the small blind who held Ad-Kd. The better hand held, and Chevalier was out in 13th (€45,000).

With 12 left, Kovalchuk led with more than 3.6 million, with Kanit and Coussy virtually even for second with about 2.2 million each. Meanwhile, the short stacks -- Kamel Chhiti and Ludovic Lacay -- were both under the half-million mark, and both would hit the rail in short order.

First Chhiti went out in 12th (€70,000) after taking A-Q up against Behbehani's 8-6, then watching the latter catch an eight to end with the better hand. Lacay would manage to double up once, but soon after that ran pocket jacks into Kanit's Q-Q to be ousted in 11th (€70,000).

By then Trickett had pushed out into the chip lead, while Emile Petit had become the short stack. Down to 10 big blinds, Petit would get the last of his chips in with Kh-Qd against Mads Wissing's As-9s, and Wissing's hand held, sending Petit out in 10th (€70,000).

With Petit's elimination, the final nine was set. Here's how the stacks looked at the end of the night:

1st: Sam Trickett -- 2,605,000

2nd: Alexandre Coussy -- 2,473,000

3rd: Salman Behbehani -- 2,446,000

4th: Mads Wissing -- 2,144,000

5th: Mustapha Kanit -- 2,047,000
6th: Roger Hairabedian -- 1,890,000

7th: Oleksii Kovalchuk -- 1,626,000

8th: Ilan Boujenah -- 1,241,000

9th: Alexander Dovzhenko -- 944,000

Those nine have an appointment to return to Cannes a little under two months from now when play will resume on November 12. Here are the prizes for which they'll be fighting:

1st: €1,000,000
2nd: €600,000
3rd: €379,760
4th: €300,000
5th: €230,000
6th: €190,000
7th: €160,000
8th: €130,000
9th: €100,000

Meanwhile, over in the €5,000 Heads-Up event, Matt Perrins knocked out his friend Jake Cody in the quarterfinals, thereby setting up a match with Basil Yaiche after the latter eliminated Davidi Kitai. Yaiche would defeat Perrins in the semis, and thus made it to the final against Anders Rasmussen who knocked out Alexander Roumeliotis in the other semifinal.

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