Aubin Cazals Survives Lengthy WSOP Event #6 for $5K Mixed-Max Title
The semifinal matches took place on Sunday, with Joseph Cheong taking care of Hugo Lemaire within a couple of hours. But thanks in part to the deep stacks players carried over from previous matches, Aubin Cazals' match with Warwick Mirzikinian would extend to nearly nine-and-a-half hours -- reportedly the longest ever heads-up match at the WSOP.
After surviving a field of 408 opponents, a variety of formats, and five long days of poker, Aubin Cazals outlasted Joseph Cheong on Monday afternoon heads-up to claim the braclet in Event #6, the $5,000 "Mixed-Max" event. The 21-year-old from Malta earns a cool $480,564 for the win.
Borrowing a format used in the WSOP Europe series and elsewhere, this first-ever "Mixed Max" event at the WSOP saw players begin by playing conventional nine-handed no-limit hold'em, then switch to six-handed on Day 2. The plan then was to play down to 32 players, then the format would change to a heads-up tourney from that point forward, with an intention to play it out on Saturday and Sunday.
As it happened, two players were eliminated as play concluded Friday, leaving but 31 to carry on to the heads-up portion. Players were seeded according to their chip stacks, with then-leader Warwick Mirzikinian getting a first-round bye, second-place Fabrizio Baldassari playing 31st-place Tom McCormick, and so forth.
Cazals entered the heads-up portion as the fifth seed, while Cheong was seventh. Cazals would defeat Eric Froehlich, Toby Lewis, Adam Geyer, and Mirzikinian to reach the finals. Meanwhile Cheong defeated Nabih Zaczac, Brock Parker, Baldassari, and Hugo Lemaire.
The semifinal matches took place on Sunday, with Cheong taking care of Lemaire within a couple of hours. But thanks in part to the deep stacks players carried over from previous matches, Cazals' match with Mirzikinian would extend to nearly nine-and-a-half hours -- reportedly the longest ever heads-up match at the WSOP.
That lengthy match necessitated the extra day of play on Monday for Cazals and Cheong to finish things out. Again, the players began with especially deep stacks, with both starting with more than 3 million chips with the blinds beginning at 4,000/8,000.
Cazals grabbed the lead early on in a hand in which he flopped a set, turned a full house, and picked up a couple of streets' worth of value. Cheong would even things up again, however, after making a full house himself. Cheong would then grab the lead briefly before losing it again prior to the two-hour break. Cazals would push out further over the next couple of hours, but Cheong would draw close to even again.
They had been playing for about five hours when suddenly, with the blinds still just 10,000/20,000, the pair began raising back and forth until Cazals was making the first five-bet of the match. Cheong would next shove all in over that for 2.936 million and Cazals -- who had just a little more -- quickly called.
Cheong had 4h-4s, well behind Cazals' Ks-Kh. The flop came Kc-7s-3s to give Cazals a set, and after the 7h fell on the turn no river card could save Cheong.
Here's a look at the payouts for those reaching the final eight:
2012 WSOP Event #6: No-Limit Hold'em Mixed-Max ($5,000):
1. Aubin Cazals -- $480,564
2. Joseph Cheong -- $296,956
3-tie. Warwick Mirzikinian -- $162,443
3-tie. Hugo Lemaire -- $162,443
5-tie. Marvin Rettenmeier -- $68,151
5-tie. Fabrizio Baldassari -- $68,151
5-tie. Randy Haddox -- $68,151
5-tie. Adam Geyer -- $68,151
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
