If it is possible to have a heads-up battle that determines a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet winner be a bit anticlimactic, then Monday’s match between Aubin Cazals and Joseph “subiime” Cheong may have been just that. After Cazals won a record-breaking marathon contest the day before, he took “only” five hours to defeat Cheong in the finale of Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Mixed Max to win his first ever major title.
Let’s go back a day for a moment to set the stage. On Sunday, there were just four players remaining in the tournament. Cheong took on Hugo Lemaire in one semi-final while Cazals faced Warwick Mirzikinian in the other. Both pairs began play at 1:00pm. Cheong dispatched Lemaire fairly quickly, taking just two or three hours. Cazals needed longer. Much longer.
In all, Cazals and Mirzikinian played poker against each other for 9 hours and 25 minutes, simply destroying the previous record set when David “Chip” Reese defeated Andy Bloch heads-up in the $50,000 Poker Player Championship at the 2006 WSOP.
But then there was this little detail of playing the final match. Cazals was understandably exhausted and it was late. Cheong was playing in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Re-entry event. It didn’t seem plausible to play the final as scheduled. The two men discussed it and decided that Tuesday would be a good day to fight for the bracelet. Unfortunately, they were informed that according to Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) rules, the structure (and thus schedule) of the tournament cannot be changed once it is submitted to the NGC. Postponing until Tuesday was not possible. Eventually, all parties agreed to a 9:00am Monday start, though that got moved to noon after Cheong was eliminated from the other tournament.
Now, on to Monday. Most people thought the match had a chance to be another insanely long affair, as both players started with just over 3 million chips each and the blinds and antes were only at 4,000/8,000/1,000. Fortunately, while 5 hours is a long time, it didn’t come close to setting another record. As one might expect, it was a back and forth affair. Cazals started by extending a solid lead for quite a while, but as tends to happen, his opponent made a comeback. It was then Cheong himself who commanded the most chips for close to an hour. Cazals grabbed back the lead just before a break, but Cheong snatched it away just like that.
After about another hour, the stacks were just about even, and that’s the way it was when all of a sudden, the tournament came to an end. Cheong opened the hand with a raise to 50,000, two and a half times the big blind. Cazals three-bet him up to 130,000, Cheong four-bet to 350,000, and Cazals made a bold five-bet to 730,000. At that, Cheong moved all-in for 2.936 million. Cazals made the call.
As it turned out, it was an easy call for Cazals, as he had K♠-K♥ (unless he feared Aces) and the all-in move may have been a semi-bluff of sorts by Cheong, as he had only 4♥-4♣. The flop was great for Cazals: K♣-7♠-3♠. Cheong was almost dead; he needed runner-runner quads or straight cards to stay alive. The 7♥ fell on the turn, locking it up for Cazals and rendering the river 9♣ meaningless.
For the well-deserved victory, Aubin Cazals won $480,564 and, of course, his first WSOP bracelet.
2012 WSOP Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Mixed Max – Final Results
1. Aubin Cazals – $480,564
2. Joseph Cheong – $296,956
3. Warwick Mirzikinian – $162,443
4. Hugo Lemaire – $162,443
5. Marvin Rettenmaier – $68,151
6. Fabrizio Baldassari – $68,151
7. Randy Haddox – $68,151
8. Adam Geyer – $68,151
