Aguiar Wins the WSOPE Event 5

After seven-years as a live tournament pro, Jonathan Aguiar has finally won a major poker tournament, after securing the top spot in Event #5 €10,450 Mixed-Max No-Limit Hold’em at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in Cannes, France.

Aguiar defeated the WSOP multiple bracelet holder, Brandon Cantu, in an epic heads-up encounter that pushed the tournament into an unscheduled fifth day of action.

The Mixed-Max event was first showcased to the world in 2011 at the inaugural WSOPE in Cannes. Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, who took home €336,008 and a shiny golden bracelet, won the event. 

The Grinder was back to defend his title this year and finished Day 1 – the nine-handed play - in fifth place with 89,700 chips. The Day 1 chip leader was none other than actress turned poker star, Jennifer Tilly, who finished the day with twice as many chips as Cantu, who was tucked away in second place.

Day 2 was the Brandon Cantu show as he single handedly destroyed the six-max field, finishing the day with nearly half a million more chips than Paul Tedeschi in second place. Tilly came through in ninth, Aguiar in fifth, whilst The Grinder would not make it back to Day 3.

The heads-up encounters on Day 3 ended with our semi final set in stone. It would be 2011 third place finisher, Roger Hairabedian, versus Brandon Cantu, and Faraz Jaka versus Jon Aguiar. 

Day 4 saw an unprecedented heads-up encounter between Cantu and Hairabedian that lasted eight hours, before Cantu finally reached the final, Aguiar dispatching of Jaka a lot quicker.

The final between Cantu and Aguiar came down to a flip, with Aguiar finding that ace with [Ac] [Kc] and Cantu failing to dodge it with [2c] [2d]. Aguiar takes home €258,047 for his win.