2016 WSOPC Caribbean: Daniel Azancot Halts Holiday to Play, Wins WSOP Circuit Ring

Copy link Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Nov 10, 2016 4 min read

Another World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner has been crowned and 12 other players made it one step closer to being the next one to pose for the winner pictures at the Caribbean Festival on Sint Maarten.

After more than 12 hours, it was Daniel Azancot who emerged victorious in the Monster Stack after a fierce heads-up battle with Ingrid Etienne. The Canadian, who was on the island for vacation and then found out about the tournament, secured a payday of $11,400.

The day started with 29 players coming back to the tables and Stevan Prager busted in the very first hand. He was soon followed by Augusto Cavazzini, who lost with ace-king against the ace-queen suited of Dueval Fenton. Both had already met at the final table of Event #3 a few days ago. Shawn Rice and Ryan Martin were also eliminated and soon the last three tables were found.

Benjamin Perez ran with tens into the queens of Christopher Staats and Dominik French stood no chance with ace-jack against the aces of Christophe Enrici. After Jean Mrakic and Hamy Wuhjadi followed to the rail, the last two tables were set. Ultimately it was Herve Bourgois, who earned the unfortunate honor of becoming the bubble boy. He shoved with pocket tens and Chan Ping Hsiung called with nines, then improved with a nine on the turn.

Robert Cheung called a shove of Hsiung with jack-ten suited and second pair only to see the Austrian turn over top pair. Derik Lewis ran with ace-king and top pair into the set of kings of Jose Delgado and James Harper bluffed with king-high only to walk into two pair. The elimination of Enrici came from a three-way all in. Azancot shoved the button with fours, Staats called in the small blind with king-jack and Enrici held ace-king in the big blind. The flop delivered a four and Enrici was drawing dead by the turn, while Azancot scored a vital boost to his stack.

Staats's roller coaster ride ended in 11th place and Marvin Browne followed in 10th after more than one hour of short-handed play on two tables brought no seat open before the dinner break. Layne Flack had to settle for ninth place after he raised with the seven-five suited and flopped a gutshot and flush draw. Delgado's top pair held and Hsiung then lost a flip with eights against the ace-king of Azancot shortly after.

Willie Janssen, who had already reached the final table of the Six-Handed event, finished in seventh after pushing his short stack with ace-four suited. Delgado found queens on the button and claimed the pot. A series of unfortunate hands then saw Delgado go out next. He first called an all-in with ace-king on a four-high flop, but Stephen Saleh had already flopped the full house. Delgado then three-bet shoved ace-six and Etienne snapped him off with pocket aces.

Once Saleh lost a flip with eights against the ace-queen of Azancot, the Canadian had established a serious lead over his remaining opponents. It turned into a short-stack grind for them and Fenton blinked first, getting it in with queen-seven suited to the pocket eights of Azancot. The Canadian also took care of Cedric Cavalier with pocket threes versus king-seven before engaging in the heads-up battle with the second part of the poker couple from Martinique.

Azancot started with a 2-1 lead and kept that for most of the time before his nut flush draw failed and Etienne doubled with top pair. Azancot grinded back into the lead. Another double up for Etienne was just short-lived and the final hand was a flip with king-ten for Azancot and pocket fours for Etienne - a king eventually hit on the river.

Bounty Island

The $365 Bounty Event #16 saw a total of 80 unique players and 24 reentries to create a field of 104 and a total prize pool of $31,200. Jean Luc Adam not only let the bubble burst with a turned set of sevens, he also claimed astonishing 16 bounties throughout Day 1 and ended up on top with 231,400. Notables that made it through include Walter Treccarichi (135,000), Joachim Lob (113,500), Robbie Bakker (92,800) and Arman Bosnakyan (80,600).

Bounty Event #16 Day 2 Seat assignments:

The action will recommence at 3:30 p.m. local time with level 15 (1,500-3,000, ante 500). A min-cash is worth $430, but all eyes are set on the first-place payout of $6,240 and collecting more $100 bounty prizes.

Besides the usual lineup of satellites, the next WSOP Circuit ring event will take place with Day 1 of the $365 Pot Limit Omaha Event #19 at of 6 p.m. local time. The first day of the tournament will play a total of 15 levels at 30 minutes each.

• Tags WSOP Circuit
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker Circuit