Aubin Cazals Wins World Series of Poker $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Mixed-Max Event

Aubin Cazals of Toulouse, France defeated Joseph Cheong heads-up to win the $5,000 no-limit hold’em mix-max event at the 2012 World Series of Poker, earning his very first bracelet, the $480,564 first-place prize and 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was Cazals third final table and second title of the year, and as a result he has shot up the rankings into 12th place with a total of 2,020 points and year-to-date earnings of $646,907.

“I didn’t expect this before coming here this year. I wanted to do well obviously, make a final maybe, but I did not expect to win a bracelet. It is really an amazing sensation.”

The 21-year-old topped a tough field in the uniquely formatted event that began play with full-ring tables, shifted to six-handed play for day two and finished off as a heads-up event when the players reached the final 32.

“I think this format is very interesting. I especially love to play six-max, and that is why I was really interested in playing this tournament.”

Players carried their stacks from six-handed play into the heads-up matches, and then from match to match. Cazals first defeated a short-stacked Eric Froelich, then overcame Toby Lewis in the round of sixteen. In the quarterfinals he beat Adam Geyer in order set up an epic semifinal match with Warwick Mirzikinian that exceeded nine hours in length. Mirzikinian was utilizing a unique heads-up approach drew a lot of attention from spectators and pros alike.

“We were very deep and he was calling 100% without looking on the button, so it slowed down the match a lot because it the pots were very small. He was tough to play, but toward the end he got very tired and made a lot of moves and, so I just called and called and won a lot of pots.”

Cazals eventually overcame this singular approach late on Sunday night, setting up a final round match with Joseph Cheong, which took some time to schedule as a result of a few difficulties between the player’s wishes and the regulations of the gaming commission that the WSOP was obligated to enforce.

Eventually it was agreed to resume play on Monday at noon. Both players started with comparable chip stacks, with Cazals the shorter of the two with an absolutely massive 377 big blinds. Unsurprisingly, the match ended up lasting more than five hours, with many small lead changes before the final hand arose.

Cheong opened the pot for 50,000 and Cazals raised to 130,000 from the big blind. Cheong four-bet to 350,000, Cazals reraised to 730,000 and Cheong six-bet shoved for just under 3,000,000. Cazals called and revealed the KK, and was in great shape against Cheong’s 44.The board ran out K7379, making Cazals a full house on the turn to send Joseph Cheong to the rail in second place, with $296,956 and 1200 POY points for his efforts. As a result, Cheong moved into 47th place in the overall standings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded to the top eight finishers in this event:

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