The record-setting World Series of Poker Europe moved to Cannes, France for 2011, and the picturesque spot on the Riviera evoked scenes like this one. Located just outside the Casino, Cafe Roma was the favorite spot for players to grab a quick bite during breaks.
The Hotel Majestic was the host venue for the 2011 WSOPE, a gorgeous and, well, majestic building set right in the middle of Le Croisette.
The hotel was actually only half of the host venue. The Day 2s were being held just a couple of blocks away in the beautiful Casino Barriere.
There were a record seven events on the schedule, and the annual events saw astounding increases over the field sizes from the previous year in London. Players are seen here filing into the hotel ballroom to play on opening day.
2011 WSOP bracelet winners Antonin Teisseire and Fabrice Soulier were given the honors of announcing the \"Shuffle up and deal.\"
A wide look at the primary tournament area, Majestic 1, located on the ground floor of the Hotel Majestic.
Shaun Buchanan played Event #1, a €2,680 Six-Max, and he cashed. Much more on Buchanan later.
Phil Hellmuth gave everyone a big sweat — including would-be WSOP Player of the Year Ben Lamb — running deep in Event #1 and all the way to the final table bubble before bowing out in seventh place.
After more than 40 years, Sweden finally crowned it's first bracelet winner as Guillaume Humbert took home the bracelet and €216,000.
Event #2 was a €1,090 \"European Stimulus Special\" that drew a record-setting field of 771. Three days later, Australia's Andrew Hinrichsen was clutching the bracelet.
Event #3 was the €5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha event, and Shawn Buchanan racked up his second cash with a 14th-place finish.
That big PLO event culminated in a stacked final table that included Eoghan O'Dea, Sam Chartier, Sam Trickett, Ramzi Jelassi, and Steve Billirakis.
\"Smoky\" got it done once again; Steve Billirakis earned his second WSOP gold bracelet and added nearly a quarter-million dollars to his bankroll by virtue of outlasting that tough final table.
Despite a very small viewing area for spectators, the rail for the final table of Event #4 was rowdy and intently focused on the action as they watched Tristan \"Cre8ive\" Wade and Michael \"SirWatts\" Watson — two former online pros — battling for the €3,200 Shootout title.
At the end of the day, Wade was the toast of the town when his pocket jacks held against Watson's ace-five to seal the deal.
After the dust cleared, we found Wade posing with his new jewelry and a glass of bubbly in the lobby of the Hotel Majestic.
In Event #5, the WSOP tried out a new format, the €10,000 \"Mixed-Max.\" The first two days were played nine and six-handed respectively, and the final two days consisted of a heads-up bracket for the last 16 left standing. This is a shot from Day 3, the start of the heads-up rounds.
Shawn Buchanan: Cash number three of the series.
Buchanan was on one heck of a heater, and he ran his rush all the way to the heads-up final, facing off against Michael Mizrachi. Both Buchanan and Mizrachi had been heads-up for bracelets over the summer in Las Vegas, and each of them were looking for their retribution on that day in Cannes.
Mizrachi was too much. Coming into the final match with a 2:1 chip lead, Grinder fought off a charge from Buchanan and put him away with relative ease. It's Mizrachi's second gold bracelet, and he got to relish in this one while posing out in front of the hotel on a chilly night.
One more preliminary event winner. Event #6 was the €1,620 Six-Max PLO event, and Canada's Philippe Boucher ended up as the last man standing. Or sitting, in this picture, where he's seen relaxing outside the hotel after a lightning-fast final table.
Players outside the hotel prepare for Day 1a of the €10,300 WSOPE Main Event.
Already a two-time WSOP Main Event champion, Johnny Chan made the trip over to Cannes to try for number three.
\"When in Rome...\" Shannon Shorr rocked up in a crisply tailored suit, and he made it through to Day 2.
The defending champion, James Bord, made a relatively deep run again, but it probably wasn't very profitable. Bord made a bold promise to play back any losing WSOPE bets up to €500 if an American won the Main Event, words he'd end up eating later in the week.
John Duthie came out to play, and this one-off photo of him looking like a badass has sparked a must-read Photoshop meme thread on TwoPlusTwo.
Men \"The Master\" Nguyen played the Main Event as well, but he spent most of his time complaining and arguing with everyone in sight. Tournament Director Jack Effel is seen here trying to diffuse a situation on Day 1.
A couple of times a day, the hotel servers would come prancing out with trays full of local snacks and sweets. Liv Boeree wasn't the only one who enjoyed them, but she was the most photogenic consumer we could find.
Effel did his part to spread the love. He's seen here offering Athanasios Polychronopoulos and Will Failla a taste of France.
Speaking of Athanasios Polychronopoulos, the 2011 bracelet winner was unable to add another to his tally this year. Polychronopoulos made it into Day 3 with an average stack, but his European luck ran out just a few places shy of the Main Event bubble.
Chris Moorman attacked the bubble relentlessly, and the chips he accumulated during that time would end up carrying him all the way to the final table two days later. This photo was taken just a moment before he dragged the biggest pot of the event up to that point, his queens good against Constant Rijkenberg's mystery hand on a jack-high board.
After a long bubble sweat, the shortest stack in the room could not stave off elimination. Barry Greenstein got his last few chips in good with ace-jack against Brian Roberts' king-jack of hearts, but board flushed Greenstein out on the direct bubble.
The remaining 64 players — including Brian Roberts — were officially in the money, and Roberts got a little added value as he earned an autographed copy of Barry Greenstein's book. Maybe his next work might be more fittingly titled \"Flush on the Turn.\"
Artem Litvinov surprised everyone in the room when he won a big pot, jumped out of his chair, and started doing spin-kicks and splits around the furniture.
Shawn Buchanan. Cash number four. And once again, the middle days were just a precursor to a very deep run for the unofficial 2011 WSOPE MVP.
When the field was reduced to the final two tables, everyone got to enjoy a change of venue. The chips and the players were moved over to the made-for-TV studio, a gorgeously adorned ballroom which conveyed the personality and pomp of the Riviera rather well in person. We'll be anxious to see how it looks on TV. What's that in the very far background over there?
Oh. It's just €1.4 million in cash and the 2011 WSOPE Main Event bracelet — the winner's loot.
The last hope for France, Arnaud Mattern had to wait until Day 4 before ever amassing a comfortable chip stack. In the midst of a monstrous Day 4, though, Mattern found himself holding pocket aces in a three-way pot for the chip lead with 11 players left. Unfortunately for he and the host nation, Mattern could not fade Elio Fox's two-outer on the flop, and he was brutally put out in 10th place.
The remaining nine players needed to be combined around one table, but one of them wouldn't make it that far. While Alex Dovzhenko and Mattern were falling in 11th and 10th place, respectively, a big pot was in progress on the main table as well. Chris Moorman got his money in bad with ace-seven against Patrik Antonius' ace-queen one hand prior, but the seven on the river doubled Moorman and left Antonius both short-stacked and rather grumpy.
On the next hand, Antonius got his remaining short stack in with ace-ten, but Moorman found the mighty aces to send Antonius out in ninth and set the final table for the following day.
There's something very European about the betting plaques, and a few racks of shiny, sexy, blue T100,000 plaques were put into play for the final table.
Max Silver was the first man to fall from the final table, and he still seemed rather pleased as he made a lap around the table to wish everyone luck.
Silver's exit left Moorman and Jake Cody (center) to try and win the title for the United Kingdom, but Cody's day would come to an end in brutal fashion with seven players left.
Elio Fox (left) went with pocket tens against Cody's jacks, and the flop was an awful sweat for the Brit. This photo was taken the moment the ugly nine dropped on the turn, completing Fox's straight. Cody was stricken, and he had to settle for €150,000 and seventh place.
Shawn Buchanan. Final table of the 2011 WSOPE Main Event. He was the only player to cash in four events in Cannes, and he rode this deep run all the way to sixth place, good for an even €200,000.
Fans of Dermot Blain crane their necks to catch sight of what would be his final hand. Brian Roberts' ace-jack was too much for Blain's king-queen, and the Irishman fell in fifth place.
It wasn't much longer before Fox was sitting alone at one side of the table...
... and Chris Moorman alone at the other end. Moorman began the heads-up duel facing about a two-to-one chip disadvantage.
With all the drama befitting an event of this magnitude, Fox and Moorman jabbed back and forth, but one of them won every noteworthy pot over the course of the relatively short duel — finally landing several big punches to drop his opponent to the mat.
It was Elio Fox, the American, left standing alone with all the chips, all the money, and the penultimate gold bracelet of 2011.
It's a photo he'll likely remember for a long time. The soft-spoken Fox took a few minutes to pose outside and enjoy the moment after what was, by his own admission, a difficult and exhausting day of poker.
