Hairabedian outlasted a total of 337 players to take down Event 5 €2,200 No-Limit Hold’em.
He earned a €148,820 first-place prize but wasn’t concerned with his winnings.
“The money is nothing,” said Hairabedian. “In poker winning a bracelet is the most prestigious thing you can do. You have to beat the best players in the world.”
If Seidel had won he would have tied Phil Ivey and Johnny Moss for fourth in all-time bracelet victories with nine.
It very much appeared the seven-player final table was going to go Seidel’s way as he entered as the chip leader and built up a huge stack early but lost momentum as the night wore on.
Greenwood, Watson Bust in Early Stages
Skilled players Max Greenwood and Mike Watson were the first players to fall finishing sixth and seventh respectively.
888poker has had a terrific WSOPE with two of their sponsored players winning bracelets and Matan Krakow had a chance to keep that momentum going.
Krakow entered the final table second-to-last in chips but thanks to some savvy play managed to double up to 400,000 chips.
Unfortunately for Krakow he wasn’t able to get farther than fourth place as his pocket sevens fell to Hairabedian’s Ace-Ten. Krakow received €49,784 for his efforts.
Arguably the hand of the tournament occurred three-handed when Seidel moved the last of his chips in the middle with 6♠ 6♦ and Hairabedian called with A♥ Q♠.
A simple coinflip turned in Hairabedian’s favor when the flop came A♣ J♥ 8♦ giving the Frenchman two-pair.
The turn came T♥ and Seidel was drawing extremely thin to one of the last two sixes. But that’s exactly what came when the river hit 6♣. That extended Seidel's tournament life for another seven hours but eventually Hairabedian got him anyways.
The Frenchman was gracious in victory.
"Someday I want to win eight bracelets like Erik," he said.
Here are the complete final-table results:
1st: Roger Hairabedian - France - €148,820 2nd: Erik Seidel - USA - €92,003 3rd: Kevin Song – United States - €67,118 4th: Matan Krakow – Israel - €49,784 5th: Erwann Pecheux - France - €37,502 6th: Mike Watson- Canada - €28,683 7th: Max Greenwood – Canada - €22,258 8th: Ariel Silveira – France - €17,521 9th: Arnaud Peyroles – France - €13,989Hairabedian Makes History at 2013 WSOP Europe
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