Starting the day playing second fiddle to fellow French Canadian and Shooting Star Jonathan Duhamel, the talk was all about Cajelais by the end as he bagged up a massive 3.65 million in chips.
He’ll lead the final table of six by a wide margin heading into tomorrow’s action with Ubaid Habib the next closest at 2.37 million.
Owner of a WSOPE bracelet and $2.3 million in career earnings, Cajelais is a heavy favorite to take the title down with almost 200 big blinds at his disposal.
No Shooting Stars, but Plenty of Talent
Despite a lack of marquee names and no Shooting Stars at the final table for the first time in Bay 101 history, the final six is still filled with talent.
After Habib in second, Californian Moon Kim, a Bay 101 regular, sits third in chips with 2.1 million. 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Andrew Badecker is in fourth with 1.04 million.
Perhaps the most dangerous pro after Cajelais, Joe “leemur” Serock and his $2m+ in career earnings is in fifth with 952,000.
Respected online pro Joe Elpayaa, with over $2.6 million in earnings live and online, is the short stack with 908,000.
Amir Khaziri was the final-table bubble boy, leaving in seventh for $64,000.
Duhamel Falls Just Short
The focus of a lot of attention going into the day given his impressive start to 2012, 2010 WSOP main event champ Jonathan Duhamel started strong but struggled for much of the day before finally bowing out in 13th place for $25,620.
Duhamel did collect two $5k bounties in the tournament (Bertrand Grospellier and Jason Mercier) to make his total haul $35,620.
Also falling just short of the final table were Scott Baumstein (8th - $64,000), Brandon Wong (11th- $32,030), JC Tran (16th - $25,620) and Taylor von Kriegenbergh (19th - $22,420).
Final table action starts up again at 4pm tomorrow in San Jose.
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