Mohsin Charania Wins the bwin WPT Grand Prix de Paris! ($469,477)

Mohsin Charania is the new bwin WPT Grand Prix de Paris champion and boy did he do it the hard way.

He came into the final table as arguably the most technically gifted player at the table, and certainly the most experienced, but when you are facing the might of a man holding over 50% of the chips your chances are slim to say the least.

Charania blocked that out of his mind, knuckled down and as Vasili Firsau was knocking people out for fun, Charania did what he could to make sure he was the the man selected to take on the might of Firsau for the title; only this time the odds had worsened. Firsau taking a 7:1 chip advantage into that heads-up encounter with the little man known as chicagocards1.

So how did he do it?

Let’s find out shall we?

Level 23: Kimmo Kurko Eliminated in 6th Place ($90,845)

The first level of the day saw a single elimination and predictably that person was Kimmo Kurko.

The Finnish player started the day as the short stack, and despite doubling twice through Peter Apostolou and Vasili Firsau, the odds were always against him from making it double up number three.

His tournament finally ended when he called an all-in by Vasili Firsau holding ace-queen, the chip leader turned over pocket jacks and the knaves held true to give the chip leader all of Kurko’s chips.

Elsewhere Peter Apostolou was having the level of his life courtesy of Mohsin Charania. The Australian doubling through chicagocards1 on two separate occasions: 88>AQ and AJ>A9 to finish the level stronger than anyone.

At the end of the level the picture looked like this:

Peter Apostolou – 735,000
Elliot Smith – 525,000
Christina Lindley – 741,000
Vasili Firsau – 3,354,000
Mohsin Charania – 255,000

Level 24: Firsau Eliminates Three More Players

The level had barely lasted 10-minutes when we lost our second competitor and it was Christina Lindley, meaning we would not have our first-ever Ladies WPT Champion in an open event.

Elliot Smith opened to 50,000 in first position, Lindley moved all-in from the cutoff and Vasili Firsau also moved all-in from the big blind. Smith folded and we had a showdown that Lindley wouldn’t like one bit. It was ace-king for Lindley, pocket aces for Firsau and five community cards later Lindley was out.

Joining her in the stands was Elliot Smith and once again it was Firsau holding the bloodied axe. Smith open jammed with [Ad] [6h], Firsau called with pocket jacks and flopped a third jack to end the suspense before it had even started.

Mohsin Charania doubled through Vasili Firsau AJ v KJ to push a little bit of distance between himself and Peter Apostolou, before the Belarusian struck again. This time his victim was Peter Apostolou, and it was a cooler QQ v AK when the [Kh] appeared on the river to create a heads-up contest between Vasili Firsau (4,898,000) and Mohsin Charania (712,000).

Level 25: Mohsin With a Double Double

It was going to take a monumental effort from Charania if he was going to upset the apple cart in this one, but he set about his business in Level 25 in the best way possible.

Despite losing a significant pot early doors Charania managed to double up twice to set the cat amongst the pigeons. In the first hand the pair got it in on a [Js] [6h] [4s] flop with Charania holding [6c] [4c] for two pair, and Firsau holding [Jh] [9c] for top pair. Then they got it in pre flop with Charania holding pocket queens against the pretty looking [Jd] [Td] of Firsau.

Level 27: Mohsin Comes Back From The Dead

Vasili Firsau kept on pounding and pounding until eventually a worn out and weary looking Mohsin Charania moved all-in for his last 600,000 holding [Qh] [4h].

Firsau made the call holding [Ah] [6d] and was a 61% favorite to join the WPT Champions Club fraternity. The dealer burned and turned the flop and it was tres magnifique for Firsau: [As] [Ts] [3h] handing him a pair of aces and his chances of winning the hand rose to 92%.

The turn card was the [2c] and suddenly only a wheel could stop Charania from slipping out of this contest. The dealer laid the final card on the felt and it was the [5d]!

Charania had found his 6% to double up and Firsau looked rattled for the first time in this contest.

Level 28: Charania Takes The Chip Lead

The 28th level of the day belonged to Mohsin Charania. The energy that the double up created surged through his body and presented itself in his cards. The American won virtually every pot of note to take the chip lead for the first time in this competition, over turning a 7:1 deficit in the process.

The level ended with Charania holding 3,870,000 and Firsau holding 1,720,000

Level 29: Vasili Firsau Eliminated in 2nd Place ($317,867)

The final hand of a great tournament was a classic flip with Mohsin Charania’s pocket tens up against the ace-queen of Vasili Firsau and you can read all about it just below this post.

So that’s a wrap from Paris. We’ve got to run. We have a plane to South Africa to catch where we will bring you the latest instalment from a quite amazing Season XII