Brandon Cantu became a multi-WSOP gold bracelet holder after he took his second one in winning Event #48. It wasn’t easy for Cantu though since he had to battle a field of 762 players in this $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo (8’s or Better) event.
Perry Friedman jumped out to the early lead on Day 1 with 144,500 chips, but Brandon Cantu wasn’t trailing by much as he was sitting in 4th place with 105,000. Of course Friedman would give way to Cantu on Day 2 as Brandon jumped out to a huge chip lead going into the final table at 1,025,000; the next closes person to him going into Day 3 was Mathieu Jacqmin with 552,000.
Unfortunately for Cantu, his nearly 2-to-1 chip lead over the rest of the field would dissipate over the course of the final table. Cantu hung in though, and was able to survive long enough to face off against Lee Watkinson and Jacqmin in the end. Watkinson would receive a huge boost to his chip stack when he busted Jacqmin out with a set of queens.
Going into heads-up play, it was Watkinson holding the commanding 2.5-to-1 chip lead over Cantu as he had 2,485,000 chips to Cantu’s 945,000. Amazingly though, Cantu was able to battle back and even take the lead at some points before taking the lead for good on a hand where he only held a pair of 6’s. The final hand saw Cantu hit trip 4’s which Watkinson couldn’t come close to beating, and Cantu had earned his 2nd bracelet along with $228,867 for the victory.
This win was sweet for Cantu since he just missed getting his second bracelet in Event #39 while Watkinson is definitely disappointed after missing out on his second bracelet, but will still pocket $141,873 for getting 2nd place.
Tags: Live Tourney, Winner, WSOP
