Mohsin Charania wins the $469,477 first place prize

It took five days of poker action in Paris for the Season XII bwin World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris to crown its champion and it was certainly not a smooth ride for Mohsin Charania as he got his name on the WPT Champions Cup. Along with the honors, he won $469,477 and a smaller WPT Trophy to take home.

2013 WPT Grand Prix de Paris Final Table

When the final table started, Vasili Firsau had a commanding chip lead over his opponents and he continued to increase his stack throughout the day. With over 50% of the chips in play stacked in front of him, Firsau went on to eliminate every single player at the table before reaching heads up with a 7:1 chip lead.

He started by eliminating the short stack at the start of the day, Kimmo Kurko, from the final table with pocket Jacks against A-Q which didn’t connect on the board.

Christina Lindley was next to go to the rail as her attempt to become the first woman in WPT history to win an open event was cut short by Firsau. Action started with Elliot Smith opening with a raise and then Lindley shoved all-in from the cutoff. Firsau then went all-in and Smith folded. The last woman standing in the tournament turned over As-Kd while Firsau had her dominated with pocket Aces. With little outs for Lindley, the pocket rockets were enough to eliminate her in fifth place.

Firsau then got another pair of Jacks in his hand and made the most out of them by eliminating Smith. The two got their chips to the middle of the table before the flop as Smith was holding Ad-6h but the Jack on the flop gave Firsau trips and Smith had no more outs remaining.

The next victim at the hands of Firsau was Peter Apostolu as he found himself all-in with pocket Queens against Ac-Kc. The flop came three fives, which gave Apostolu a full house but Firsau could still hope for a King, an Ace or running clubs. The 7h on the turn meant that Apostolu was still ahead but a red King on the river quickly changed that and Firsau continued his dominating streak.

Heads up

When the heads up match started, it seemed that the winner will quickly be determined given the fact that Firsau had a huge chip advantage. Charania certainly had a tough battle ahead of him but he managed to use his experience and a bit of luck to take the lead. He doubled up twice early in the match but Firsau then came back to take all but 600,000 chips from his opponent.

After getting another double up, Charania went on an amazing run and started winning pot after pot. He eventually got the chip lead for the first time since the day started and won the tournament. In the very last hand, Charania opened and Firsau went all-in with Ac-Qs against pocket Tens. The board ran out 8-high and Charania secured his first WPT title.