Kaneoya Eyes Brazil's #5, Leads THE GIANT Final Table

Jan_Kores

Level 35 : 500,000/1,000,000, 150,000 ante

The massive field of 8,920 entries has been reduced down to the last nine contenders in the $365 THE GIANT event which saw 527 players come back for Day 2. Most of the returning players survived with very short stacks and the field quickly plummeted down to a third after two levels of play. The pace seemed to never stop during the day and the busted players kept flooding the area at the payout desks.

The trend continued even on the final two tables, mainly thanks to huge surges of Renato Kaneoya and Alexander Lakhov. Kaneyoa pushed himself atop of the leaderboard when he peeled aces on the button, facing a raise and a three-bet all in from Amy Schwarz. He held against her nines and then continued torturing his opposition with a big stack.

THE GIANT Final Table:

Room	Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
Brasilia	60	1	Daniel Fuhs	United States	18,300,000	18
Brasilia	60	2	Lawrence Chan	United States	7,900,000	8
Brasilia	60	3	Alexander Lakhov	Russia	38,300,000	38
Brasilia	60	4	Luis Vazquez	United States	42,700,000	43
Brasilia	60	5	Renato Kaneoya	Brazil	56,100,000	56
Brasilia	60	6	Matthew Smith	United States	7,100,000	7
Brasilia	60	7	Svetlozar Nestorov	United States	13,100,000	13
Brasilia	60	8	Kevin Rines	United States	21,500,000	22
Brasilia	60	9	Jeremy Perrin	United States	19,000,000	19

With the average stack still very shallow, the vast majority of pots culminated in preflop contests and Kaneoya was the beneficiary. He was lucky enough to dispatch Carl DiVeglia III after shoving with four-high to bink two pair versus his ace-king.

In the meantime, Alexander Lakhov took care of Joel Gossett and Gregory Kolo on the other table and established himself among the favorites for the final table.

The 10-handed unofficial final table lasted for a few orbits with Luis Vazquez doubling his aces against Jordan Bamford's ace-queen. Vazquez then finished Bamford off to take the third place on the leaderboard.

Kaneoya (56,100,000), Vazquez (42,700,000) and Lakhov (38,300,000) are the only three players on the north side of the average mark with all other remaining players having around 20 big blinds or fewer.

That makes for an interesting setup ahead of the final table with $250,000 and the elusive bracelet awaiting the champion. A little bit of help with a solid card distribution can see any of the players quickly catapult their stacks to the top. On the other side, the ICM factor may cause some mayhem and a war of attrition between potential micro stacks.

With all of that taken into account, THE GIANT final table will surely be one worth to follow so make sure to come back Sunday, July 1, at 2 p.m. for the live updates as the PokerNews live reporting will bring a hand-for-hand coverage to your couch.

Final table payouts: