Britain's Daniel Smith didn't have to cross the channel to get to Cannes but the Monaco resident arrived at the Casino Barriere Le Croisette full of hope for a good run at the 2014 Unibet Open, which surpassed even his wildest dreams as he made his first major final table and emerged as the champion... €88,000 richer for the experience.
Of the 457 players who signed up in Cannes just 17 players returned for the final day and they included Unibet Open Barcelona runner-up Davor Pavic and French poker titan Alain Roy.
Both made the final table along with Smith, who bounced back from a massive 22:5 chip deficit at the start of the heads-up play to beat Denmark's Michael Nielsen to the title.
In the final hand Smith raised to 320,000 from the button with pocket kings and Nielsen made it 945,000 with KH-QS. Smith four-bet to 2.2 million before Nielsen moved all in for 4.8 million and Smith snap-called.
The A-7-6-4-5 board offered no help for Nielsen and saw Smith crowned Unibet Open Cannes champion. The Dane taking home €62,000 as runner-up.
Desperately short for some time, Roy was the man to exit it third at the hands of Nielsen, who called with KS-QD when he shoved from the small blind with QS-9S. A king on the flop proved too big a hurdle for Roy to get over and he exited in third place for €40,000.
Swede Pavic exited in fourth place, his QS-3C no match for Nielsen's pocket tens, while Krzysztof Stuchlik from Poland finished fifth when Pavic flopped a straight to nullify his pocket queens.
Frenchman Nicolas Le Floch exited in sixth, raising with JC-9C against Roy's pocket jacks. The turn paired Le Floch’s jack but gave Roy a full-house.
Britain's Vinod Jadav finished in seventh place after moving all-in with AH-10H against Nielsen's KD-QC, the Dane flopping a king with Jadav needing a queen on the turn or river for a straight which didn't materialise.
Daniel Johansson finished in eighth place, losing a flip with AC-QC against the pocket sevens of fellow Swede Pavic, while the first elimination from the final table was Frenchman Giuseppe Zarbo, whose AC-KS was no match for Le Floch's aces.
Unibet Open Cannes (18-21 September)
1 Daniel Smith (United Kingdom) €88,000
2 Michael Nielsen (Denmark) €62,000
3 Alain Roy (France) €40,000
4 Davor Pavic (Sweden) €30,000
5 Krzysztof Stuchlik (Poland) €22,000
6 Nicolas Le Floch (France) €18,270
7 Vinod Jadav (United Kingdom) €14,600
8 Daniel Johansson (Sweden) €11,200
9 Giuseppe Zarbo (France) €8,800
