Watson Eliminated By Polito

Mike Watson didn't start his day so well as he was crippled early on by Francesco Lorenzini. Watson was able to double back once through Guillaume Rivet, but he wouldn't last much longer.

Watson moved all in from the small blind, and Laurent Polito called from the big blind. Watson held the and Polito the .

On the flop, Watson got some help in the form of an open-ended straight draw when the fell. He also picked up a backdoor flush draw, but that didn't matter after the landed on the turn. What did matter is that Polito held the to take away some outs from the at-risk Watson.

The came on the river, which spelled the end of the line for Watson as he headed out the door. Polito stacked up to 645,000 and could is setting himself for another great performance in Season 9 of the European Poker Tour.

At the first stop in Barcelona, Polito took down the €10,000 High Roller for €270,229. He defeated a field of 111 entries and a final table that included the likes of Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Tobias Reinkemeier and Alex Bilokur.

On his record, Polito has two other EPT Main Event cashes. The first came in 2009 when he took 17th in the EPT Deauville Main Event for €15,500. Then in 2001, he took ninth in the same event for €50,000.