Last Saturday the WPT Venice Grand Prix final table was played. When the final table kicked off, Andrea Dato had a big lead with 1,591,000 chips and in second place was Simon Ravnsbaek with 922,000. Both players built their big stacks by playing extremely aggressive and bluff a lot.
On the final table, however, that tactic didn't work out so good for them as their opponents picked up good hands. In fact, Dato and Ravnsbaek tried to three-bet bluff their opponents a few times and ended up losing lots of chips.
It seemed like Dato and Ravnsbaek bluffs only worked when they played against each other. Well, that was until Ravnsbaek tried to represent the nut flush in a hand that Dato actually had the hand in question. After this hand, Dato was once again back in a big lead and Ravnsbaek was running short on chips.
Ravnsbaek was eliminated in 4th place when he moved his final 600,000 into the middle holding pocket deuces and Bogdanov called with pocket tens. Bogdanov was also responsible for the elimination of Andrea Dato. Dato moved all-in with K
4
and Bogdanov woke up with AK and sent Dato to the rail.
Once Dato had left the tournament room, the Royal Flush Girls came out with the remaining prize money and put it on the table. Bogdanov, from Russia, almost had a 3-1 chip lead over his final opponent Alessandro Longobardi from Italy.
The Italian media crew and most of the crowd shared for Longobardi and hoped that he could turn the game around and keep the title from leaving the country. But Bogdanov played extremely well and took 1/4 of Longobardi's stack already in the first hand. Then it didn't take long before the final hand was played.
Alessandro Longobardi raised to 200,000 holding K
Q and Rinaty Bogdanov called with 64. The flop came Q74. Bogdanov check-called Longobardi's 60,000 raise. The turn card 6
gave Bogdanov two pair and he check-called another raise, this time 240,000.
The river card 4 gave Bogdanov a full house but still he decided to play it cool by checking - for the 3rd time! Longobardi raised almost straight away to 300,000, convinced that he had the best hand. Bogdanov couldn't contain his excitement when he moved all-in with a smile on his face. Longobardi took a few moments of thinking before he decided to call.
For the win Bogdanov took home $302,065 and a seat in the WPT final. Below are the final table results:
1. Rinat Bogdanov $302,065
2. Alessandro Longobardi $146,826
3. Andrea Dato $95,003
4. Simon Ravnsbaek $69,095
5. Gianluca Trebbi $56,134
6. Andrea Carini $42,319
