Rocco Palumbo, who won Event #44 for $464,464 at the 2012 WSOP, is the latest World Poker Tour main event champion. The Italian poker pro overcame a field of 173-players to keep the Venetian title from leaving the country after defeating fellow countryman Marcello Montagner heads up. Mike Sexton was the biggest name on the final table and he finished in third place, his best WPT performance ever!
The third day of the World Poker Tour Venice main event was kind of slow and not as action-packed as one might have hoped for. The day started with 36-players and, after some hours of play, 18 of them were still standing when the tournament director called it a day. Mike Sexton, Kara Scott, Ludovic Lacay and Matt Salsberg all made it through the day with healthy stacks while Daniel "Jungleman" Cates, Liv Boeree and Marvin Rettenmaier were sent packing.
All the remaining players are now guaranteed a minimum payday of $7,975 each. The plan for Day 4 is to play down to 6 players, who will battle it out on the televised final table this weekend. It's very likely that one or two big names will make it there and battle for the first prize of $180,097!
On Monday, the first day of the WPT Venice Main Event kicked off at the the oldest casino in the world: Casinò di Venezia (opened in 1638). Only 65-players signed up for the first day, but luckily many of them were well-known faces from around the world including Matt Salsberg, Daniel Cates, Kara Scott, Mike Sexton, Gaelle Bumann and Marvin Rettenmaier.
After 8 levels of play, the first day concluded with 32 players and poker amateur Stephen Behm had the largest stack (188,000). Two-time WPT champ Marvin Rettenmaier (picture) is ranked second with 115,000 chips, and WPT commentator and poker ambassador Mike Sexton is not far behind with 99,900 chips.
We will be back with another update tomorrow! Stay tuned!
The two starting days and Day 2 are now history and the player field has been narrowed down from 477 to 116 players. Unfortunately, Day 2 saw the departure of many former EPT champions: Jake Cody, Anton Wigg, Michael Eiler, Arnaud Mattern, Michael Tureniec and David Vamplew etc. However, one former EPT champion is leading the way into Day 3.
Mike "Timex" McDonald (picture), a Canadian poker pro who won EPT German Open in Dortmund in 2008, must have bribed the poker gods (or perhaps the dealers?) since he was running so extremely good throughout Day 2. When he had good hands - he always got paid off very well. When he didn't have good hands and needed luck - the turn and river cards performed magic.
The 2011 World Poker Tour Venice is over as the Main Event has a winner, Edoardo Alescio from Italy. Edoardo wasn't the big favorite to take down the tournament when only 6 players remained. Actually no one believed that an amateur could win the tournament.
But Alescio proved everyone wrong and played amazingly and showed no sign of being nervous. It was very hard to believe that it was his first ever final table. After defeating Steve O'Dwyer in heads-up he received a price check of €175,000 and a WPT Championship Seat worth $25,500. A big congratulations to the new WPT Venice Champion, Edoardo Alescio!
Final table payouts: 1 Edoardo Alescio €175,000 2 Steve O'Dwyer €95,530 3 Michele Caroli €66,090 4 Andrea Dato €43,170 5 Andrea Benelli €34,254 6 Alexander Dovzhenko €27,035
19 players signed up for the WPT Venice High Roller Event (€10,000 buy-in) and 8 of them made it to the final table - Dario Minieri, Marcello "LuckExpress10" Maringliano and Dominik Nitsche were the biggest names and the big favorites to take down the tournament. However, it ended up being a fight between Bjorn Lindberg and Marko Neumann for the first prize of €70,700.
It was a very exciting and tight heads-up match that ended when both players went all-in after the flop - Neumann with a set and Lindberg with a straight and flush draw. Turn was to no help for Lindberg, but the river card gave him the flush and also all of Neumann's chips.
A big congratulations to Bjorn Lindberg, winner of the 2011 WPT Venice High Roller Event!
It's time for the final table of the WPT Venice High Roller Event. Only 19 players took part in the High Roller event and these are the 8 players that will fight for the first place prize of €70,000 (only the winner and the runner-up will get money).
The biggest name on the final table is defiantly the Italian poker pro Dario Minieri (many top finishes at EPT and WSOP). Other players took keep an extra eye on are Marcello "LuckExpress10" Maringliano (plays the highest stakes at Full Tilt) and Dominik Nitsche (many good results in major live tournaments).
After 4 days of poker, the final table of World Poker Tour Venice is set! In the lead is no one else than the 2010 EPT London winner, David Vamplew (picture). However, he's not the only EPT winner on the final table. Maxim Lykov, winner of 2009 EPT Kiev, has also made it to the final table with a big stack, however, he's almost 2 million chips behind David Vamplew who has accumulated 4.1 million chips. It will be a very interesting final table where everyone is guaranteed at least €31k each and the winner will get €380k.
Day 1a of the WPT Venice Main Event is in the books. 218 players signed up for the very first starting day and 101 of them have chips left and will return to play Day 2. The one who will bring the biggest stack from Day 1a to Day 2 is Isaia Alession (212,000), and almost 50k behind him, in second place, Malinov Radoslav Dimitrov with 165,000.
Day 1b of the tournament is running at the moment. We will return with an update as soon as the tournament crew calls it a day.
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wpt venice Posted on 03 February 2011 by "T".
Today it's time for another stop on the World Poker Tour. This time it's Venice turn to be the host and hand out cash prizes of millions euros. The most interesting events at 2011 WPT Venice will of course be the Main Event with a €3000+€300 buy-in and the High Roller event with €10,000 buy-in.
We will keep you up to date on both these events, from begin to end. Let's hope for many participants (hopefully some big names), huge prize pools and lots of exciting hands!
It came to be a final table dominated by two Swedish poker players in WPT Venice. Ragnar Åström took home the whole tournament after beating his fellow countrymen Martin Jacobsson in heads-up. Ragnar Åström received €397,960 for the win.
Not less than 397 players came to start in World Poker Tour in Venice. But only 153 of them made it to Day 2. Not many of the famous poker pros that played day 1 made it to day 2. Most notable player left in the tournament at the moment is Michael "Timex" McDonald.
The third day of the World Poker Tour Venice main event was kind of slow and not as action-packed as one might have hoped for. The day started with 36-players and, after some hours of play, 18 of them were still standing when the tournament director called it a day. Mike Sexton, Kara Scott, Ludovic Lacay and Matt Salsberg all made it through the day with healthy stacks while Daniel "Jungleman" Cates, Liv Boeree and Marvin Rettenmaier were sent packing.
