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After way too many hours of 7-handed play, the stalemate has finally ended with Dario Mineri being eliminated by Swedish player Sven Åström.

Minieri led out in MP with a raise to 80k and Åström flat called from the cut off. Everyone else folded and the flop came 8d5s8c. Minieri shoved straight away, Åström then called just as quickly. “You have Aces?” Mineri asked, “No… Kings” Åström replied and showed KdKh. Mineria shook his head and turned over 9s9h.

Åströmand Minieri battling it out

With all the media and players all gathered around the table praying this was finally the last hand of the day (with the exception of Minieri of course!), the turn showed Js and now vincent582 was only one card away from the official final tay and a guaranteed 66,940€.

After four hours of 7-handed play the dealer finally brought mercy upon all and flipped over Qd and Åström ’s Kings held up, Minieri was eliminated in 7th place (48,680€) and vincent586 made it to the official final table of the WPT Venice.

Åström will take a huge chip lead into tomorrow's play

Miniri being consoled by Michele Slama

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After a long period of blinding out, vincent583 has shot back into action by doubling through Swedish player Martin Jacobson. With blinds up to 12k/24k/3k Michele Slama opened the pot with a raise to 50k from the button before Jacobson pushed all-in from SB. Vincent582 automatically called all-in from BB before Slama folded.

vincent582 racing against Jacobson

vincent582 stood up, threw down 8h8d and was pretty relieved to see Jacobson turn over Ah3d. The flop came out as a pretty benign 6cThJc and vincent582 went one step closer to a double up. 9d on the turn didn’t help Jacobson and then a Kc on the river was meet with a big fist pump from vincent582 and some celebrations with his group of rail birds.

vincent582 awaits the river

Jacobson giving up his chips and vincent582 counting up his winings

The pot put vincent582 up to third in the chip count with 900k and Jacobson was relegated down to 2nd last on the count with on 500k.

vincent582’s double marked an incredible run of the short stack surviving in all in situations. Three hours on 7-handed play and the marathon continues!

Here are the latest chip counts;

Sven Ragnar Åström – 1.6 Million
Michael McDonald – 1.4 Million
vincent586 – 910,000
Dario Minieri – 750,000
Michele Slama – 530,000
Martin Jacobson – 500,000
Mario Adinolfi – 380, 000

Players are just on a 15min break and when play resumes they’ll be on 15000/30000/3000

Dario Minieri’s charmed run in this tournament has continued, hitting a set of dueces on the flop to crack Martin Jacobsen’s 6d6h. The hand started with Jacobson raising to 50k from the button before Minieri pushed with 355k from the BB. Jacobson took his time before making a great call to have Minieri in big trouble with his 2s2h.

However, there is no underestimating Minieri’s ability to come from behind here in Venice, he hit a 2c on the flop to take the advantage, and then dodged Jacobson open ended straight draw on the river. The hand pegged Jacobson back down to 900k and put Minieri back up to 750k.

Minieri's dueces were good against Jacobson

Not long before his double up, Minieri did actually lose an all in showdown when he couldn’t hit a gut shot with K♣ 9♣ on a T♦ Q♣ 5♥ against Sven Ragnar Åström’s A♦ A♥ .

Åström had been playing very patiently all night and finally got his spot to make a move when he picked up the Aces on the SB. After Mineri limped from the cut off, Åström also limped and McDonald checked his option on BB. The flop came, Åström checked, as did McDonald and then Minieri bet out 50k. Åström made it 100k, just under half his stack, McDonald insta-folded and Minieri then pushed all in with a stack that had Åström covered. Åström made the easy call, showed his Aces and they held up against Minieri’s gut shot.

Åström looks like a player to watch

Here are the latest counts;

Michael McDonald – 1.45 Million
Mario Adinolfi – 1,3 Million
Martin Jacobson – 900,000
Dario Minieri – 750,000
Sven Ragnar Åström – 680,000
vincent586 – 550,000
Michele Slama – 470,000

Italian player Marion Adinolfi has charged to the top of the chip count by firstly busting Surinder Sunar and then taking a big pot of fellow Italian Dario Minieri. With over 100k in the pot and a flop showing ks2c3d Adinolfi led out with 60k, Minieri bumped it up to 250k and then Adinolfi pushed all in with a stack that easliy had Minieri covered. Minieri throw his hand away and Aldinolfi took down the pot and the chip lead with 1.6 million.

Mario Adinolfi is on the charge

Here are the latest counts;

Mario Adinolfi – 1,6 Million
Martin Jacobson – 1,3 Million
Michael McDonald – 1.22 Million
vincent586 – 520,000
Michele Slama – 450,000
Dario Minieri – 390,000
Sven Ragnar Åström – 280,000

With play stalled at 8-handed for a number of hours, the deadlock has finally been broken with British player Surinder Sunar eliminated in 8th place. Sunar got his short stack in pre-flop with Kc Qc, but was looked up by Mario Adinolfi with AsKd. The board blanked and Adinolfi’s Ace-high was good, sending Sunar home with 31,940€ for his troubles.

Surinder Sunar 31,940€ for his 8th place

With seven players now remaining, the stakes have gone up for vincent582 yet again, now guaranteed 48,680€. Not bad ROI considering he qualified on bwin in a freeroll!

Here are the latest chip counts;

Martin Jacobson – 1.5 million
Mario Adinolfi – 1.06 million
Michael McDonald – 1 million
Dario Minieri – 740,000
vincent586 – 695,000
Michele Slama – 440,000
Åström Sven Ragnar – 400,000

Blinds have moved to 10k/20k with a 2k ante.

With the blinds still at 7000/14000/1500 Surinder Sunar opened the pot from the button with a raise to 46k. Both vincent582 on SB and Minieri on BB and there were three to the flop for the first time in quite a number of hands. The flop came T♦7♥J♠ and vincent582 led out with 60k, Minieri wanted no part of it, but Sunar bumped it up to 160k. vincent582 took some time over his cards and then answered in kind, pushing all in with 460K. Almost immediately you could see it was a great move by vincent582, Sunar squirming in his seat and then folding the 500k pot to our Frenchman. Taking a nice profit of 250k from the hand, vincent moved up over 700k and to fourth place on the chip count

Another nice pot for vincent582

Despite encouragement from Minieri to show his hand, vincent582 just smiled and left his cards for the dealer. After a few seconds, vincent583 turned to Minieri and revealed “Ace King”. Nice play fella!

vincent582 has just got a huge double up through Italian Pro Dario Minieri, moving his stack up to a much healthier 540k.

Sweet - vincent582 doubles through Minieri

With the button on Seat 4, our French team member raised it to 40k from Seat 1, Minieri then pushed from the seat 2 and the action was folded back to vincent582. He looked back down at his cards and made the call flipping over A♦K♥. Minieri had a look and was then pretty happy to turn over his T♠T♦ to be slightly ahead in a classic race.

With the attention of the entire packed poker room fixated on the dealer, he dealt out what can only be described as an beautiful flop for our young Frenchman; K♦7♦4♣. Despite taking the lead, vincent582 was still unmoved, too wary of Minieri’s ability to hit anything to get excited yet. The turn blanked and despites Minieri willing on a Ten, a A♣ on the river guaranteed vincent582’s survival and gave him the double up he so badly needed.

Play is still 8-handed and vincent582 is now middle of the pack with Mieiri and Surinder. Michele Slama is now the short stack with 262k.

bwin team member Vincent582 is taking a well earned break, having made it down to the last eight players in the WPT Venice. That guarantees the young Frenchman a very tidy pay day of at least 31,940€!

Nice pay day - vincent582 is looking at a huge cash

vincent582 hasn’t really been involved in many hands so far, choosing a few spots to push all in and clean up the blinds and antes to keep his stack from dwindling too much. Right now he is on 268k, the 2nd lowest stack on the table with the blinds moving to 7000/14000/1500 iso he will really need to make some moves and pick up a few pots if he wants make it through to the Final Day tomorrow.

Martin Jacobson has moved into the chip lead, taking a lot of chips of Minieri to be on 1.68 million. Minieri has postion on vincent582 and has certainly been making it hard for our team member to see any cheap flops. If Minieri doesn’t raise the pot, then it is pretty certain Mario Adinolfi will so vincent582 will certainly have to be prepared to get all his chips in the middle if he wants to play any hand.

vincent582 and Dario Minieri

Rock Solid - Chip leader Martin Jacobson

Here are the full chip counts at the dinner break.

Seat 1 – vincent582 – 207.500
Seat 2 – Dario Minieri – 805.000
Seat 3 – Mario Adinolfi – 1.090.000
Seat 4 – Sven Ragnar Åström – 416.000
Seat 5 – Michael McDonald – 931.000
Seat 6 – Michele Slama – 251.500
Seat 7 – Martin Jacobson – 1.648.000
Seat 8 – Surinder Sunar – 432.500

With Ilawa’s elimination there are now only 9 players standing in the WPT Venice and the final table has come together. French player vincent582 is the final bwin team member standing and he is now guaranteed a whopping 22,820€!

vincent582 is on the final table

vincent582 getting some encouragement from his friend as the final table is set up

vincent582's stack going into the final table

vincent582 has of 336k about half of the current average and Minieri is chip leader with 1.2million. The blinds are still 5000/10000/500 for another 20 minutes.

bwin team tormentor Dario Minieri has just taken down another victim, this time it was German team member Ilawa who would fall at the hands of the Italian pro. Ilawa had been unstoppable for most of the day, but his progress was halted when he got moved into the hardest spot in the room – between chip leaders Minieri and McDonald. Ilawa was suffering pretty badly being between the two super aggressive pros and found himself down to 250k.

Ilawa - Between a rock and a hard place

Ilawa’s final hand started with Minieri raising to 25k from SB. Ilawa thought if he was holding an A or pocket pair he would be good against Minieri and when he looked down on Ah7d he shoved all in. Minieri had no hesitation calling and turned over KhQh and the race was on. Minieri, ever popular with the local crowd, stood up from the table and his supporters went wild. With an incredible atmosphere building, the flop came Qs7cKd sending Minieri and his supporters into raptures. Ilawa still had some outs, but looked resigned to his fate with how hot Minieri has been running so far in the tournament.

As expected, the board blank at the right time for Minieri with huge applause from the crowd he moved his stack up to over 1 million in chips. Ilawa shook hands with the Italian and left the table content with his efforts in his first major live tournament. 16,740€ is a serious chunk of change and 10th place in a World Poker Tournament is certainly something Ilawa can always look back on with a lot of pride.

Turnin' em over

Ilawa standing up from the table to watch the hand

Well done champ! Ilawa shaking Minieri's hand

Here is an interview we did with Ilawa after his busts