Lendvai Ships Italian Poker Tour's Largest Event in Venice
Hungarian pro Tamas Lendvai was crowned champion of the PokerStars.it Italian Poker Tour's record-breaking Venice stop on Tuesday in the grand Casino Ca'Noghera. Lendvai defeated 504 people in the largest tournament in IPT history, a €2,000 (+€200) buy-in no-limit hold'em event, to take home the €235,000 top prize.
Lendvai was the short-stack when he sat down at the eight-handed final table, but he didn't let that stop him. After working his way from the bottom to the top of a tough group of players, Lendvai defeated Davide Cerrato heads up to secure the victory. Second place was familiar territory for Cerrato, who also finished second a few days earlier at the Mini IPT in Venice.
Italian Sandro Mazzei was the first to leave the final table, finishing in eighth place. Britain's Toby Lewis was out next in seventh. Hungarian Andras Kovacs, who finished third in last year's IPT Venice Main Event, wasn't able to improve on his performance and was stuck with sixth place.
Ali Tekitamgac, winner of WPT Barcelona this summer, began the final table with the chip lead but couldn't hold on to it. Instead, he found himself out in fifth place. Italian Cristiano "crisbus81" Guerra hit the rail in fourth place, and fellow countryman Giovanni La Padula followed him out in third, which wasn't bad considering it was La Padula's first live tournament.
That left Lendvai and Cerrato to battle it out until Lendvai took the victory. Making €235,000, Lendvai more than doubled his career live-tournament earnings. Cerrato picked up €147,000 for second, more than enough to invest in a house for his family.
Although the Team Italy PokerStars Pros, including Dario Minieri and Luca Pagano, didn't put together impressive results, Pagano's father represented the family well. Claudio Pagano finished in 13th place.
The next IPT event begins on August 19 in San Remo and features a €2,000 (+€200) Main Event.
Here is how the final eight finished:
1st : Tamas Lendvai - €235,000
2nd: Davide Cerrato - €147,000
3rd: Giovanni La Padula - €88,000
4th: Cristiano Guerra - €59,000
5th: Ali Tekitamgac - €46,000
6th: Andras Kovacs - €35,000
7th: Toby Lewis - €25,000
8th: Sandro Mazzei - €18,000
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*Photo courtesy of the PokerStarsBlog.
