Armando D'Avanzo Wins Event #22: $400 COLOSSUS ($409,007)
The latest 2021 GGPoker WSOP Online bracelet event is in the books, and when the dust settled, Armando D'Avanzo took down Event #22: $400 COLOSSUS NLH $3M GTD. He beat a massive field of 10,903 entries to collect a first place prize of $409,007. The overall prizepool for this event smashed the posted guarantee, finishing at $4,099,528.
The headliner coming into the final table was Damian Salas, who is no stranger to WSOP success. The Argentinian pro burst onto the live poker scene when he final tabled the 2017 Main Event, earning $1,425,000 for his seventh place finish. However, he is best known for winning last year's International WSOP Main Event for $1,550,969, and also defeated Joseph Herbert heads up for an additional $1 million. However, Salas had a big bluff picked off early, and then busted in 9th after flopping a flush draw.
D'avanzo laid low for the first half of the final table, content to let the other big stacks duke it out. He would take his first big step towards victory when he won a big coin flip to knock out Tarun "AreYouAhead" Goyal.
However, it was the knockout of Kenneth Smaron in fourth that was the biggest of the final table for D'avanzo. In that hand, he would flop bottom set of fives, and all of the chips got into the middle is what was at the time the biggest pot of the tournament.
D'avanzo continued the big knockouts when he busted Mirko "25Ezekiel17" Numerato in third. It was a cooler after the flop, as D'Avanzo had bottom two pair against the top pair of Numerato.
After a heads up battle that lasted about half an hour, D'avanzo won the event in style, flopping a king high flush to crack the pocket aces held by Kosuke “PXR-51” Tajima. A full breakdown of the final table can be viewed below.
Event #20: $400 COLLOSUS NLH Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Armando D’Avanzo | Italy | $409,007 |
| 2 | Kosuke “PXR-51” Tajima | Japan | $306,707 |
| 3 | Mirko “25Ezekiel17” Numerato | Austria | $229,998 |
| 4 | Kenneth Smaron | United States | $172,474 |
| 5 | Tarun "AreYouAhead" Goyal | India | $129,337 |
| 6 | Diego “Shereka” Spataro | Brazil | $96,989 |
| 7 | Mathieu “Le_C0lombbi1” Giabiconi | France | $72,732 |
| 8 | Guillermo “Come on!!” Gordo | Spain | $54,451 |
| 9 | Damian Salas | Argentina | $40,900 |
Not much is know about Armando D'avanzo, who's only big score before this appears to be a WSOPC High Roller Event on May 13th, earning $43,875. Well, this new high score is nearly ten times that, along with of course D'avanzo's first ever WSOP bracelet.
That concludes our coverage of the COLOSSUS tonight. The next action coming up on Pokernews will be Event #23: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold'em on Tuesday August 31, and Event #24: $1,050 Bounty Pot-Limit Omaha on Thursday September 2. Be sure to come back for more bracelet coverage then!
. D'avanzo checked, Tajima fired 10,600,000, and D'avanzo check raised to 24,377,411.
. Davanzo had outflopped him with 
, and would need to fade another spade coming to claim the bracelet. The 
turn meant that an ace or eight would also work now, but the 
completed the board instead. 
. D'avanzo check called a bet of 11,000,000, and the 
came on the turn. 
. He was trailing the 
of D'avanzo, and the 
on the river changed nothing. 
came on the turn, and this time, Smaron check raised all in after D'avanzo bet. 
for a set of fives, and Smaron needed one of the two remaining kings to survive. A four came instead, and D'avanzo scored a huge double up, while leaving Smaron with less than two big blinds. He woudl double up on the next hand, but would bust shortly after, leaving just three players now!
, and Goyal called with 
. The flop of 
gave D'avanzo some extra outs that were not needed, as the 
, and smashed the flop of 
hitting top two pair. The 
completed the board instead.
left Giabiconi drawing to running cards, and while the 
turn was one of those cards, another king on the turn didn't help at all.
brought Salas a world of outs, but the board finishing out 
, providing no more help. Salas will have to settle for just under $41,000 for ninth place.
