WPT Venice: Edoardo Alescio Wins Main Event!

The €3,300 World Poker Tour Venice Main Event has drawn to a close after Edoardo Alescio won every single one of the 6,390,000 chip in play, a replica of the Champions Cup, a solid silver card protector, a seat to the $25,500 WPT World Championship and €175,000 in prize money.

In the grand scheme of things Edoardo Alescio is a complete amateur but he now has his name in lights alongside some of poker’s biggest names such as Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen as poker players who have taken down a prestigious WPT title.

Alescio started the six-handed final table second in chips, his 1,714,000 stack only trailing the 2,097,000 of Michele Caroli but he did not get off to the best of starts and it looked like his inexperience would become a major factor but he then seemed to steady the ship and compose himself once again.

At the start of play Alescio was guaranteed at least €27,035 for his efforts over the past week but this was soon increased to €34,245 when Alexander Dovzhenko was eliminated in sixth place after around an hour’s play. The Ukrainian min-raised to 32,000 with and then called when Steve O’Dwyer three-bet all in for 567,000 chips with . The board ran out and the final table lost its first player.

Five became four when Andrea Benelli was sent packing shortly after being crippled by O’Dwyer. Benelli committed his stack with after O’Dwyer found himself all in with . The American looked set to be heading to the rail but he spiked a ten on the river to leave Benelli with just 80,000 chips. These went into the pot the very next hand holding, ironically, . O’Dwyer called his 76,000 shove with and Caroli came along for the ride with . The five community cards ran out and a very disappointed Benelli exited stage left.

Andrea Dato followed him to the sidelines soon after in fourth place. Dato had found himself at the wrong end of the chip counts for the past day and today was no different. He finally moved all his 249,000 chip stack into the middle holding and O’Dwyer called with . Neither player improved their hand but O’Dwyer’s ace-kicker came into play and the tournament was now three-handed.

Three-handed play lasted for around three hours before Caroli found himself with nothing but felt in the space in front of him where his chips once sat in proud towers. Alescio moved all in with and Caroli made the call with the dominated and when the five community cards read it was game over for Caroli and the WPT Venice Main Event was heads-up!

O’Dwyer not only had experience on his side but he also held a massive chip lead and it looked like the American was going to run out an easy winner but poker is a funny old game and it never really goes how one would expect.

Alescio won a couple of small pots early one but then won a massive pot that completely turned the tie around on its head. On a board reading Alescio checked to O’Dwyer who bet into his opponent but before the amounts could be counted Alescio had moved all in with his and O’Dwyer called with . The river was the , completing Alescio’s flush and he soared into a 4,020,000 to 2,354,000 lead.

The amateur then started to turn the screw, hitting boards like it was going of fashion before the final hand took place. O’Dwyer, down to 1,025,000 moved all in for 1,025,000 with and Alescio made the call with . The flop hit both players but completely smashed into Alescio gifting him a set of fives and when the landed on the turn it was all over. The meaningless was the river card and with that O’Dwyer was sent to the rail as runner-up and Alescio was swamped by an army of fans.

The next European stop for the World Poker Tour is in WPT Dublin between January 5-8, 2012 with WPT Venice Grand Prix between February 6-11, 2012. Until then congratulations to Alescio on his win and thanks for reading!

WPT Venice Main Event Final Table Results