Italian Poker Tour Ends With 100K Plus Winner
The first PokerStars.it Italian Poker Tour (IPT) event in San Remo ended after a seven hour final table battle it was PokerStars.it qualifier Stefano Puccilli win the first prize of €120,000. The 37 year old Italian banker beat fellow PokerStars qualifier Vittorio Meraviglia who cashed € 75,000 in second place.
The inaugural PokerStars IPT event in San Remo attracted a total of 255 players of which 39 qualified on PokerStars.it. This is an example of the huge interest in poker in the region and the event generated a prize pool of € 494,700. The new Team PokerStars Pro Italia were unveiled at the San Remo event; Filippo Candio, Pier Paolo Fabretti, Simone Ruggeri, Nicola Fedeli and Elena Ichim.
Roger Hairabedian who came 3rd for €50,000 is familiar face on the PokerStars EPT circuit and has been running hot this year cashing in EPT events in Monte Carlo, San Remo and Deauville. Team PokerStars Italia Nicola Fedeli ended in 10th place for €5,500.
All the action from San Remo will be broadcast on Poker1Mania show later in the year on the Italia channel 1 including the exciting final hand where Vittorio went all-in with A-3 and was called by Puccilli who revealed 8d-8c, giving Puccilli a massive pre-flop advantage. The flop ran Jc-Ah-Qc, which paired Vittorio's A and made Puccilli a huge underdog. A 9d on the turn opened the possibility of a straight to the queen for Puccilli, but he needed any 10 or 8. A miracle 10s on the river saved Puccilli and crowned him IPT San Remo Champion.
The next stop for the PokerStars.it Italian Poker Tour (IPT) has been confirmed for July 23-26 in Venice, Italy at the Venice Casino. The buy-in will be 2,000+200 Euros with more events to be confirmed soon. PokerStars.it will be running satellites for IPT Venice from June 15.