The moral winner of the Grand Final, Andro Scarpa, chipleader when the deal happened
That it would be a marathon was predictable, given the structure of the tournament and the presence of no less than 103 players at the Grand Final Day at the Perla Resort in Nova Gorica.
Neither was it unthinkable that the match would end in tar and wine, or rather, with an economic agreement between the few lucky ones still left at the final table and so it was.
The trophy was lifted by Andro Scarpa, an unchallenged chipleader in the 4-handed phase, who got the biggest slice of the cake after the ICM calculations made by the floor man.
From left to right, Vettor, Srebrenić, Cecchini.
The full family also includes Gabriele Cecchini, Jordan Srebrenić, and Matteo Vettor, in this order according to stacks at the time of the deal.
The background
A decision was made not even half an hour into the game after the elimination of Zheng Yi Yi, who did not want to believe Scarpa's triple barrel.
The misdeed in a nutshell: Scarpa opened from the CO with K-9s and Zheng flatted from the BTN with J-To, the blinds folded, and the game was played for just over 30x effective, Zheng's stack in fact.
Zheng Yi Yi
The flop reads 9-9-10, OR's c-bet arrives punctually as does the flatter's call and it goes to the turn, a K that opens flush-draw.
Scarpa bets again and Zheng does not let up, until on a 7x river Scarpa places the third barrel which corresponds to his opponent's remaining stack. Call, cards in the muck, and a glance at the cash-point to collect the prize reserved for the 5th place finisher.
Instead, Scarpa rejoices and suddenly finds himself able to be ahead of the pack at the final table as well, after the splendid Day2C that made him start from the first position on the grid this afternoon.
Flashback
Play went on for eleven hours, breaks included, before seeing the ten finalists all around the central table in the poker room, the best-lit one.
Before that happened it was a real battle on the tables and the blow that brought Matteo Vettor into orbit is proof of that.
An unfortunate Michele Caroli, who would have liked everything but to see his entire stack, which was enormous, end up on the opposite side of the table with his opponent hanging on just two outs, was the one to pay the price.
Michele Caroli
Played for over 2.5M with a tournament average of around 1.2 million: Caroli opens from EP, Vettor 3-bets from BB, and finds the Original Raiser call.
On A - Q- 6 Vettor places a c-bet of about half a pot, Michele calls.
The crack happens on the turn, a K giving the top two pairs to Vettor and a set to Caroli: after the second barrel Michele decides to raise and Vettor puts them all in and finds a snap-call.
The river? Ax and a tear in the eye for Caroli, who leaves this Grand Final with a bitter taste in his mouth.
Joy and disbelief for Matteo Vettor after the gigantic pot he just won
Along with him several illustrious eliminations, one above all Alessandro Longobardi (photo below), Day2B chipleader top 5 in today's count, forced to get off the carousel in 44* position.
Also like him were Davide Cojaniz (82nd), Michele Muner (38th), Nicola Angelini (84th), and Danilo Colomba, eliminated in the early stages of play.
Lorena Del Treppo, the last woman standing in the competition, also held out, failing to make the necessary breakthrough to take a chance at the final table.
The double elimination with two tables left involved Massimo Mazzeo, Francesco Unguendoli, and Luca Pazzagli.
There were still 16 in the race and Unguendoli from BTN decided to go all-in with T-9 in Hearts, putting his 9BB in play.
To his left Luca Pazzagli, with A-K, 13 blinds, and BTN's raise feels like he's in the holier-than-thou.
Massimo Mazzeo
The floor falls to the Big Blind, from whom one expects one of the more classic folds also by virtue of the step in the payout to a handful of eliminations.
And instead, Massimo looks at his stack, realizes he has something like 40 BB, and makes a call, turning over a Jack and a Ten of Diamonds.
The timing was perfect considering the A-K-T-x-Q board, which gave him a straight flush while he already guaranteed himself a piece of the final table by hitting two and a half times the average.
Unguendoli and Pazzagli a few minutes before the catastrophe
Aris-how
Over the years the guy seems to have learned his lesson, at least here at the Grand Final and spends the whole day floating around the 20 blinds without a blow, between one joke and another and some propitiatory whining about the run that doesn't want to help him.
And instead, when the action dwindles down to just three tables, here he pops up among the top positions in the count.
Thanks to a double-up with A-J to the rests preflop and a few other hands played with more room to maneuver available, Aris is a candidate to be the frontman of a not-too-large group of would-be winners.
Sentences you never expected to hear: 'My wrist hurts from folding', Aris T.
The idyll is broken in a spot against Scarpa, the details of which we do not know, except for a failed overbet river turned into a fold after the words 'all-in' uttered by Scarpa, putting any kind of ambition in his pocket.
Arriving at the final table with just over 10 blinds, Theodoridis renewed the challenge with Scarpa by going to the rests with A❤️Q❤️ on his opening dynamic EP for both.
Andro Scarpa
The opponent turns over two black K's and we play to 30: the low board gives Aris a few more outs with a 4 with which he would make a straight, but not this time.
Red light, green light!
In the space of a few hands pandemonium happens with three (four if we count Aris') eliminations in less than an hour from the start of the final table.
The second finalist to give way is Saverio Flotta, who for a few hands had really hoped to be back in the running, especially after scoring an unhoped-for triple-up against Scarpa and Zheng.
Saverio Flotta
Returning to 12/13x, he raises K-J and decides that he will play with them in the event that the original raiser, Gabriele Cecchini, decides to call.
This indeed happened with A-J: a smooth board and ninth place in the ranking for the player from Calabria.
From this moment on, Matteo Vettor entered the scene once again, with the wind definitely in his sails, getting rid of Massimo Mazzeo and Rajko Blagojević and taking the lead in the count.
Massimo Mazzeo
Rather unfortunate, however, was the timing with which Rajko Blagojević received a pair of tens from the BB.
Matteo Vettor at that juncture had 50% of the chips in play and was hammering hard, which is why at showdown he found himself showing a Jack and a 6 of a different suit.
Blagojević had been clinging on with 6-bet or so and that hand was the clearest chance he could have had.
We all know the cards though and when the dealer turned over the fifth it was Matthew who took the pot away with a straight eight.
Rajko Blagojević
Vladimir Zogović held out a little longer and narrowly missed Hurricane Vettor as well, finding himself dealt the same hand (A-8s), undecided whether to be happy at having escaped danger or sad at not doubling up.
Gabriele Cecchini
Eventually, the blinds began to weigh heavy, the stack thinned out and Zogović put his chips in the middle with 4♠️3♠️: two called, leaving the floor to Gabriele Cecchini who decided to isolate himself with a raise in the hope of playing the heads-up shot against the all-in.
Vladimir Zogović
A hope that quickly became reality, his Pair of 6's playing great against his opponent's hand which was already drawing dead on the flop, or close to it.
Vladimir finished in 6th place after being pushed around by a small group of friends for the duration of the final table.
Scarpa puts the turbo on
From this moment on, the cash-gamer's skills began to take their toll and Andro took a bit of a beating from everyone, but above all from Matteo Vettor who, from having 20 million chips (around 100BB), found his stack more than halved in the space of a few hands.
Matteo Vettor
Almost unnoticed instead is Jordan Srebrenić (photo below), who runs away from trouble by winning a few pots here and there and securing himself an honest deal at the end of the tournament.
Deal and payout
At the time of the deal, Andro Scarpa's 26,880,000 chips were worth a cool €36,500.
The efforts of Gabriele Cecchini, 2nd with 18,070,000 chips, were worth €29,000 while Jordan Srebrenić and Matteo Vettor, with 10.8M and 6.5M chips respectively, the one cashed for €23,000 and the other for €19,500.
Final table payout
1° - 45.000€
2° - 30.000€
3° - 19.000€
4° - 14.000€
5° - 10.000€
6° - 8.000€
7° - 6.000€
8° - 4.300€
9° - 3.250€
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