On June 5, 2009, Casino Sanremo hosted a poker tournament that gave the look to be nothing extraordinary. There have been 225 players, paying €2,200 apiece, and a player from Rome named Stefano Puccilli won it for €120,000.
That tournament, however, was the beginning of a sequence that turned out to be excess of the general public expected. It was the primary event ever held under the banner of the Italian Poker Tour (IPT), which in turn was the primary major poker series ever to navigate through this country alone.
In theory, it was an experiment that was not absolute to succeed. Any new venture always comes with an inherent threat of falling on the first hurdle. In practice, however, this venture was as safe as houses. PokerStars were the sponsors and this was Italy, a rustic deeply immersed in a poker boom.
So it was that this week in Sanremo, the IPT returned these parts for the 16th time. And when tournament administrators completed their counting, they discovered 609 names at the list and a record-breaking 1,124 entries split over three starting days. They came, they bought in, they bought in again and again.
That last statement probably requires some explanation. The IPT in Sanremo this week was played over three "accumulator" start days, a format that permits three €770 buy-ins to each player, should they so wish. You'll be able to play Day 1A and (optimistically) bag up chips on the end, then get back on Day 1B and begin again. You are able to do the similar on Day 1C after which return on Day 2 and open your entire bags, adding as much as three stacks together.
It means three chances to acquire a pile of chips, or three chances to sneak through by the outside of your teeth, whichever seems to be probably the most appropriate. It also swells the prize-pool dramatically, which for this reason hit €763,196.
The tournament reached its final table late last night, leaving us with only nine players today. Six were from Italy -- above par for an event through which 51 per cent of the sphere were home-grown -- but there have been also representatives of France, Sweden and Korea. The perceived value of the IPT has always attracted players from around the globe, and its former winners include the likes of Matt Perrins, Ramzi Jelassi and Valdemar Kwaysser, while Ukraine's Oleksii Kovalchuk is the one player with two titles.
(The cream of the Italian crop have shown their mettle too. Luca Pagano, Salvatore Bonavena, Luca Moschitta and Alessio Isaia have emerged victorious.)
This week's final table seemed like this (starting stacks in brackets):
Seat 1: Marcello Miniucchi, Italy, 4,540,000 Seat 2: Alessandro Borsa, Italy, 820,000 Seat 3: Fabio Scepi, Italy 2,750,000 Seat 4: Nicolo Ceccarelli, Italy 2,260,000 Seat 5: Adel Kabbani, France, 2,020,000 Seat 6: Alessandro De Fenza, Italy 3,855,000 Seat 7: Alex Longobardi, Italy 2,200,000 Seat 8: Jae Sim, Korea, 1,980,000 Seat 9: Alexander Norden, Sweden 1,955,000
And at time of writing, three players are left: Miniucchi, Di Fenza and Sim. They do not appear to be getting it over with anytime soon, so head over to the Italian PokerStars Blog for up to date information.
Full coverage of EPT Sanremo is at the main EPT Sanremo page. There's hand-by-hand coverage within the panel on the top and have pieces below.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Italian Poker Tour]
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