Ring #3! After a first WSOP-C win in a heads-up tournament in 2018 and a second one in Rozvadov in 2019, Mario Perati added a third ring to his collection by winning the 2024 WSOP-C Sanremo €1,000 Main Event, organized by Texapoker at Casinò Sanremo.
Out of 1,050 entrants, which generated a total prize pool of €888,300, Perati claimed the first-place prize of €123,140*. It wasn’t an easy victory, as Francesco Di Domenico held a massive chip lead for most of the day until he lost a big pot to Hervé Gouzil to finish in fourth place for €46,070.
Gouzil entered heads-up play with a slight lead but ultimately lost to Perati, taking home €100,000. This marked his second runner-up finish in Sanremo, following his second-place result in the €500 IPO 1 Million for €142,500 a few months ago.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mario Perati | Italy | €123,140* |
| 2 | Hervé Gouzil | France | €100,000* |
| 3 | Matteo Sbrana | Italy | €64,040 |
| 4 | Francesco Di Domenico | Italy | €46,070 |
| 5 | Alex Sampirisi | Italy | €34,140 |
| 6 | Xavier Zuczkowski | Italy | €25,400 |
| 7 | Francesco Delfoco | Italy | €19,180 |
| 8 | Jean-Marc Chiba | France | €14,705 |
*denotes a deal was made
“I’m happy to have won this trophy here,” said Perati just minutes after his victory. “The Casino di Sanremo feels like home to me. I live thirty kilometers away, so, in fact, I was born in this casino, like many poker players. I learned to play here,” he added.
With this third WSOP-C victory, Perati confirms that he is an experienced player who proved to be one of the table’s key figures during the tournament, both with and without cards. This experience also helped him reach a “tough” final, thanks to his good knowledge of his opponents: “I’ve already played a final in Malta with Xavier [Zuczkowski], which he won. Sbrana, who has been a pillar of the circuit for many years, is a friend, as is Delfoco, another friend I’ve known for a long time. We had a great time playing many tournaments together.”
Although he knew most of his opponents, Perati stated that “the tournament was really interesting and of a very high level.” “It was really impressive,” he added. However, he managed to end up at the top of the chip counts and become the new champion of the WSOP-C Sanremo Main Event.
Day 3 of the Main Event started with 24 remaining players, all with the WSOP-C ring and title on their minds. The day began perfectly for Hervé Gouzil, who hit quads to beat Christian Alilovic’s full house and double up. Other players also doubled up within the first thirty minutes, until Claudio Polonia’s elimination by Matteo Sbrana’s aces triggered a series of eliminations: Danilo Colomba (23rd - €5,935), Aleksandrs Golubevs (22nd - €5,935), who arrived an hour late, and Didier Mambour (21st - €5,935) were all eliminated within five minutes.
Pierre Basile was luckier, doubling up with aces, but moments before the first break, another wave of eliminations saw Gaetano Ferrara (20th - €5,935), Francesco Biribao (19th - €5,935), Anatolii Savin (18th - €5,935), and Alilovic all exit the tournament area almost simultaneously (17th - €5,935).
Now down to two tables, Francesco Di Domenico won a flip to send Raffaele Caldarelli to the rail (18th - €5,935). This hand allowed Di Domenico to extend his lead, and his run seemed unstoppable. He found aces to eliminate Andrea Dal Bo (15th - €7,270), then hit kings to end Ivan Kuziv’s tournament (13th - €7,270), and aces once again to knock out Isabel Baltazar (10th - €9,050) just before the final table.
The last nine players moved to the theater at Casinò Sanremo for the last table, but one more elimination was needed to form the official final table. Three players had short stacks, but Pablo De Heredia was the first to fall in 9th place (€11,445), losing with ace-ten against Xavier Zuczkowski’s ace-king. After a short dinner break and the start of the live stream, Day 1c’s chip leader Jean-Marc Chiba was called by Alex Sampirisi, who flopped two pair to eliminate the French player in 8th place (€14,705). Sampirisi was also responsible for Francesco Delfoco’s exit in 7th place (€19,180) with eights against ace-three, and for Xavier Zuczkowski's elimination in 6th Place (€25,400) thanks to a lucky straight on the turn.
A long period of three hours without any eliminations followed. During this time, Mario Perati briefly took the chip lead from Francesco Di Domenico. After Matteo Sbrana doubled up through him, Di Domenico watched as Alex Sampirisi (5th - €34,140) was eliminated by Perati. However, what Di Domenico likely didn’t expect was that he would be the next player heading to the payouts desk. First, he lost a massive pot to Gouzil, leaving him with only two big blinds, and he was eliminated in the very next hand, finishing in fourth place (4th - €46,070).
The end of the tournament moved much faster than the four-handed play. Sbrana was on his way to double up with ace-six, but Gouzil hit a pair to send him to the rail in third place (€64,040).
With their stacks nearly even, Hervé Gouzil and Mario Perati agreed on a deal to award €100,000 to the runner-up, while still playing for the first-place prize of €123,140 and the WSOP-C ring. Gouzil started strong, but Perati made a comeback and eventually hit a straight to be crowned the winner.
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of the 2024 WSOP-C Sanremo. Be sure to follow PokerNews for live updates and coverage from around the globe!
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