World Poker Tour

As 2011 got under way the World Poker Tour began to ramp up its action. Here Card Player brings you a round up of three major events on both sides of the Atlantic.
Venice
Firstly Alessio Isaia took down the largest tournament ever to be held in Venice to become the first Italian to win a major WPT title, after topping a 523-strong field at the World Poker Tour Venice.
Isaia beat Hungaraian Szabolcs Mayer heads up for the first-place prize of €380,000 at the Casino di Venezia, which is reputed to be the oldest casino in the world. The young Italian also takes home a $25,500 seat at the WPT World Championship and a Tiffany bracelet.
After his win, the Full Tilt Poker pro said, “I’m very happy. I’ve been trying to win a big tournament for three or four years. I came close in the EPT but I never achieved it. I’m even more happy to win it in Italy, my home country, it is really special…”
The heads up was the longest in the Tour’s history as it took eight hours and 20 minutes to find a champion. Mayer started out ahead but after many twists and turns, Isaia managed to make a comeback and put Mayer out in second place for €228,990. European Poker Tour London winner David Vamplew was third.

Here are the final-table payouts and results:
First Alessio Isaia €380,000
Second Szabolcs Mayer €228,990
Third David Vamplew €149,910
Fourth Emmanuel Rodrigues €101,960
Fifth Adrien Camille Garrigues €73,180
Sixth Luca Fiorini €57,830
Seventh Max Lykov €43,370
Eighth Renato Paolini €31,960
Ninth Paolo Della Penna €22,820
Tenth Andrea Ferrari €15,210

Paris
In Paris, Natalia Nikitina won the €5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour National Series Paris Euro Finals Of Poker Diamond Championship main event, after topping a field of 188 at the Aviation Club de France.
The 23-year-old Russian professional took home the top prize of €243,830 from her first ever WPT event.
Alexandre Brivot was her final opponent and he left with €174,170 for second place.
In the final hand Brivot open shoved for 1,070,000 and Nikitina made the call. Brivot held K♠ J♥ while Nikitina tabled A♣ 3♠. The board came down 8♠ 6♦ 4♥ Q♥ Q♠ and it was all over.

The final-table results and payouts were:
First Natalia Nikitina €243,830
Second Alexandre Brivot €174,170
Third Jean-Louis Tepper €113,210
Fourth Benjamin Pollak €69,670
Fifth Tobias Wagner €52,250
Sixth Sam Trickett €43,545
Seventh Ingo Paulus €34,835
Eighth Nicolo Calia €26,120

Elsewhere at the Club, Tony G organised a six-player sit ‘n’ go with the theme of Tony G versus France. The prize was a free entry into the €10,000 high roller event, courtesy of PartyPoker.fr. Tony G’s opponents were Bruno Fitoussi, WPT Bucharest champ Guillaume Darcourt, Yann Courtet, Gabriel Nassif, and Leonard Martin.
However France came out on top with Tony G going out in fifth place and Gabriel Nassif emerging victorious.

Los Angeles
In March on the west coast of America, the final table of the 2011 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event took place at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California. The final table featured two former WPT title winners in Carlos Mortensen and Vivek Rajkumar. Mortensen was the most successful player in WPT history even before cards got into the air. He would add to his record with a third-place finish and grow his career WPT earnings to $6,394,988. The win also put his total career earnings at just above $10 million.
Rajkumar made it a little further than Mortensen, finishing as the runner up. Rajkumar just missed winning his second WPT title in the process, but he did grow his overall career earnings to $4,089,806. He put up a strong fight during the long heads-up final, which played out over 35 exciting hands.
Gregory Brooks was able to overcome both big-name professionals at the final table with the consistent aggression that he applied to his advantage over and over. He took home $1,654,120 for first place along with his first major tournament title as the L.A. Poker Classic champion. He was also awarded a trophy that is in the form of the classic Frederic Remington sculpture the “Bronco Buster”, a WPT bracelet, and a $25,000 seat in the WPT Championship.
Professionals Darryll Fish and Steve Gross rounded out the final table along with Amir Lehavot, and they were the players who fell in the early stages on the final day.

The L.A. Poker Classic final-table results were:
First Gregory Brooks $1,654,120
Second Vivek Rajkumar $908,730
Third Carlos Mortensen $640,680
Fourth Amir Lehavot $421,680
Fifth Steve Gross $304,000
Sixth Darryll Fish $235,350