2020 World Series of Poker Online: Roberto Romanello Wins His First Bracelet In $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Event

Roberto Romanello came into the 2020 World Series of Poker Online with nearly $3.9 million in live tournament earnings. The poker pro from Swansea, Wales had won a number of major titles over the last decade and a half, including the 2010 European Poker Tour Prague main event and the 2011 World Poker Tour Bratislava main event. The only major tournament accolade that had eluded Romanello was winning a WSOP bracelet. He rectified that on July 26, by defeating a field of 922 entries in the WSOP Online $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. For the win he was awarded the coveted WSOP hardware and the top prize of $216,213.

The solid turnout for the event created a prize pool of $1,313,850, which was paid out among the top 134 finishers, who all each earned at least $3,237 for making the money. Among the big names to make deep runs in this event were bracelet winner Danny Tabg (123rd – $3,237), Segi Reixach (115th – $3,237), World Poker Tour main event winner Alex Foxen (45th – $4,393), Luc Greenwood (25th – $6,356), and Artur Maritosian (15th – $8,759).

Niklas Astedt sat atop the leaderboard when the final table of nine was set, with Aleksandr Trofimov and Romanello sitting on the next-largest stacks. Astedt is known to many as ‘Lena900’ online, where he’s been one of the top tournament players in recent years. The Swedish poker pro extended his chip lead by scoring the first knockout of the final table, raising and then calling the three-bet shove of Jeffrey Cormier with A-9. Cormier’s K-Q suited quickly fell far behind when the flop brought an ace to give Astedt top pair. He held from there and Cormier was eliminated in ninth place ($16,632)).

Orkhan Allahverdiyev was the next to head to the virtual rail. He lost a classic preflop coin flip, with his AK falling to the 44 of Paul Barnes. Allahverdiyev flopped a king to surge into the lead, but the 4 on the turn fave Barnes a set and the strangelhold on the pot. Allahverdiyev was knocked out in eighth place, earning $22,918 for his strong showing in this event.

Ravali Krishna was the first player eliminated by Romanello at the final table. He got all-in for his last 15 big blinds with AQ. He was up against the 77 of Romanello. The board didn’t improve either hand and Krishna has to settle for $31,581 as the seventh-place finisher.

Aleksandr Trofimov maintained his hold on second chip position by winning a preflop coinflip with pocket tens against the K-Q of Hannes Speiser. Trfimov flopped top set and avoided Speiser’s backdoor diamond draw to send the Austrian home in sixth place with $43,518.

France’s Thomas Cazayous won his first WSOP bracelet in 2019 by taking down the $3,000 six-max no-limit hold’em event at the series. He came within a handful of spots of earning his second, but was ultimately eliminated in fifth place when he ran top pair into the top set of Paul Barnes. He earned $59,966 for his deep run.

Aleksandr Trofimov got all-in for his last 12 big blinds with AJ and ended up against Niklas Astedt, who held AQ. Trofimov was dominated preflop, but managed to turn the tables by hitting top pair on a J64 flop. The 10 gave Astedt a guthsot straight draw to go along with his outs for a pair of queens. The K on the river filled Astedt’s straight to earn him the pot. Trofimov was knocked out in fourth place ($82,633).

Astedt held the chip lead heading into three-handed play, but Romanello was able to battle his way to the top of the chip counts by the time the next key confrontation arose. It folded to Astedt in the small blind and he moved all-in with 55. Paul Barnes called from the big blind for his last 9 big blinds holding 33. The pocket fives held up for Astedt and Barnes was eliminated in third place ($113,866).

With that Romaneelo took a slight lead of just a few big blinds into heads-up play against Astedt. The Swede managed to close the gap and take a small lead of his own before the decisive hand came up. Astedt raised to 630,000 on the button with the KQ. Romanello three-bet to 2,760,000 holding 77 in the big blind. Astedt moved all-in for around 11.6 million and Romanello made the call to set up a preflp race for essentially all of the chips in play. The flop came down AK7 and Romanello flopped bottom set. Astedt picked up some outs with the Q on the turn which gave him two pair, but a brick on the river secured the pot for Romanello and left Astedt with just more than a single big blind. He found one double up, hut was eliminated just a few hands later in second place. He took home $156,905 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

Romanello photo credit: partypoker LIVE blog. Niklas Astedt photo credit: PokerStars / Danny Maxwell.

Related Articles

Travis Egbert Wins WPT Championship High Roller

Schulman Captures Sixth World Series of Poker Bracelet

Zhou Wins WSOPP Super Main Event For $6 Million

Most Viewed Articles