Mike Dentale has won the 2017 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian December Extravaganza $3,500 no-limit hold’em main event. The 47-year-old window business owner from Brooklyn, New York defeated a field of 235 entries to win the title, the trophies and the first-place prize of $185,061. The strong turnout in this event saw the $500,000 guarantee easily surpassed, with the final prize pool reaching $740,250. In the end, the lion’s share of that was awarded to Dentale, who was happy to emerge victorious.

“It means a lot, especially a tournament like this because it’s a bigger buy-in and there are a hell of a lot of really good players,” said Dentale. “But I actually play better with good players, I don’t do well against recreational players, so I like the better fields.”

Dentale was undeniably correct in saying there were a lot of good players in the field, and many of them made the final table. Day 4 of this event day began with Mark Radoja entering the nine-handed final table holding the chip lead. He got off to a strong start when he picked up the AA against Paul Volpe’s 99. The pair two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winners got all-in preflop and Radoja held to eliminate Volpe in ninth place with $17,026. Shortly after that Radoja eliminated Jim Carroll in eighth place ($21,467) to secure his hold on the chip lead.

Dentale scored the next knockout when he called Jack Salter’s all-in with pocket tens. Salter was behind with nines and was unable to draw out, hitting the rail in seventh place with $21,468. The knockouts kept coming, with WSOP Circuit main event champ Dylan Linde (6th – $34,792) and Eric Vallee (5th – $45,896) both being eliminated within a matter of minutes of Salter.

Almedin Imsirovic held 3,150,000 at the start of four-handed play, which was good enough for the chip lead. Imsirovic’s run in this event has been a wild one. With 11 players remaining he lost a key hand against Joseph Cheong that left him with just over 1 big blind. He was able to triple up and the find another double up to get back in the mix, ultimately ending day 3 with over 530,000. He was able to spin that up to over 3 million, but quickly ran into trouble during four-handed play. He lost two massive pots to Mark Radoja before eventually getting eliminated by Dentale in fourth place. He earned $61,441 for his deep run in this event.

Cheong was the next-player to hit the rail. The 2010 WSOP main event third-place finisher got all-in with A7 against Radoja’s pocket jacks and failed to come from behind. He took home $82,908.

Radoja took roughly 6.2 million chips into heads-up play with Dentale. The tables were quickly turned when Dentale made a straight against Radoja’s two pair to double up and take the lead. From there the two battled for just less than five hours, with the Dentale holding the lead for the majority of the heads-up confrontation.

Radoja seemed down and out several times, but kept fighting back, and even took the lead at several points. He had a chance to win the tournament when Dentale got all-in with A10 against his pocket jacks, but the ace on the turn gave Dentale new life and from there he had control of the match.

In the end it came down to a preflop cooler. Dentale raised to 400,000 from the button. Radoja announced that he was all-in and Dentale snap called, standing up and flipping over the AA. Radoja had been dealt the AK and was in need of help.

The board ran out K75107 and Dentale’s aces held up to secure him the pot and the title. Radoja earned $115,035 for his runner-up showing.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Mike Dentale raised to 300,000 on the btuton and Mark Radoja called. The flop was 1095 and Radoja checked. Dentale bet 300,000 and Radoja called.

The turn was the 7 and Dentale moved all-in. Radoja folded, leaving himself withj 2,350,000. Dentale is now up to 7,050,000,

Mike Dentale put in a handful of chips, essentially committing his stack, and Mark Radoja responded by going all in. Dentale called off the rest, tabling A10, but he was in bad shape against Radoja’s pocket jacks.

Fortunately for Dentale, the board ran out 875A2 and he doubled up to 4,100,000. Radoja still leads with 5,300,000.

Through a series of small pots Mark Radoja has steadily closed the gap. With 4,500,000 to Mike Dentale’s 4,900,000 the two players are approaching even stacks.