Poker News

The WPT Venice is becoming an Italian job, with the leaderboard dominated by locals after Day 1B.

Giuseppe Gagliardi bossed proceedings in the beautiful Casino di Venezia, amassing 211,000 chips.

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That put him in 2nd place overall behind Day1 A chip leader Isaia Alessio, who has 212,300.

In total, this year's €3,300 Main Event has attracted 523 entrants, generating a total prize pool of €1,521,930.

Some 118 survived Day 1B, leaving just 219 - including some of the world's best players - still in the running for the prestigious WPT title.

Party Poker Pro, and long time chip leader, Dragan Galic said the action in Venice was fast and furious.

He said: "The big blind is 200 and yet people are betting 2,000, 4,000, 6,000, 10,000. This is a five-day event man!"

Galic found himself on a difficult table early on with Arnaud Mattern, Salvatore Bonavena and online qualifier Ben Carpenter.

Carpenter won most of Mattern’s stack very early on and then passed most of straight to Galic.

Mattern was eliminated shortly after and online pro Giovanni Rizzo, Emiliano Bono and Padraig Parkinson soon joined him.

WSOP bracelet winner as Scott Shelley ground away for hours to build an impressive stack of 158,000 ahead of Day2.

Popular Italian pro Dario Minieri also found himself on a lively table and had regular battles with Max Lykov, Nicolo Calia and Michel Jagerving, who got the best of most of them.

WPT VENICE
LEADERS: CHIP COUNT
DAY 1B

   1. GAGLIARDI GIUSEPPE 211.000
   2. JAGERVING JOAKIM MICHEL 207.000
   3. STENBERG MAX PHILIP 199.900
   4. LYKOV MAXIM 185.800
   5. MAYER SZABOLCS SANDOR 179.200
   6. DI CASTRO ARIEL 175.500
   7. MARCUCCI GIANLUCA 170.000
   8. SERENELLI MARINO 164.000
   9. LA GUARDIA GIUSEPPE 161.800
  10. SHELLEY SCOTT MARTIN 158.000
  11. FRANCHINI FRANCESCO 141.600