The first player eliminated was Erion Islamay. He shoved his short stack with A6 from the button and ran into the pocket tens of Marcello Montagner, the chip leader at that time.

The next casualty of the day was Xia Lin, who went all in from the big blind after Palumbo raised and Begni called from the small blind. Palumbo decided to go over the top with AJ and forced Begni to fold. The bracelet winner had Lin’s A6s dominated. No surprises on the board, and Lin was out in 5th place.

Afterwards, Begni exited from the final table when he pushed with A6 from the small blind after Montagner open-raised from the button. Montagner decided the odds were good and called with J2o, spiking a deuce on the river to eliminate Begni in 4th place.

The 3rd place finisher was Mike Sexton. He opened in the button and received the calls from both Montagner in the small and Palumbo in the big blind. Both blinds checked on a J76 flop and Sexton made a standard continuation bet which only Montagner called. The turn was an Ace, and after checking, Montagner called Sexton’s all in. J9 for Sexton and A7 for Montagner. There would be no miracles for Mike and his elimination set up the final heads-up.

In the last hand of the tournament, Palumbo opened from the button and Montagner answered with a 3-bet to 170k. Palumbo called, and the flop came JT8 rainbow. Montagner continued with 180k, which Palumbo quickly raised to 480k. Montagner called and moved all in after a 4 hit the turn. Snap-call from Palumbo who had J8 and was in good shape against Montagner’s 99. The river card was a 3, ending the tournament for Montagner in 2nd place and crowning Rocco Palumbo as the new WPT Venice Grand Prix champion!