Fernando Cimaglia Leads WPT Venice Day 1B

(Photo: Fernando Cimaglia)

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Venice Grand Prix has concluded it’s two starting flights, and the final field is sealed shut at 173-players. It contains a multitude of stars, but one that won’t be twinkling brightly on Day Two is that of Phil Hellmuth. The showman pulled out all the stops, but his poker just didn’t match his theatrics as he only lasted one level before being eliminated at the hands of the eventual chip leader Fernando Cimaglia.

Cimaglia finished in 12th place at the Season X WPT Venice stop that was won by Edoardo Alescio, and he finished the day with 175,000 chips, to put him into second place when Day Two starts. Other shining lights to emerge from the shade today include WPT Champions Club members Andrey Pateychuk (48,700) & Giacomo Fundaro (93,700), Ludovic Lacay (118,000), Liv Boeree (24,600), Max Pescatori (53,700) and Martin Staszko (50,900).

Here are the main highlights of Day 1B

The word philanthropy means to show a sense of caring and to increase the well-being of humankind. In Hungary, there is no bigger philanthropist than Sandor Demjan. But the billionaire construction giant was in no mood to show caring to anyone today. It just doesn’t fit into the poker swing of things. He was the fastest man out of the traps and WPT Champions Club member, Guillaume Darcourt, was just one of the players caught in the kind of white heat that Demjan was creating. Darcourt finding pocket kings, Demjan finding pocket aces; and one man left while another continued to build a stack with as much strength and durability as one of his buildings.

(Photo: Sandor Demjan)

If Demjan was the fastest man out of the traps, then Galen Hall was one of the last. He flopped quad tens in his first hand of the day, and for a few moments it all seemed bright and dandy. But after he ‘punted off quite a few chips’ (his words not ours), Hall found himself wailing at the bottom of the chip counts as we entered the first break of the day.

In the next two levels we lost both Galen Hall and Sandor Demjan. Hall’s demise came at a time when he was rising like a phoenix through the flames. He was winning a lot of uncontested pots before picking up a set of sixes to double through Ludovic Lacay. Things couldn’t have been better for Hall, and his fortunes seemed to improve even further when he picked up pocket aces in a pre flop six-bet pot against Eros Mossali holding the inferior pocket kings. Unfortunately, for Hall, a king on the flop terminating the comeback right there, and Hall was out.

(Photo: Galen Hall)

Sandor Demjan was also gone, but unlike Hall, he had not been eliminated but was MIA. The Hungarian businessman, and early chip leader, was nowhere to be seen. As a consequence his chip stack just kept decreasing. We eventually saw him resurface in Level Five and he managed to end the day with 55,900 chips.

The level prior to the break saw the rise in prominence of Sebastiano Giudice, the man who finished fourth at the WPT National Series in Saint-Vincent becoming the first player to exceed 100,000 chips. A much more prominent figure in the world of poker is Martin Staszko. The Czech star, and former runner up in the 2011 WSOP Main Event, found a triple up in the fifth level. A set of queens attracting a set of fives and over pair of kings into a pot that went the way of Staszko, giving him more than enough chips to free roll through the rest of the day. He finished on 50,900 chips.

(Photo: Martin Staszko)

Then time stood still. Well the card play did anyway. The paparazzi were flashing more light that a thousand stars, as a resplendent Phil Hellmuth made his usual –late – grand entrance into the Casino di Venezia, and it was his most majestic entrance to date. The man, the myth, the legend floated into the Casino dock on a Gondola. He looked like a masked menace as he strode into the casino, flanked either side by the beautiful Royal Flush Girls. His silver cane tapped the ground as he took his seat, sipped a glass of champagne, remove his theatrical face and replaced it with his trademark ‘PH – Aria’ baseball cap. It was down to business – Poker Brat style.

Now these grand entrances can go one of two ways. They can be the start of something special, or they can be a complete anti-climax. Unfortunately, today fell into the latter category as Hellmuth headed for his Gondola after an exit hand that can be read just inches below this recap.

(Photo: Phil Hellmuth)

So there you have it, the end of another day of poker. We will be back at the slightly earlier time of 14:30 (CET) so make sure you are too.