The Russian Overcomes the Italians to Win the WPT Venice Grand Prix

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Venice Grand Prix final table was a clash of styles. In one corner you had the loose aggressive approach of Andrea Dato and Simon Ravnsbaek and then in the other corner you had the rocks. In football there is a saying, that it doesn’t matter if the game is pretty – it’s the result that counts, and that line suited this final table down to the ground, as Rinat Bogdanov proved that you do not need to play high variance poker to join the elite WPT Champions Club.

The aggressive Andrea Dato started the final table, as the big chip leader with 1,591,000 chips and trailing just behind him was the equally aggressive Simon Ravnsbaek with 922,000. The foundations of those two chip stacks were built through aggression, and as the final table began, both players immediately started to three-bet bluff – only this time a combination of bad timing and great hands for their opponents saw them lose ground straight from the off.

It seemed, in the early stages, as if Dato and Ravnsbaek could only win chips off each other, and it was Ravnsbaek who donated a great pile of them to Dato after representing the nut flush when Dato was actually holding it in his hand. That pot moved Dato into an impressive chip lead and Ravnsbaek fell behind Rinat Bogdanov for the first time.

A familiar pattern started to form around Level 23, with Gianluca Trebbi moving all-in indiscriminately and Ravnsbaek falling faster than a skydiver without a parachute, but it was still Dato leading the way as we moved into Level 24. With Trebbi moving in so often he was the bookies favourite to be eliminated first, but instead Andrea Carini won that dubious honour. Andrea Dato raised with pocket eights and Carini moved all-in with [Ad] [3s] and the net result was a €32,195 pay day. Dato moved over 2 million chips for the first time whilst Ravnsbaek had been reduced to a shove or fold strategy at the opposite end of the spectrum.

The first time Alessandro Longobardi entered the fray ended in bitter disappointment. He opened up the action with pocket tens, Andrea Dato cold called on the button before the hyper aggressive Ravnsbaek squeezed out a jam from the small blind. Given the range of Ravnsbaek, Longobardi was in seventh heaven. He made the call, Dato got out of the way and incredibly Ravnsbaek had found pocket aces. So it was Ravnsbaek back into contention and Longobardi who found himself playing shove or fold.

With Dato seemingly cruising towards the title he suddenly hit his first speed bump and it was that man Ravnsbaek causing him to slow down. The pair got it all in with Dato’s pocket eights dueling with the ace-queen of the Dane and a queen on the flop sealed the deal and moved Ravnsbaek into first place.

We are not sure if the momentum got to Ravnsbaek, but no sooner had he collected his chips from Dato, he was handing a chunk of them to the grateful Longobardi. Ravnsbaek opened with the dodgy looking [9s] [2s] and was forced to call off the rest of his chips against Longobardi, who had moved all-in with pocket sevens. Ravnsbaek was still the chip leader, but only just, and Longobardi had a little bit more breathing space.

Gianluca Trebbi’s tournament ended in Level 25 and it was Longobardi who eliminated him. Trebbi had moved all-in on at least five occasions without being called until Longobardi found pocket jacks. Trebbi’s [Th] [7h] took the pounding the odds said it deserved and the pocket tens hand against Ravnsbaek had all but vanished from Longobardi’s mind.

Towards the end of Level 25 Dato so nearly eliminated Bogdanov. He opened with pocket deuces and called a Bogdanov shove. The Russian held [Qc] [9d] and the baby deuces so nearly got there before a [Qh] on the river gave Bogdanov a lifeline and 1,065,000 in chips.

Into Level 26, and we lost the talented Simon Ravnsbaek. He moved his final 600,000 into the middle holding pocket deuces and Bogdanov found pocket tens and the easiest call of his life. Ravnsbaek had been superb all tournament and it certainly won’t be the last we will see of him on the WPT circuit.

So the three-way battle was set and for a long period it seemed as though there was only ever going to be one winner – Andrea Dato. But then things started to go sour for Dato. He ran a few three-bet bluffs on Longobardi who just kept waking up with playable hands. Dato bled 800,000 chips in this fashion and slipped into the middle of the pack. But Dato plays his poker like a car rides the roller coaster and by the end of Level 27 he was back in front.

The next all-in involved Dato and Bogdanov and the kicker of Bogdanov came into play in a [Ks] [Ts] v [Kc] [8c] battle to save him from elimination. Dato then started to lose chips and amazingly found himself at risk of elimination when he moved all-in with pocket treys only to be called by the [Ad] [Ts] of Longobardi. The treys held up and Dato survived and once again took the chip lead.

Into Level 28, and Dato was one card away from a dominating heads up position. He was all-in with pocket eights versus the [Jc] [9c] of Longobardi and a [9h] on the river saved the big man and Dato was left wondering what he had to do to finish these two off?

Finally, the blinds started to catch up with the players and it was arguably the best player of the tournament who was eliminated in 3rd place. Dato moved all-in with [Kc] [4d] and Bogdanov woke up with [Ac] [Kd] sending Dato to the rail.

The Royal Flush Girls splayed the felt with cash and our heads up encounter began, but it finished not long after. The final action lasted two hands when Bogdanov hit a boat holding [6c] [4c] on a [Qh] [7d] [4d] [6s] [4s] board with Longobardi holding [Kh] [Qd] for top pair.

So congratulations to the Russian Rinat Bogdanov and commiserations to the rest of the final table participates. Our attention now turns to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood and the WPT Lucky Hearts Championship and you will see us back in Europe in April for WPT Vienna.