As we saw in the usual Tuesday morning report, the Ultra Deep Carnival Series event of PokerStars Poker – Sisal Poker crowned Luca ‘iL-DottoreX’ Castellaneta the winner after a three-way deal.
Here is the story of the PokerStars Network tournament with the hands and videos of the final table eliminations. An interesting table for all online poker enthusiasts.
The situation
Before proceeding with the story however, let’s give some context. Carnival Series event number 83, 100€ Ultra Deep, counted 1.890 entries for a prize pool of 170.100€, distributed over 332 paid positions where we find several well-known regulars.
Limiting ourselves to the top 100 we cannot help but notice the nicknames of Giacomo ‘jacklafu98’ Beneforti (71°), Edoardo ‘edofatto’ Fattorini (67°), Rebecca ‘becca980’ Rivoli (53°) and Luca ‘7_ChAAkr4_7’ Bossi (48°).
The final table began on blinds 300.000-600.000 with player ‘Elettra773’ as chipleader with 75bb, as seen in the table showing positions and stacks at the first hand of the final table.
| Seat | Player Name | Stack | Stack (BB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sandro ‘LAGIOSTRA’ Di Duca | 7.831.750 | 13.1 BB |
| 2 | Luca ‘iL-DottoreX’ Castellaneta | 20.378.398 | 34.0 BB |
| 3 | Ivanhuyl | 16.077.237 | 26.8 BB |
| 4 | walu71 | 21.557.270 | 35.9 BB |
| 5 | Negelav | 35.815.445 | 59.7 BB |
| 6 | dibetta | 5.410.316 | 9.0 BB |
| 7 | Nonvincom740 | 15.512.909 | 25.9 BB |
| 8 | bobofolle | 19.838.665 | 33.1 BB |
| 9 | Elettra773 | 45.003.010 | 75.0 BB |
‘Ivanhuyl’ first eliminated
Still in the first level of play of the final table, on blinds 300k-600k ‘iL-DottoreX’ opens x2 Q Q from utg+1, to his immediate left ‘Ivanhuyl’ 3-bets to 3,3M K K , ‘iL-DottoreX’ pushes, opponent snaps for his 25 effective bb.
The board Q 3 3 9 9 overturns the preflop balance and the Ultra Deep final table finds itself at 8 left.
‘dibetta’ eighth
On blinds 350k-700k ‘dibetta’ open-pushes 6 6 for just over 3bb from small to big blind. From the big blind ‘Nonvincom740’ calls the coin flip with J 2 .
On Q 9 9 Q 10 the small pair is counterfeited and ‘dibetta’ says goodbye to dreams of glory in eighth place.
‘Nonvincom740’ seventh
At seven left the game goes through a slow phase, so much so that the next elimination comes on blinds 600k-1,2M. With just under 10bb ‘Nonvincom740’ open-pushes J 10 from the button, on the small blind ‘bobofolle’ re-pushes 13M A 7 .
The board 4 3 9 2 6 brings the final table to six left.
‘Elettra773’ sixth
After losing a coinflip with a pair of sixes against A K of ‘walu71’, player ‘elettra773’ puts his last 766.910 chips in the middle from utg with Q 2 . ‘walu71’ raises x2 from the button with A 6 , from the big blind ‘bobofolle’ calls with A 4 .
The two active players reach showdown after checking down on 9 10 8 6 K . With a pair of sixes ‘walu71’ collects the pot and scores a player out.
‘walu71’ fifth
After the level-up, on blinds 700k-1,4M, ‘walu71’ open-pushes for 27M from utg with 3 3 . On the small blind ‘LAGIOSTRA’ re-pushes with K A .
On 6 5 J 4 K the coin toss falls on the side of the ‘Kournikova’ bringing the final table to four left. Here is the hand replay:
‘Negelav’ fourth
At the same level of play, on ‘LAGIOSTRA’s’ x2 opening from utg, ‘Negelav’ pushes 14,9M with 8 8 from the small blind.
The original raiser snaps with 9 A and on a board of Q 5 J 9 7 scores a player out.
‘bobofolle’ third
As soon as they reached three left, ‘iL-DottoreX’ proposed a deal. “Puppies, shall we see the numbers?” Luca Castellaneta writes in the chat, then adds “Let’s split it equally and leave something for first place just in case. Let’s take a look at them”.
At that moment ‘iL-DottoreX’ has 57 million, ‘LAGIOSTRA’ 74,4 million and ‘bobofolle’ 54 million chips. The others agree and the tournament goes on break. After a couple of failed attempts, the prize pool is then split equally, leaving three thousand euros for the winner.
Everyone cares about the victory. Not surprisingly, the tournament reaches heads-up long after the deal, on blinds 1,25M-2,5M. With 18,6M chips ‘bobofolle’ open-pushes from small to big blind with 4 Q for ‘LAGIOSTRA’s’ call from the big blind with 5 5 .
On 7 5 10 9 3 the Ultra Deep reaches heads-up.
The final showdown
The heads-up begins with ‘iL-DottoreX’ leading with 121 million chips against his opponent’s 67,7M. The battle for the three thousand euros due to the winner concludes in a short time.
On the opening to 5,5M from the button by ‘iL-DottoreX’, ‘LAGIOSTRA’ 3-bets to 12,5M J J and then calls for the remaining 46,7M the push
