The Grand Casino Portoroz was the venue for the inaugural World Poker Tour Slovenia and it was a roaring success. Over two starting days, 141 players exchanged €3,300 for 30,000 tournament chips and an excellent blind structure, creating a first place prize of €102,700, which included a seat to the 2012 WPT World Championship worth $25,500.
The fourth and final day saw nine players return to the unofficial final table but within 90 minutes of play Manuel Blaschke, Patrik Hirvonen and Hugh Cohen had been eliminated and the official final table of six was reached. The biggest name on the final table was Marcello “luckexpress10” Marigliano, the high stakes cash guru who took on Tom “durrrr” Dwan in a live version of the “Durrrr Challenge.” His hopes of a WPT title were soon shattered as he four-bet shoved with AcTh against the KcJh of Johannes Korsar, the jacks holding, to be the first casualty of the final table.
He was joined on the sidelines by fellow Italian Gaetano Fortugno who ran his AhJc into local player Miha Travnik’s AdKc to become the fifth place finisher. Five became four shortly afterwards as Romanian Ferdi Ciorabai, who had been nursing a short stack all day long, finally committed his chips with ThTc and found a caller in Vincenzo Natale holding just Qc8d! Natale’s loose call was rewarded as the flop came down Qh-8s-Qc, ouch! Then just 20 minutes later Korsar tangled with Natale, his 4d4s being out-flopped by the Italian’s KcJc when the final board ran out 3h-Kd-2c-Qc-9d.
This sent the tournament to the heads up stage with Natale, which translates to Christmas, leading by 3,105,000 to Travnik’s 1,204,000. Natale must have thought all of his Christmases had come at once as his Slovenian opponent seemed content to roll over and let the Italian walk all over him but he then went on a mini heater, first beating As8s with Ad5d when the latter hit a straight on the river and he visibly grew in confidence.
After losing three big pots in a row the vocal Italian was visibly starting to go on tilt and this was confirmed when he four-bet shoved with 9d8d and was called by the JdJh of Travnik. The board ran out 2c-2s-6s-3h-8h and Natale now found himself trailing by more than 10-to-1 in chips! This meant his only remaining move was to move all in or fold and he was putting his stack into the middle of the felt at every given opportunity the last occasion being when he did so with Kc8d and was called by his Slovenian opponent’s AcJd. The final board read 7d-Jc-5d-2d-Td sending Natale home in second place and awarding the victory to the 20-year old Slovenian!
So overwhelmed with his amazing achievement, Travnik simply collected his belongings, the superb winner’s trophy and his €102,700 and disappeared into the night, shunning all media interest in him. Not the most common response to winning a WPT Main Event but I am sure we will all found out his reasons soon enough.
WPT Slovenia final table payouts
1st: Miha Travnik: €102,700
2nd: Vincenzo Natale: €70,700
3rd: Johannes Korsar: €48,500
4th Ferdi Ciorabai: €36,300
5th: Gaetano Fortugno: €28,800
6th: Marcello Marigliano: €23,400
