Alessandro Meoni Wins IPT San Remo

Italy’s Alessandro Meoni has won the Italian Poker Tour (IPT) San Remo, after defeating a field of 375 players over five days to lift the title, and collect the €166,000 ($202,474) first place prize.
Supernova Elite Alessandro Meoni can usually be found grinding away online at PokerStars under the screen name “Cippino1,” but the 29-year old has now demonstrated his prowess in the live tournament arena, with his latest victory at Casino San Remo doubling his career earnings to $422,063.
Days 1a and 1b of the €2,200 buy-in Main Event saw the 375 starting field narrowed to 157 players, which was further reduced to 45 survivors by the end of Day 2. By the completion of Day 3 we then had our final table of nine with the players returning the following day to decide the champion.
First to exit the final table was Davide Bonometti in 9th (€10,710), whose A-Q pre-flop push came up short against Meoni’s Q-J on a J-7-10-5-10 board. Alessandro Meoni’s next victim was a short stacked Andrea Dato in 5th (€36,000), who shoved his remaining chips holding Js-10d only to be called by Meoni (Ad-7h) with the board then running out 8d-9d-Qd-2d-Kc to make Meoni the higher flush.
Subsequently, after Alessandro Meoni (As-5s) called Julien Norbert’s (J-J) pre-flop all-in, an ace on the turn sealed the Frenchman’s fate, who walked away in 3rd for €71,500, while heralding in the heads-up phase of the tournament.
At this stage, Meoni held a 5.25m to 4.145m chip advantage over Raffaele Bertolucci and an hour later it was all over with Bertolucci open-pushing with 10-9 into the A-K of Meoni. The board then ran out K-6-J-6-3 to eliminate Bertolucci to a runner-up finish worth €129,000, while Alessandro Meoni was crowned the 2012 IPT San Remo Champion.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Alessandro Meoni €166,000
2 Raffaele Bertolucci €129,000
3 Julien Norbert Dolay €71,500
4 Nicolo Allisiardi €53,500
5 Andrea Dato €36,000
6 Omar Rodriguez €29,000
7 Johnatan Maisonneuve €21,000
8 Giuseppe Zarbo €14,000
9 Davide Bonometti €10,710