PokerStars Italian Poker Tour Venice Won By Tamas Lendvai

Tamas Lendvai has won the 2010 Italian Poker Tour Venice, after defeating a field of 505 players to take down the tournament and the €235,000 ($311,000) first place prize.
The PokerStars sponsored event managed to attract 227 players on Day 1a and 278 players on 1b of the competition, all prepared to put in €2,200 of their bankrolls for a shot at the title. The impressive turn out was the largest ever seen on the IPT circuit and helped create a massive €979,000 prize pool.
As the 505 strong field played down to 72 competitors, all the remaining players were at least guaranteed a cash return on their investment.
Eventually, 8 players took their seats at the final table, with Ali Tekitamgac the chip leader on a 2.254 million stack. The other finalists included Toby Lewis (2.117 million), Davide Cerrato (2.03 million), Giovanni La Padula (914k), Andras Kovacs (815k), Cristiano Guerra (806k), Sandro Mazzei (731k).
Ironically, the shortest stack at the table was Tamas Lendvai of Hungary (429k), but hat didn’t seem to bother the 38 year-old pro, who managed to out last the other competitors to go heads-up against Italian player Davide Cerrato.
The final hand of the tournament saw Lendvai push all-in pre-flop holding Kc-Th, and get called by Cerrato’s Ac-5h. With the board running out Jc-9h-2c-Kd-9c, Lendvai’s pair of K’s was enough to secure the win and the biggest pay-day of his career of €235,000.
The Hungarian who has only been playing poker for four years, had a good start to 2010 with his biggest cash ever at the time of $87,500 for a 20th place finish at the NAPT Caribbean Poker Adventure.
Things seem to be on the up for Tamas Lendvai, who with his latest victory now pushes his live tournament career earnings up to $485,884.