Dato Does It in Venice, Carroll Conquers Shooting Star

We’re all done in Venice and San Jose as stellar final tables come to thrilling conclusions…

DATO WINS VENICE CARNIVAL

Finally! After two brushes with greatness in Venice, native son Andrea Dato (GPI#280) has finally secured his first win on the World Poker Tour.

Dato, who final tabled WPT Venice and the Venice Grand Prix in consecutive years, would once again make the finals this year, this time raising the WPT Champions Trophy, following his victory over UK superstar Sam Trickett (GPI#1611), in what was a thrilling final table!

Trickett surely gave it the old college try and was in fact in control of the heads-up match on a few different occasions … but still, Trickett will be very happy with his performance and his new sponsor Everest Poker – which signed Trickett hours before the start of WPT Venice – will be very happy with their new client’s result in Venice. We should be seeing more of Trickett on the live tournament circuit in the coming months.

Alessio Isaia’s (GPI#1386) attempt at becoming the first ever player to win the same WPT event twice would come short. Isaia would be the second player ousted at the final table today, earning over 30K USD for his 5th place performance.

CARROLL WINS SHOOTING STAR

There were so many story lines at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star final table that James Carroll’s (GPI#1279) attempt to enter the WPT Champions Club was sort of lost in the shuffle.

Carroll, who has won on the live circuit in the past – including a Heartland Poker Tour title in Las Vegas – had to face a former WPT Bay 101 Champ and three recent WPT final table participants in order to win it all – and he did.

For the second time in less than a month, Dylan Wilkerson (GPI#319) will have to settle for a second place finish. Still, Wilkerson, who finished 2nd at the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic last month in Niagara Falls, will be happy with adding just under 1M USD to his bankroll in only three weeks.

Like Isaia in Venice, Nam Le (GPI#506) was attempting to become the very first player to win the same event twice on the World Poker Tour, and like Isaia, Le would finish fifth.

*Cover photo courtesy of Joe Giron/World Poker Tour

Gioco Digitale World Poker Tour (WPT) Venice Carnival
Mar 10-15, 2014  |  Casino di Venezia  |  Venice, ITA
€3,000 Buy-In  |  144 Entries  |  $524,096 USD Prize Pool

[table id=957 /]

World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star
Mar 10-14, 2014  |  Bay 101  |  San Jose, CA, USA
$7,500 Buy-In  |  718 Entries  |  $5,133,700 USD Prize Pool

[table id=958 /]