Matt Giannetti became the 19th player to win multiple World Poker Tour (WPT) titles Tuesday, taking the crown at the 2013 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event. Giannetti, who was also a member of the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine, placing fourth in the Main Event, previously won WPT Malta in 2011. For his efforts, he won $323,804, taking his career live tournament winnings to $4,265,072.
Giannetti began the six-handed final table as the chip leader and maintained that lead throughout the duration of Tuesday’s play except for a span of three hands within the first two orbits. Here is what the chip stacks look like to start out:
1. Matt Giannetti – 3,005,000
2. Darryll Fish – 2,660,000
3. Danny Shiff – 1,930,000
4. Hayden Fortini – 1,620,000
5. Matt Salsberg – 980,000
6. Lily Kiletto – 860,000
Matt Salsberg was the first to go. Darryll Fish initiated the action pre-flop, getting into a raising war with Salsberg before the two got all of their chips in the pot. It appeared that Fish was trying to make a move, as he had just 7♠-5♠, while Salsberg had pocket Jacks. The community cards came out 6♥-6♣-4♣-K♠-3♥, though, allowing Fish to catch a straight and knock Salsberg out of the tournament, his second sixth place finish in as many WPT Main Events.
That was the start of the previously mentioned three hand run that saw Giannetti not in first place.
It took a while for the next elimination, but eventually, Danny Shiff doubled-up through Hayden Fortini, crippling the Day 2 chip leader. Fortini went out shortly thereafter, his flopped pair of Jacks falling to Fish’s flopped set of 4’s.
Shiff couldn’t keep the momentum going, slowly bleeding chips until he was down to just over a million. In his final hand, Lily Kiletto raised pre-flop to 130,000 and Shiff called. After the flop of 9♣-8♥-8♠, Shiff check-raised all-in with J♦-T♦ and Kiletto made the call with pocket 3’s. Shiff couldn’t hit one of his many outs and was eliminated in fourth place.
From there, it was a battle for second place. Kiletto took a big chunk of chips from Fish shortly after Shiff’s ouster, and while Fish was able to muster a bit of a comeback, he couldn’t crest the hill. He eventually slipped back before his Q-T was beaten by Giannetti’s Q-J, sending him home in third place.
Going into heads-up play, Giannetti led Kiletto, 7 million to 4 million. Kiletto was aiming to become the first female winner of an officially recognized open WPT event (Natalia Nikitina won the 2011 WPT Paris, but that was a WPT Regional Event, not considering an official WPT title), while Giannetti was gunning for his second WPT trophy. Interestingly, Giannetti denied another woman history when he won WPT Malta, as he beat Italy’s Cecilia Pescaglini heads-up for the crown.
The match was over in just six hands. On the championship hand, Kiletto raised pre-flop to 200,000, Giannetti three-bet to 580,000, and Kiletto decided to four-bet all-in for 3.92 million. Giannetti thought about it for a couple minutes before finally calling with 8-8. It was the right move, as Kiletto had 7♠-8♠. She got a little bit of a sweat, picking up a flush draw on the turn, but that was it as the river was a brick, giving the victory to Matt Giannetti.
2013 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event – Final Table Results
1. Matt Giannetti – $323,804
2. Lily Kiletto – $191,880
3. Darryll Fish – $125,921
4. Danny Shiff – $86,946
5. Hayden Fortini – $64,160
6. Matt Salsberg – $50,968