WSOP Europe Event #7 Won by Di Nicola for Second Bracelet in a Year

The seventh event of this year’s 2024 WSOP Europe featured 351 and starred one very happy two-time WSOP bracelet winner as Italian player Ermanno Di Nicola captured his second title inside 12 months. With a prizepool of $545,500 for a buy-in of $1,820, players such as Vincent Meli and Timur Margolin featured along the way as gold was won in stunning fashion at the event’s conclusion.

Bracelet Winners Bust Before the Finale

With just 53 players paid, many big names reached profit without threatening the eventual big-money payouts at the top of the leaderboard. Or Nezer (53^rd), Wing Liu (51^st), Ran Koller (49^th), Tobias Peters (48^th) and Ilija Savevski (44^th) all cashed for $3,310 as they achieved the minimum profit on the day.

Others such as Timur Margolin (18^th for $4,625) got close to the final table of seven but couldn’t quite make it.  Argentinian player Maria Lampropulos busted in 10^th place for $6,970 when her couldn’t beat Rachid El Yaacoubi’s pocket eights. Christian Schneider left for $8,975 in ninth place when his couldn’t overtake South Korean Dohang Na’s .

Bubbling the final table, Russian pro Vladimir Troyanovskiy busted in eighth place for the same amount as Schneider. All-in with , the Russian was behind El Yaacoubi’s at the start and end of his final hand. The board of never offered much hope before all his dreams of glory were dashed on the river and the final table was formed.

Meli Mauled as Final Begins

With seven left, it was the Frenchman El Yaacoubi who led the field with 4.18 million chips. The eventual winner Di Nicola was second in chips on 2.65m but everyone else had less than half the chip leader’s stack, with Alex Bayout the shortest on 1,060,000 chips, good for 26 big blinds.

While play was deep-stacked enough to stay seven-handed for some time, the seven in seats were aggressive as they battled towards the gold. Dohang Na chipped up a little before he took out Vincent Meli in seventh place for a score of $11,850. Meli three-bet shoved pre-flop with and ran right into Na’s . A board of gave Na the nut flush and sent Meli from the mix.

Next to go was Alex Bayout. All-in with , he was busted by the of Di Nicola when all the chips went in on the board of with no miracle on the river meaning Bayout was busto to the tune of $16,100. It was only a couple of hands later that Di Nicola took out another of his opponents. Gamliel shoved with and lost to Di Nicola’s . The Swiss player remarked ‘Ah, wrong time’ in an apt summation of the situation that led to his demise in fifth for $22,500.

Italian Stallion Romps Home

“It’s very aggressive and suits my style.”

All-in soon after, Romanian player Traian Stanciu busted for $32,300 in fourth place. Shoving for 28 big blinds, Stanciu held but was one pip behind his caller, the champion-in-waiting Di Nicola, whose held across a nine-high board to reduce play to three-handed action with the chip leader in almost complete control.

Soon, play was heads-up and Di Nicola could have taken a walk to the bar and come back and still been winning. El Yaacoubi called off his stack with on a flop of and was winning against Di Nicola’s . That was until the immediate payment of a heart on the turn gave the Italian the pot, a meaningless river sending the Frenchman home with $59,020.

Heads-up, Di Nicola had a 3:1 chip lead but Dohang Na fought back to reduce his arrears slightly before the defining hand tipped the balance in the opposite direction. Di Nicola won with the same hand as Na, a simple pair of nines, but the winner’s kicker played and that put the Italian into a completely dominant position with an almost 10-to-1 advantage in chips.

Soon, it was all over. Na moved all-in with and was swiftly called by Di Nicola with . A flop of was almost a dream for Na as it gave him hope of a nut flush but the key word was ‘almost’. He still needed another club to come in but nothing did on the turn or river and the WSOP bracelet and top prize of $122,600 went to the Italian Ermanno Di Nicola who called it his ‘second consecutive bracelet’ after winning his first last year.

“I like the 6-max format,’ he said afterwards. “It’s very aggressive and suits my style of play very well.”

It certainly did on the final day of Event #7 of the 2024 World Series of Poker Europe as Ermanno Di Nicola once again proved he has the golden touch in WSOP events.