Giuseppe Iadisernia Wins Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship for First WPT Title

With appearances from poker legends Anatoly Nikitin, Martins Adeniya and Thomas Boivin, Giuseppe Iadisernia won his very first WPT Main Event last night to complete a remarkable victory against all the odds. With Tony Dunst among those bringing the action to life, the latest World Poker Tour event was a roaring success.

Bumper Field Again in Florida

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida was packed this week, as the $3,500 buy-in WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship played out in stunning fashion, with the Venezuelan first-time winner Giuseppe Iadisernia claiming a life-changing victory worth $611,700.

The event, which had a mammoth 1,229 total entries, featured a $3,000,000 guarantee and easily smashed through that barrier, with the eventual prizepool totalling over $4.3 million. By the time the final 154 players were reached – the money places – some big names had managed to survive.

Paulina ‘Poker Bunny’ Loeliger was the first to bust inside the money places, cashing for $6,400 in 154^th place. She was followed by some of poker’s most recognizable names, with Aram Zobian (143^rd), Jake Schwartz (135^th) and Michael Wang (130^th) all making a min-cash too.

Others got much closer to the final table, with Esther ‘ETay’ Taylor (117^th for $7,000), Jake Cody (101^st for $7,000), Joey Weissman (86^th for $8,200), Nick Yunis (66^th for $9,600), Brian Altman (59^th for $11,500), Natasha Mercier (39^th for $19,400), Nadya Magnus (30^th for $23,200), Ryan Riess (22^nd for $28,000), Jonathan Jaffe (17^th for $33,500) and Andrew Ostapchenko (9^th for $60,000) all making profit but missing out the six-handed final table.

McNamara Bubbles as Boivin Builds

Ted McNamara was the unfortunate final table ‘Bubble Boy’ as he cashed for $98,000 in seventh place but missed out on the televised final table. All-in with pocket queens for 11 big blinds, McNamara must have thought he’d found the perfect spot over an opening bet from Iadisernia and raise from Nikitin, but while the Russian folded, it was Iadisernia’s reshove over the top and he showed pocket aces when the cards were turned out. McNamara couldn’t find any help on a king-high board and the final six were confirmed, with Iadisernia having a sizeable lead.

The Venezuelan had 56 big blinds but despite that big last hand before the break, it wasn’t a massive lead over Nikitin, who had 47 big blinds. The short stack of the six was Eddie Blumenthal but even he had a very playable stack of 18 big blinds, meaning a tight and tense final table would play out on the last day of the tournament.

It took just 10 hands of the final to knock out Blumenthal, whose pocket threes were defeated by Thomas Boivin’s pocket nines. The Belgian, in such a rich vein of current form, held with ease after flopping a set of nines to leave Blumenthal drawing dead to the river and on his way to collecting $127,000 in sixth place.

Next to go was Anatoly Nikitin. The Russian shoved for 15 big blinds with pocket nines but this time he was one pip on each card behind Jorge Gomez, who woke up with pocket tens and called quickly. An ace-high board paired no-one’s hand, leaving Nikitin to collect $167,000 and bid the table farewell.

Adeniya Almost Defends but Iadisernia Triumphs

With just four players left, one of their number was the reigning champion. British poker superstar Martins Adeniya won this event back in 2025 and was hoping for that most improbable of titles on the circuit – back-to-back WPT Main Events. Those hopes were dashed just outside the podium places, however, when he moved all-in with king-seven on a 7-6-5 flop with two clubs.

Called by Giuseppe Iadisernia’s jack-eight of clubs, the Venezuelan was behind but actually had a 67% chance to win the hand, and so it proved when a six of spades on the turn was followed by a deuce of clubs on the river. Martins Adeniya wouldn’t win back-to-back titles but still left the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship to applause and with $220,000 in fourth place.

Out in third was Thomas Boivin. The Belgian shoved for just under 10 bigs with ace-seven but needed help when Iadisernia turned over pocket aces. No assistance came to the Belgian’s rescue and he departed with $295,000 in third place. Heads-up, Iadisernia took a big lead into the action, with 71 big blinds to Gomez’ 31 bigs.

While Gomez did double-up, by that point he was further behind than where he started and soon, he had drifted to a very short stack. With just four big blinds, he called off his stack with nine-five, but couldn’t win with the ‘Dolly Parton’, running into Iadisernia’s pocket jacks. A board of A-A-2-6-4 saw the Venezuelan the champion after the turn card fell and he celebrated wildly with his rail, winning the top prize of $611,700, which included the $10,400 entry into the season-ending WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas in December.

For Jorge Gomez, he collected $395,000 as a deserving runner-up, a tough final table packed with talent having been negotiated brilliantly by the final two players. Once again, the World Poker Tour proved that as the oldest global tour in the poker universe, it still holds a lot of sway with players of all levels looking to make their dreams come true.