Giacomo Fundaro Wins WPT Mazagan (1,443,000 MAD)

It took 31-levels before we saw a smile break out on the face of the brooding Italian Giacomo Fundaro. But when it did come out to play, it didn’t go away for quite some time. He was controversial, he was enigmatic, he was enraging and often brilliant; but most of all he was deserving. Congratulations to the latest member of the WPT Championship Club: Giacomo Fundaro. The champion of WPT Mazagan.

Here is the recap of the final table.

Before the action started Davidi Kitai told us that if there was one man he did not want to double up it was Giacomo Fundaro. He was the one player whom Kitai was unable to put his finger on. Unpredictable is probably the best word to use. It’s unfortunate then, that Kitai’s start did not go to plan, because in the first two levels he did indeed double-up the unpredictable Italian. It was a flip with [As] [Js] unable to upset pocket tens. Fundaro moving into contention nicely.

Kitai’s miserable start didn’t stop there. Frederic Brunet took a big chunk of change off him as well. The board was reading [Ad] [Kd] [3s] [8s] and Kitai had already invested 300,000 chips when Brunet shipped on him. Kitai folded and Brunet showed the lone [Qc].

The first two levels ended with all six players with bums on seats and Kitai still in the lead.

Level 24 saw one elimination, the emergence of a serious contender and a new chip leader. Bruno Fitoussi – who had played the first two levels excellently – found himself staring down at ace-queen in the big blind after the short stack, Jeremy Nock, had shoved from the small blind. A perfect situation you may think? Well not when Nock has the cowboys. Fitoussi was crushed while Nock was back in the game. A few orbits later and Fitoussi was all-in, and ahead, against a man who just couldn’t win a hand, in the shape of Davidi Kitai. Leading up to the Fitoussi hand Kitai had lost one million chips in the first 90-minutes of play. He raised from the button holding [Kc] [9d] and called Fitoussi’s shove with [Ah] [3d]. Fitoussi nearly made it, but the [Ks] on the river sent him packing in sixth position.

Just prior to the elimination of Fitoussi, Giacomo Fundaro had taken the chip lead after winning a big pot from Kitai. It was a three-bet pot on a board of [Ac] [Tc] [6s] [8d] [As] which saw Fundaro extract some river value holding pocket queens, which gave him the chip lead.

One man who was really shining through level 24 was Frederic Brunet. He moved over the one million-chip mark by winning every significant pot he played. If there was a flop, turn or river the French Bridge champion was taking it down.

The level ended with five players in the hunt for the title and Giacomo Fundaro the chip leader with 1,330,000 chips.

The 25th level was a shove fest. Clement Beauvois and Jeremy Nock finding themselves with not much more than a shove and fold strategy. Nock managed to escape without being called, but Beauvois was not so fortunate; but it did take Fundaro two bites of the cherry before he finally eliminated OhMyGuru. In the first showdown, Fundaro was ahead with [Ad] [Td] versus the [Ac] [3c] of Beauvois. But the board ran out paired, and high, and Beauvois escaped. But he couldn’t find that great escape the second time the pair tangoed. Fundaro found pocket sevens against the [Qc] [Ts] of Beauvois. The first card out of the deck was a queen, but the second was a seven. A set for the Italian and Beauvois was out in fifth place.

We lost another player for the third successive level and it was the shock of the day. WPT Champions Club member Davidi Kitai had undergone a shocking day, but still must have been hoping his experience would pull him through. He three-bet a Frederic Brunet open on the button, holding pocket jacks, and then moved all-in over the four-bet squeeze from Giacomo Fundaro. Fundaro called with kings and Kitai was out on fourth place.

The 26th level ended with Giacomo Fundaro in the lead with 2,2260,000 chips. Nock had 1,245,000 and Brunet 855,000.

The 27th level was the level where we finally reached our heads-up stage. The poor, unfortunate soul that was not invited to the party was Jeremy Nock. Nock was eliminated in a flip against Frederic Brunet: KQ<AT, and that left Giacomo Fundaro (2,725,000) to compete with Frederic Brunet (1,655,000) for the WPT title.

It took 90-minutes of heads-up play before we had our first all-in and call and it as the Italian, Giacomo Fundaro, who was counting his blessings. Brunet held the hand that eliminated Nock – [Ah] [Th] – and Fundaro was holding [7h] [6h]. The crowd surrounded the final table and the dealer put out a flop containing two-pair for Fundaro. Neither the turn nor the river helped Brunet and all his hard work was down the pan. They were both even and we started all over again.

It was one hour later before we had our next all-in, and call, and this time there would be no more action once the five community cards had been dealt. Giacomo Fundaro did an extremely good job to grind Frederic Brunet down and force him into a shove or fold game. Brunet eventually going for it with [Qh] [9h] and Fundaro was ready and waiting with [Ac] [3h]. An ace appeared on the flop and Brunet was dead by the turn. We had a new WPT Champion and his name was Giacomo Fundaro.