After heading into the star-studded final table with the chip lead, Giuseppe Iadisernia took down the $3,500 buy-in WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship to win $611,700.
This was the third-largest score of his career, taking Iadisernia’s career live tournament earnings to over $3.5 million. With the win, Iadisernia is now Venezuela’s all-time money list leader, leapfrogging Christian Roberts ($3.04 million).
This event is one of the cornerstones of the World Poker Tour brand. The brand’s image has taken major hits this month, especially after adding Ren Lin as an ambassador and the resulting fallout.
An extremely familiar final table
Though the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship attracted 1,229 entrants, three of the players at the seven-man final table (Iadisernia, Thomas Boivin, and Anatoly Nikitin) all competed in the $25,500 High Roller earlier in the week and all finished in the top three. Boivin won the title for $310,255, with Iadisernia and Nikitin finishing second and third for $187,700 and $117,570, respectively.
Martins Adeniya, who won the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship in 2025, made a return to the final table in an attempt to repeat as champion.
These four international players were joined on the final table by Americans Jorge Gomez, Eddie Blumenthal, and Ted McNamara.
Generally, World Poker Tour final tables are six-handed, but due to an issue with the stream, play stopped partway through Level 30 with seven players remaining, with the blinds at 100,000/200,000 with a 200,000 big blind ante.
| Place | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Giuseppe Iadisernia | Venezuela | 18,400,000 | 92 |
| 2nd | Anatoly Nikitin | Russia | 10,675,000 | 53 |
| 3rd | Thomas Boivin | Belguim | 10,100,000 | 51 |
| 4th | Eddie Blumenthal | United States | 7,425,000 | 37 |
| 5th | Ted McNamara | United States | 6,025,000 | 30 |
| 6th | Martins Adeniya | United Kingdom | 4,800,000 | 24 |
| 7th | Jorge Gomez | United States | 4,000,000 | 20 |
A true battle of wits
The three $25,000 High Roller finalists found themselves in familiar territory, with Iadisernia, Nikitin, and Boivin holding 64% of the chips between them, though the Venezuelan held nearly twice as many chips as his closest competitor.
The players battled for nearly two hours, and the average chip stack dipped below 30 big blinds before the first player left the felt. However, just before, a major hand gave Nikitin the chip lead over Iadisernia.
With the blinds at 150,000/300,000, Nikitin opened to 600,000 from under the gun, and Iadisernia three-bet to 1,200,000 from the button. Nikitin called. On the Q-Q-2 rainbow flop, Iadisernia bet 1,100,000, and Nikitin called. The turn brought the 9 of hearts, putting a flush draw on the board. Both players checked. On the offsuit 6 river, Nikitin blasted for 3,500,000, and Iadisernia called. Nikitin showed pocket nines for a turned full house. Iadisernia turned over pocket kings, and the Russian took control of the final table.
Just a few hands later, Ted McNamara was the first to go. After an Iadisernia open and a Nikitin three-bet, McNamara cold four-bet pocket queens and ran into Iadisernia’s pocket aces. The queens wouldn’t improve, and McNamara had to settle for a $98,000 seventh-place finish, while Iadisernia would jump back into the lead.
Just 10 hands later, Eddie Blumenthal would be eliminated in sixth place as he three-bet pocket threes from the small blind for 15 big blinds and ran into Thomas Boivin’s pocket nines in the big blind. Boivin flopped a set of nines to knock out Blumenthal, who took home $127,000 for his efforts.
Nikitin suffered death by a thousand cuts, losing several small pots and falling victim to the rising blinds. The Russian four-bet jammed pocket nines from the cutoff into Jorge Gomez, who woke up with pocket tens in the small blind. Nikitin didn’t improve and took home $167,000 for his fifth-place finish.
Adeniya denied back-to-back titles
Though it took 34 hands to go down from six players to four, it would take exactly another 34 hands to get down to three-handed play. Martins Adeniya, winner of the 2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship, was denied an astonishing double and took home $220,000 for his fourth-place finish.
After starting the hand with about 15.5 big blinds, Adeniya defended the big blind with king-seven of hearts against Iadisernia’s cutoff open. The flop came 7-6-5 with two clubs, and Adeniya check-jammed his top pair. Iadisernia snap-called with jack-eight of clubs for a devastating combo draw. Adeniya was left with just a 31% chance to win.
Though the turn was clean, the river delivered the deuce of clubs to give Iadisernia his flush to move up to 66 big blinds and knock out the defending champ.
Gomez was in second with 43 bigs while Boivin brought up the rear with 14 bigs heading into three-handed play.
Iadisernia rolls to victory
Though the battle raged on with three left, Boivin would eventually jam ace-nine into Iadisernia’s pocket aces and exited in third place for $295,000. Iadisernia went into heads-up play with a seven-to-three advantage.
Heads-up play between Iadisernia and Gomez would last for 46 hands, though Gomez never got rolling. Iadisernia widened the lead from the onset and was quickly down to just seven big blinds. Though Gomez doubled, he would give it all back, losing five straight hands and going down to four big blinds.
Gomez would get his last few chips in with nine-five offsuit and ran directly into Iadisernia’s pocket jacks, leaving Gomez with just a 14% chance to stay alive.
The A-A-2 flop virtually sealed the deal for Iadisernia, and the 6 turn gave Iadisernia his first-career WPT title and $611,700. Gomez took home $395,000 as the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship runner-up.
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Giuseppe Iadisernia | Venezuela | $611,700 |
| 2nd | Jorge Gomez | United States | $395,000 |
| 3rd | Thomas Boivin | Belguim | $295,000 |
| 4th | Martins Adeniya | United Kingdom | $220,000 |
| 5th | Anatoly Nikitin | Russia | $167,000 |
| 6th | Eddie Blumenthal | United States | 4,800,000 |
| 7th | Ted McNamara | United States | 4,000,000 |
