🇮🇹 Daniele Santaniello is the King's Million Main Event winner!

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The King’s Million Main Event ends in almost poetic fashion, with the title going to the player who held just 1% of the chips in play at the start of the final table: Italy’s Daniele Santaniello, who came in with only 3.5 big blinds (2,700,000 chips at 500,000/1,000,000 blinds) and managed, thanks to a favorable run but also precise decision-making, to triple up and double through multiple times on his way to victory.

He officially takes home €125,500 + tickets, reduced to €113,000 after a deal with runner-up Patrik Cacaleceanu, capping what is his first year as a player and his first major live shot.

The final Table

Rewinding to the start of the final day, the chip leader was Vietnam’s Duc Tran with 88,900,000 chips, followed by Harekrishna (36,800,000) and Patrik Cacaleceanu (37,300,000), who has been living in Italy for many years. Slightly behind was Gianluca Cammarata, one of the standout performers from Day 3, who would eventually finish in 4th place for €43,000 + tickets after a failed deal attempt earlier at the table.

The first player to bust was Ciprian Paunescu (9th – €11,600 + tickets), who shoved UTG with A-6 and was called by Santaniello with A-K and Harekrishna with pocket sixes. The board ran J-J-K-9-9, allowing Santaniello to win a crucial three-way all-in and stay alive.

One of the key hands of the final table came shortly after: Michal Koniuszkiewicz opened with A-Q for about 11 big blinds, Dieter Pichler 3-bet, and Santaniello flatted with A-J suited, leaving himself just a few blinds behind. On a 7-5-8 flop, Santaniello moved all-in and was snap-called by Pichler holding K-K, but an Ace on the turn flipped the hand, giving Santaniello a vital double-up.

Michal Koniuszkiewicz (8th – €15,100 + tickets) was the next to fall, his pocket nines running into Duc Tran’s A-K on a Q-J-10-10-5 board, where Tran had already completed a straight on the flop. Not long after, Tran himself lost a massive pot to Santaniello in a button versus big blind dynamic: Santaniello 3-bet with Q-Q and Tran called with A-6 suited.

On a Q-10-10 board, Santaniello bet flop, check-called turn on a 6, then shoved river on a 3, inducing Tran to commit more chips with the inferior hand. Left with just a few blinds, Tran was eliminated shortly after in 7th place (€19,600 + tickets) with A-6 against Cacaleceanu’s pocket Aces.

The next elimination was NotisGR (6th – €25,500 + tickets), who shoved K-6 from the button and was called by Cacaleceanu with A-6 on a A-8-2-7-3 board. Soon after, Dieter Pichler (5th – €33,000 + tickets) was knocked out by Santaniello after moving in with pocket eights and getting called by Q-J suited from the small blind; the board A-9-7-J-2 sealed his fate and pushed Santaniello further ahead.

Down to four players, Santaniello controlled the action. Gianluca Cammarata gradually lost ground before the decisive clash with Cacaleceanu: A-J for the Romanian against Cammarata’s Q-J suited, on a 7-8-5-4-9 board, ending the Italian’s run in 4th place (€43,000 + tickets).

Harekrishna (3rd – €56,500 + tickets) finished in third after getting it in short-stacked, leaving Santaniello and Cacaleceanu heads-up. The duel started with Cacaleceanu ahead (about 98 million vs 123 million), but the two agreed to a deal, redistributing the payouts while leaving money for the winner.

After about an hour, the final hand saw Santaniello holding K♦10♦ against Cacaleceanu’s 2-2. A ten on the flop gave Santaniello the lead, and the board 9-4-10-3-A brought no help for the pocket deuces. Santaniello completes a full comeback, going from the shortest stack to tournament winner, claiming the first major title of his career.

Results

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