Former poker dealer Christopher Campisano has triumphed in the WSOP Europe Mini Main Event, turning his old workplace into a stage of triumph.
He has now claimed his place in poker history by winning his first WSOP bracelet and a substantial prize of €213,350.
Campisano’s path to victory was anything but straightforward. During the final table, he faced elimination four times, three of which occurred during the intense heads-up action against Frederic Marechal.
Despite being on the brink of defeat, Campisano demonstrated remarkable resilience to ultimately overcome the Belgian in a thrilling showdown.
In total, there were 1,286 entries to the event, creating a prize pool of €1,500,000.
Campisano expressed after securing his victory
“I don’t believe it. I feel good, very good. When I won with ace-three against ace-queen, I thought, ‘OK, maybe this is my tournament.’ I hit a lot of hands today.
“I’ll celebrate with my friends—they’re here, and I live here too. I play almost every day, so next up is the Main Event, and I already have my ticket!”
Action Recap
The final table stage was vigorous and brutal with the players barely having time to catch their breaths.
First to suffer was Luc Ramos who started the final eight with only eight big blinds. Without even having a chance to assess his surroundings, the Swiss player jammed ace-eight in a standard spot only to run into Xiaohua Yang’s ace-king.
Italy’s Luigi Pignataro was next to leave the table after starting the day second in chips and just frittering away his stack.
It all ended when his pocket queens came unstuck against the kings of Dimitrios Anastasakis.
The eliminations were coming thick and fast with no break. Germany’s Frederik Thiemer made the slow walk to the exit and then Campisano looked as if he would be joining him.
Fortunately for the Italian, his ace-trey managed to deal with Yang’s ace-queen after flopping trips and holding.
Andreas Krause and Xiaohua Yang were then both knocked out in quick succession as Frederic Marechal began to stretch his chip lead.
But now it was time for Campisano to shine and stake his claim for the title. A timely elimination of Yang had repaired his stack as we moved into three-handed play. And play remained fast and furious with no player giving quarter to their opponents.
Now, each of the three players left in contention were rotating a turn at being the chip leader with no clear favourite for the title.
Play was extremely interesting with many key hands occurring in big pots. One such hand was Campisano and Marechal clashing in a pre-flop raising war where the Belgian forced Campisano to fold his ace-queen after five-betting ace-ten.
Marechal then compounded the damage when he bluffed off most of his stack with a three-barrel bluff when his straight draw didn’t come in. Campisano, who was holding pocket aces, wasn’t going anywhere.
Campisano was now stretching his lead while Anastasakis and Marechal fought tooth and nail to stay in the hunt. The Greek player was the first to run into trouble when a standard jam from Marechal with ace-seven was called by king-queen and the ace-high flop all but ended his run.
The lead that Campisano had built had reduced somewhat by the time heads-up play kicked off, and it wasn’t long before that lead turned into a two-to-one deficit.
Marechal now began to grind his opponent down and extended his lead to an almost insurmountable nine-to-one. However, poker is rarely so straightforward.
Campisano didn’t give up and back-to-back double-ups saw the match become competitive once again.
The final hand of the match came when Campisano jammed king-nine suited and Marechal called it off with ace-three. A flopped flush draw, turned king and rivered flush was a fitting finale hand for a hard fought event.
WSOPE Mini Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Christopher Campisano | Italy | €213,950 |
| 2 | Frederic Marechal | Belgium | €145,550 |
| 3 | Dimitrios Anastasakis | Greece | €105,850 |
| 4 | Xiaohua Yang | China | €78,650 |
| 5 | Andreas Krause | Germany | €59,950 |
| 6 | Frederik Thiemer | Germany | €46,850 |
| 7 | Luigi Pignataro | Italy | €37,650 |
| 8 | Luc Ramos | Switzerland | €31,050 |
The top fourteen payouts also included a ticket to the €10,350 WSOP Main Event.
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