Italy's Ermanno Di Nicola has added his name to the roster of World Series of Poker bracelet winners by taking down Event #5 of the WSOP Europe festival, €550 No-Limit Hold'em Colossus on Wednesday. Di Nicola claimed the event's first-place payday of €200,000 after surviving a roller-coaster start to the final day.
Di Nicola began the Colossus' Day 3 among the event's leaders but suffered early hits that left him in short-stack territory. Then, all in for his tournament life with ace-jack, he fell far behind Elia Salerno's flopped set of threes, but hit a runner-runner turn and river to make a Broadway straight. From that unlikely hand Di Nicola continued to surge and ultimately finished off the win by busting Poland's Alain Saka during heads-up play.
Di Nicola's first WSOP bracelet win capped a great event for Italian players. Only Poland's Saka, who earned €115,000 as the runner-up, prevented Italy from achieving a podium sweep. Angelo Marrone placed third for €87,000, while Alessandro Predaroli finished fourth to collect €66,000.
Third final table in three years for Di Nicola
In a statistical oddity, Di Nicola has cashed only three times at the WSOP Europe during his career, but all three cashes have come in final-table runs. In 2021's WSOP Europe series, Di Nicola went deep in both the €2K and €5K pot-limit Omaha events. Di Nicola made the deeper of his previous two PLO final tables in the €5K PLO tourney, where he finished third, just days after placing eighth in the €2K PLO tourney.
Wednesday's €200,000 winner's payday in the Colossus gives Di Nicola just over $350,000 in total live WSOP-branded, live-event earnings, all of it coming at WSOP Europe home Kings Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. According to the Hendon Mob database, Di Nicola's career live earnings are now over $600,000.
The NLH Colossus event amassed 3,436 total entries from 2,453 initial entries and 983 re-entries. The accumulated €1,632,100 prize pool (about US $1,723,461) topped the event's €1.5 million guarantee, and the top 495 finishers made the money. The final-table finishers in Event #5, €550 No-Limit Hold'em Colossus, were as follows:
- Ermanno Di Nicola (Italy) - €200,000
- Alain Saka (Poland) - €115,000
- Angelo Marrone (Italy) - €87,000
- Alessandro Predaroli (Italy) - €66,000
- Tobias Peters (Netherlands) - €50,500
- Julien Loire (France) - €38,800
- Xhavit Berisha (Kosovo) - €30,000
- Juuso Luokkanen (Finland) - €23,350
