Wsop Event 31

Another top Internet poker player, the 23-year-old Italian ace Dario Minieri, has scored his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet after winning Event 31 - the $2 500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em competition. Minieri becomes only the second Italian - the first was Max Pescatori - to win one of the coveted WSOP bracelets.

1 012 players entered for the event, which provided fast-paced entertainment and excitement with plenty of changes in fortune and an abundance of aggressive poker, at which the young Italian excelled.

The final table comprised Minieri, who held a more than half a million chip lead over his nearest rival, Kevin Song, Justin Filtz, Stuart Marshak, John O'Shea from Dublin, Ireland and Seth Fischer.

The heads up was decided when Justin Filtz headed for the exit in third place, eliminated by Fischer and collecting a paycheck of $214 139. That left Minieri across the table from Seth Fischer and at that stage with a chip disadvantage. Minieri has admitted that it's the sort of challenge he relishes, and he proved it by winning and losing pots but relentlessly closing in on Fischer to ultimately truimph in the 198th hand.

The reward was substantial, with a main prize of $528 418 and the bracelet, something that Minieri has strived for in two previous WSOP appearances, when he cashed in the two Main Events but didn't make the final table in either.

Fischer's second place finish was worth $330 519, and respect for a game played with intelligence and talent but lacking in good fortune on the day.

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