/ Matthew Pitt / 09 February 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Andrea Dato (Photo: Francesco Rizzo / WPT)
The finalists have now locked up at least €32,195 for their efforts over the past week but the eventual winner will walk away with €229,800 which includes a seat to the 2012 WPT World Championship worth $25,500.
On Monday a total of 155 poker players passed through the doors of the oldest running casino in the world, the Casino Di Venezia, and exchanged €4,950 for 30,000 tournament chips and the chance to join the likes of Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen in becoming a World Poker Tour champion.
For 149 of them the dream has ended but for the six men who have reached the televised final table the dream is certainly still alive and in around 24 hours time one of them will indeed be crowed WPT Venice Grand Prix champion. The man who they all have to catch when the tournament resumes at 1400 CET on Friday is Andrea Dato who ended the penultimate day with 1,591,000 chips, the only player to pass the one million chip barrier..
The name Dato may ring a bell with some of you and it should because in December 2011 he was mentioned on these very pages after he finished fourth in the WPT Venice Main Event. That particular tournament carried a lower buy-in of €3,000 and was hosted on the mainland not the historical floating city. Now the Italian is looking to go all the way and follow in the footsteps of Edouard Alescio (winner of December's WPT Venice) and keep the trophy in Italy.
Five men stand between Dato and him winning the title not least of all Simon Ravnsbaek who will start the day as Dato's nearest rival with 922,000 chips. Ravnsbaek has played controlled, aggressive poker throughout this Main Event and it is nailed on that he will either win this event or have a major say in who does. He has shown he is not afraid to get involved in pots, especially against Dato who he has position on and Friday's encounter should be very interesting indeed.
Making up the final six are Rinat Bogdanov (907,000 chips), Alessandro Longobardi (558,000), Andrea Carini (347,000) and Gianluca Trebbi (343,000). The blinds will start at 10,000/20,000/2,000a and the average stack is 775,000 so some of the shorter stacks have a little work to do if they are to mount a serious challenge at this final table.
Along with the prestige if winning such an event there is also the not so small matter of prize money. The finalists have now locked up at least €32,195 for their efforts over the past week but the eventual winner will walk away with €229,800 which includes a seat to the 2012 WPT World Championship worth $25,500.
WPT Venice Grand Prix Final Table
Seat 1: Andrea Dato: 1,591,000
Seat 2: Simon Ravnsbaek: 922,000
Seat 3: Rinat Bogdanov: 907,000
Seat 4: Alessandro Longobardi 558,000
Seat 5: Andrea Carini: 347,000
Seat 6: Gianluca Trebbi: 343,000
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