The World Poker Tour (WPT) continued one of the best years in its long history with a successful WPT Prime festival in Sanremo, which came to a conclusion with Italian Priamo Carta getting the best of Romanian Trian Stanicu in a heads up battle and taking home the grand prize of €124,700.
The two outlasted a playing field of 781 players, who made their way to the luxurious Casino di Sanremo over four starting days of the WPT Prime Sanremo Championship between June 6 and 9, with action coming to a close on June 10.
The 781 players created a massive prize pool of €734,140, the bulk of which was distributed amongst the eight players who made the final table.
However, a total of 99 players made the money altogether, with those who cashed the event all cashing for at least €2,040, nearly doubling their initial buying.
Priamo Carta Comes Out on Top
As the final table of the 2024 WPT Prime Sanremo Championship was set up, it was Romanian Traian Stanicu with over 10,000,000 in chips who held the chip lead ahead of Giuseppe Zebro with 7,500,000 and Priamo Carta with 6,750,000.
The final table was live-streamed in French and Italian languages via Texapoker, but the official WPT YouTube channel did not offer the live stream of this particular event.
Yet, the most hardcore fans, as well as friends and families of the eight players who made the deepest of runs, all had an opportunity to watch the action with a slight delay.
Lithuanian Vladas Burneikis was the first to go, when his K♥8♥ ran into the A♥K♦ of the chip leader, who further extended his lead with the elimination.
The only lady in contention, Kym Nguyen was eliminated next, as her A♦8♥ could not survive against Stanicu’s pocket Queens, with the chip leader continuing to steamroll the table.
Italian Erico Ievarsi was the next to get eliminated in another preflop confrontation, and his A♠2♠ could not improve against the pocket nines of Uladzimir Luchkou, whose stack was propelled to 7,000,000 after this hand.
Luchkou continued his good run with another elimination the very next hand, this time sending Luigi Pignataro to the rail with his pocket Jacks, which held up against the K♣8♣, leaving us with just four players in contention.
Action slowed down at this point in terms of eliminations, as several players lost and won back their chips before Giuseppe Zabro was eliminated in fourth place by Traian Stanicu, who seemed destined to win the event at this point after eliminating three of the players and coming back from an earlier loss.
All three players showed plenty of prowess and played their best game, but it was eventually Uladzimir Luchkou from Belarus who exited in third place when his 10♠9♠ shove was picked off by Carta’s K♣J♣.
The final two players played a lengthy heads up match, which ended with Priamo Carta coming out on top despite the Romanian dominating the table for much of the day.
The Italian took home €124,700, which includes a $10,000 seat in the WPT World Championship event happening in December, while Stanicu had to make good with €77,000, which was still the biggest payday of his poker career.
Here is a look at the full final table payouts and results of the WPT Prime Sanremo Championship 2024:
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
| 1st | Priamo Carta | Italy | €124,700 |
| 2nd | Traian Stanicu | Romania | €77,000 |
| 3rd | Uladzimir Luchkou | Belarus | €57,000 |
| 4th | Giuseppe Zabro | Italy | €43,000 |
| 5th | Luigi Pignataro | Italy | €32,500 |
| 6th | Erico Iervasi | Italy | €24,700 |
| 7th | Kym Nguyen | Italy | €19,000 |
| 8th | Vladas Burneikis | Lithuania | €14,700 |
WPT Prime Continues Its Growth
WPT has been one of the most attractive poker tours for many years, but the relatively high buyins have barred many players from experiencing it in full for much of its history.
The addition of WPT Prime events over the last few years has sparked new interest in the WPT brand among thousands of players, especially those in Europe, where the majority of WPT Prime events take place.
This season, WPT Prime has been more successful than ever, with events in France, Netherlands, WPT Voyage, Slovakia, Australia, Montreal, and Sanremo all proving to be massively successful.
As WPT continues its expansion, the growth of the WPT Prime mid-major tour and the opportunities it gives players to build their bankrolls at local WPT stops will be of essential importance.
To that end, the Tour is set to organize a few more WPT Prime events before the year is out, and hopefully, it will continue to expand the number of Prime festivals in the years to come.
What’s next for the World Poker Tour?
The WPT season has been a huge success thus far, with more festivals packed into the first half of the year than usual, many of them breaking attendance and prize pool records.
The season will now continue with a series of WPT Alpha8 Trifecta events over the next month, to be played at the Wynn in Las Vegas, before heading over to Asia for WPT events in Cambodia and Taiwan in July and August.
The WPT Prime season will continue with the WPT Prime Taiwan Championship, followed by Prime events in Cyprus and Lichtenstein in the fall and the UK Championship event in Nottingham.
Before the year is out, WPT will also visit The Star Gold Coast in Australia, Club Circus Paris in France, and a couple of venues in the United States, with the season’s grand finale coming in December.
As has now become customary, the WPT season will conclude with a massive WPT World Championship event at the Wynn Las Vegas, which is almost guaranteed to be one of the biggest live tournaments of the entire year.
With about half of the year past, we still have a lot of action to look forward to at the World Poker Tour, with some of the best events of the year still ahead of us, along with plenty of opportunities to put your name on the coveted WPT Champions Trophy.
