The Festa al Lago Title Goes to Tommy Vedes | IXGAMES
The Festa al Lago Tournament that’s part of the World Poker Tour came to a close on Monday and gave professional poker player, Tommy Vedes the title as reigning champion after defeating 275 other players, including some other big names in poker! Vedes has a history of wins in the poker community, including finishing 19th place in the main event at the World Series of Poker in 2009; but the $1,218,225 first place prize that he took away from the Festa a Lago event at the Bellagio mark his biggest career winnings to date.
Despite the big win, Vedes had a little bit of a long road to get there. As the 275 players were whittled down to a mere 6, it took over an hour for the professional poker player to take the win against the other players in the final, including another well-known Poker Player, Freddy Deeb. Shawn Cunix was the first out of the final part of the competition, following a four-outer courtesy of Vedes, but he still managed to walk away with $168,970 for his sixth place finish. Next, Jason Burt was eliminated by Freddy Deeb, giving him $208,725 for finishing in fifth place. Despite his recognizable name in the world of Poker and a strong hand that eliminated Burt, Deeb made his exit during the next round taking fourth place, followed by Craig Crivello who received a $477,090 piece of the pot for his third place finish. Finally, the competition came down to Tommy Vedes and Jason Lavallee in heads-up action and Vedes set of queens left the player to finish second after a tough competition, however, he did take home $794,150 for his second place finish.
The Festa Al Lago competition that’s part of the World Poker Tour takes place annually at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The competition is No Limit Texas Hold Em with a $15,000 +400 buy-in requirement for all players. It acts as a qualifier for the main WPT event, awarding players $25,000 +500 in addition to the prize pool for the event and there are no re-buys available to players who find themselves eliminated from the competition.
For those players who want to check out the playing environment offered by the Bellagio, their Poker Room offers players in daily No Limit Hold Em tournaments, with buy-ins that vary at different times of the week.