The Merit Poker Dolce Vita Series celebrates the notion of the “good life,” of warm, sunny days and carefree relaxation. And life was certainly good for Danesh Zargaran on the final day of the $1,100 IPO Master.

Zargaran began the day as chip leader and went wire-to-wire at the final table, defeating Candido Cappiello in a short heads-up match to cap off a dominating run throughout the tournament and win the $146,600 top prize.

“Actually, I ran really good. It was hard, but I think I played it well,” Zargaran said following his victory. “Two, three movements I had that helped me to be the chip leader. I was lucky. You have to be lucky when you win the tournament. For sure, you have to be lucky, and I’m very happy.”

$1,100 IPO Master Final Table Results

The Iranian native has only had one recorded cash in the last decade. His previous best result was a win in a $500 event here at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in 2010 for $65,550. But he’s already thinking about what this win can mean for his career going forward.

“I’m looking forward to playing different tournaments, bigger tournaments. Thinking about it professionally,” he said.

Zargaran certainly played like a professional today as he ended up atop a massive field of 937 players. He was the chip leader at the start of the day. He was the first to cross 10,000,000. He was still the chip leader at the start of the final table. At one point during three-handed play, he controlled nearly 80 percent of the chips in play. He began heads-up against Cappiello with a 14-1 chip lead and ended it after only a few hands.

“I was chip leader two days in a row. I played it well. I put pressure, maximum pressure, on short stacks,” he said. When we were three-handed, the prize difference was like $40K, so I put maximum pressure on both players, and it worked."

Day 4 Action

Day 4 began with 42 players remaining out of 937 total entries. Maher Achour (42nd), Andrei Spataru (39th), Azizjon Rakhimov (31st), and Romain Retiere (28th) were among the first to bust in a flurry of quick elimninations at the start of the day.

Recent WSOP bracelet winner Georgios Skarparis busted in 27th place to Simone Pascucci, while Amir Saeid picked up jacks to take out both Dmitrii Levin (26th) and EPT champion Kalidou Sow (25th). Zargaran added to his chip lead when he spiked an ace on the turn to crack John Basta’s tens and eliminate him in 23rd place.

Cappiello was in second place behind Zargaran at the start of the day but needed some good fortune to stay alive. He was all in for 3,500,000 with ace-queen but dominated by Carlos Aoun’s ace-king. Cappiello, though, hit a flush on the river to double up to more than 7,000,000.

Pascucci ran queens into Harout Ghazarian’s aces to finish in 20th, while Bakhos Joumaa was eliminated in 18th after coming up short in a three-way all in as Houman Sahafi tripled up with nines.

Zargaran busted Nikolay Fal in 15th with ace-king to king-queen, then took out Aleksandr Pak in 13th with two jacks. Bulent Kose was then the victim of a bad beat as he hit two pair on the turn, but Robert Burlacu spiked a better two pair on the river to bust Kose in 12th place.

Cappiello snapped off Jak Ferman’s all-in shove on the river with a straight to send the Day 2 chip leader to the rail on the final-table bubble. But while that hand was in progress on the outer table, Burlacu shoved for 9,700,000 on the main feature table. Zargaran called with ace-jack and had Burlacu’s queen-jack dominated. Zargaran held on to win the massive pot and take the chip lead into the final table with nearly 32,000,000.

Svetoslav Nikolov was the first to fall when he was all in for 5,475,000 against Francesco Canzonieri but couldn’t win a race with ace-king against tens. Canzonieri also eliminated Saeid in seventh with a pair of jacks.

Ghazarian was then all in with two aces against both Mohamed Ameur Hammi and Canzonieri, but Hammi hit a set of fives on the river to bust Ghazarian in sixth. Hammi, though, would be the next to fall as he four-bet shoved for 8,850,000 with ace-ten but Zargaran had a dominating ace-queen to send him to the rail in fifth place.

At one point during the final table, Sahafi was down to less than 2,000,000 but doubled up with queens against Zargaran’s ace-jack and ace-ten against Cappiello’s king-queen. He then woke up with queens in the big blind to bust Canzonieri in fourth place.

Zargaran continued to add to his lead during three-handed play, making a running flush on Cappiello and then bluff-shoving the turn on Sahafi as he moved up past 70,000,000. Zargaran then raised to 1,750,000 in the small blind, Sahafi shoved for 14,000,000 in the big blind, and Zargaran snap-called with two kings. Sahafi had an ace-queen, and Zargaran hit a set on the turn to leave Sahafi drawing dead and heading to the rail in third place.

Zargaran took a massive lead of 85,200,000 to Cappiello’s 6,800,000 into heads-up. It was only a few hands before Cappiello shoved for 5,050,000 with eight-seven, and Zargaran called with nine-seven, winning the pot and the tournament with nine-high.

It brought to an end an impressive run through the final table, and in this seaside paradise along the sunny shores of the Mediterranean, the sun certainly shone on Zargaran today.

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