Giuseppe Iadisernia is on fire to start 2026, earning two huge scores at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in the span of a week. The Venezuelan-born Florida resident kicked off his campaign with a runner-up finish in the $25,000 high roller at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open. He earned $187,700 after Thomas Boivin came out on top in the final heads-up match.
Just five days later, Iadisernia battled his way down to the final two once again, this time in the $3 million guaranteed $3,500 World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open no-limit hold’em main event. Iadisernia was able to close out the victory, earning a career-best score of $611,700 for the win. He now has more than $2 million in lifetime earnings.
This was his first WPT title. His name will be added to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
In addition to the glory and the money, Iadisernia was also awarded 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points after outlasting the field of 1,229 entries. With the 210 points he earned for his second-place finish earlier in the week, his total now sits at 1,650. That is currently good for the top spot in the 2026 POY standings presented by CoinPoker.
Pair Vs. Pair Narrows Field To Four
The strong turnout for this event saw the guarantee surpassed by more than $932,000. The top 154 finishers made the money, with big names like Darryl Fish (20th), Jonathan Jaffe (17th), Loni Hui (16th), and Andrew Ostapchenko (9th) running deep.
The final day began with seven remaining and Iadisernia in the lead. Incredibly, both the winner of the previously mentioned high roller (Thomas Boivin) and the third-place finisher (Anatoly Nikitin) joined Iadisernia in making the final table of the main event.
It took a while for the first knockout hand to arrive on the final day. Eventually, Ted McNamara ran pocket queens into the pocket aces of Iadisernia to finish seventh for $98,000.
It was also pair-over-pair that led to the next elimination, with Eddie Blumenthal’s (6th – $127,000) pocket threes unable to overcome the pocket nines of Boivin, who improved to a set on the flop and held from there.
The pattern continued in the next key clash. This time around, Nikitin was the one on the wrong side of the equation. He got all-in with 9♦9♣ trailing the 10♠10♦ of Jorge Gomez. Neither player connected with the ace-high runout, and Nikitin fell in fifth place ($167,000). This deep run came less than a week after he had finished third in the previously mentioned high roller, earning $117,570 for that showing. Nikitin now has nearly $1.9 million in recorded cashes after these two deep runs.
Heavy Hitters Head To Rail
Martins Adeniya made an impressive run at defending his title in this event, making it all the way down to the final four after beating out 1,162 to win this tournament in 2025 for a career-best score of $512,600. His final hand this time around saw him get all-in with top pair facing a combo-draw for Iadisernia. The chips went in after the 7♠6♣5♣ flop with K♥7♥ for Adeniya and J♣8♣ for Iadisernia. The 6♠ on the turn kept Adeniya’s hopes alive, but the 2♣ river sent him to the rail to collect $220,000 as the fourth-place finisher. This pushed the UK poker pro’s career earnings past the $2.6 million mark.
Thomas Boivin
Iadisernia soon got his revenge on Boivin after losing heads-up earlier in the week. Iadisernia picked up A♦A♣ on the button and min-raised to 1,200,000. Boivin jammed for 5,900,000 with A♠7♥ from the small blind and was quickly called. The board came down K♠K♥10♣9♠10♠ to end Boivin’s tournament in third place ($295,000).
The Belgian tournament crusher is approaching $17.7 million in cashes, with over $605,000 coming from his success at this festival alone. This was the seventh in-the-money finish since the start of December for Boivin, with the highlight being the $2.3 million he earned for a fifth-place finish in the $250,000 buy-in WSOP Paradise Triton Invitational.
Boivin was awarded 960 POY points for his efforts. With 1,212 in total, he now sits in third place in the overall standings.
Closing Out The Win
The final showdown for the title began with Iadisernia holding 42,700,000 to Jorge Gomez’s 18,700,000. That gap was widened during the early action.
Even with multiple double-ups, Gomez was never quite able to threaten a comeback. He was down to just over four big blinds when the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Iadisernia shoved from the button with J♥J♣ and Gomez called all in from the big blind for 2,600,000 holding 9♠5♣. The board ran out A♠A♦2♦6♣4♠ and the pocket pair held to lock up the victory for Iadisernia.
Gomez earned $395,000 as the runner-up. This was his largest tournament score to date, topping the $203,875 he earned for a fourth-place finish in a $25,000 high roller at this venue back in 2022.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Giuseppe Iadisernia | $611,700 | 1,440 |
| 2 | Jorge Gomez | $395,000 | 1,200 |
| 3 | Thomas Boivin | $295,000 | 960 |
| 4 | Martins Adeniya | $220,000 | 720 |
| 5 | Anatoly Nikitin | $167,000 | 600 |
| 6 | Eddie Blumenthal | $127,000 | 480 |
| 7 | Ted McNamara | $98,000 | 360 |
| 8 | Maryon Harper | $76,000 | 240 |
| 9 | Andrew Ostapchenko | $60,000 | 120 |
Photo credits: World Poker Tour.
