Gabriele Lepore

Main event thoughts thread: I watched from 7 players to a winner. Tamayo -> seems so humble, unassuming, genuinely nice! Showed the classic small ball main event style that many think is the best. Will be a good champion and I’m sure we’ll see him grinding the series year in year out, likely forgettable to many due to the coverage not being mainstream and expecting reply to sneaky photos in WhatsApp groups in the future that it’s the main event champion! People vindicating the QQ fold doesn’t make any sense, he wasn’t going to bust that hand. Griff -> I honestly think he played exceptional. The best amateur performance I can remember. He made pots BIG against the pros and didn’t let them small ball him. He was on Lena’s left and put him in a lot of tough decisions with aggression. Lena’s exit interview said he thought Griff was wild and unpredictable and that’s the perfect image to have, however to do this without any significant solver disapproved punts is extremely rare. Because he was covered up I assumed he was a 50-60 year old recreational, when I saw he was 30 I started to wonder if he was a sneaky online grinder. Would have been an incredible champion, we will see a lot more of him Lena -> The goat. My idol. My toughest competitor in history. The player I’ve played most vs. The player who’s owned me consistently more than anybody. For him to win would have been such a storyline for poker being a skill game. Relentless aggression, gave them all tough times throughout. Most would likely regret the KJ, but his game has always been about trusting himself and being able to be one level ahead of his opponents. It’s impossible to get 100% right. He inspires me to keep grinding and catch him one day. Sagle -> Pure class and what the main event is all about. I’m sure thousands who played this event could identify with him and even after playing 10 gruelling days played with class, energy and conviction. Angelov -> very very good performance. He has started playing online tournaments recently and he is TOUGH! So no surprise to see him putting on a great performance here. An amazing rail filled with really nice guys, he just comes across as somebody you don’t want to have on your table. Expect him to be back and to have many more runs in the future, great DNA for highroller tournaments imo. Gonzales -> bitB OG, genuinely such a nice guy. Shy, quiet, extremely smart but knows exactly what he is doing. Many thousands of hours studying and surrounded by the best players in the world, many mistook his speed as amateurish, he just knows his ranges and what he’s going to do. An unfortunate distribution where he had to fold some on the surface fist pump hands that turned into the best hand he would fold which is such an unfortunate place to consistently be at. Brian Kim -> An incredible player who I’m sure got here from going for it. His exit makes sense too. Blocking Lena’s AK/KK whilst unblocking Ax 4b bluffs and 6 max unblocker to RFI/F range + 4bF range + having equity vs almost everything when called. Looks bad when it’s wrong, but he got it in way better than it looks.