Julio Belluscio, a player from Buenos Aires, Argentina, topped the Main Event of the latest PokerStars Festival. The $1,650 buy-in tournament, together with the whole festival, took place in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It saw the champion rush through the nine-handed final table, eliminating each of his eight opponents to eventually grab the title and $66,748 in prize money.
Including his latest triumph, Belluscio now has $364,733 in live tournament earnings. The player has been quite active on the live poker scene, participating in events in different parts of the world, but has never been too close to a major title. At least not until now when he is the proud winner of the inaugural PokerStars Festival Uruguay Main Event.
PokerStars Festival Uruguay Main Event Final Day Recap
Day 4 of the tournament saw the nine final tablists resume play for the title and the first-place prize. The finalists were led by Belluscio himself. And here it is important to note that the player almost did not relinquish his advantage throughout the whole day.
The eventual champion built a solid stack, advantage, and confidence by eliminating every single of his opponents left at the table. Eventually, he faced another Julio (Julio Arocena from Uruguay) heads-up. Two-handed battle began with Belluscio holding controlling advantage over his opponent and putting the latter into serious threat of speedy elimination.
However, that did not happen as Arocena was not ready to give up on the title that easily. The two players battled it out for quite a while. At some point, Arocena managed to even the stacks and even to take the lead. However, Belluscio quickly reassumed his controlling position after winning a massive pot.
Here it is important to note that it was around that stage of the game when the two players discussed and agreed on chopping what had remained of the pot. Under the ICM counts, Belluscio was to receive $66,748 and Arocena locked $60,027.
The final hand for the evening occurred not long after. It saw Arocena shove for his last 2 million and Belluscio give his next move some consideration before announcing the call. The player’s [As][3h] squared off with Arocena’s [Kh][2s]. The board ran out comfortably for Belluscio with [10d][10h][5d][Qs][10c] and earned him his first big title and his largest live cash. And under the previously reached deal, his opponent hit the rail in second place for $60,027.
With the completion of its Uruguay stop, PokerStars Festival is next set to travel to Dublin. The Irish capital will play host to the popular poker series from September 25 through October 1. Among a plethora of other events, the exciting festival will feature the €1,100 Main Event with a guaranteed prize pool of €700,000. The tournament is slated for September 28-October 1.
