Mustapha “lasagnaaammm” Kanit has won the Spring Championships of Online Poker High Main Event after beating Emil ‘Maroonlime’ Patel in heads up action to take the $1.3m first prize.
In 2014 he became the first player to win two side events at the same Aussie Millions festival, when he topped fields of 1,302 and 494 players in differing variants of No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) events.
Earlier this year he joined a team of firsts when Team Italy won the inaugural Global Poker Masters (GPM) in Malta. And he has just topped both of those feats by becoming, I believe, the first player to win the Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) High Main Event and the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event in the same season.
Kanit has beaten a field of 694 players, in the $10,300 buy-in SCOOP (H) Main Event, after beating Emil ‘Maroonlime’ Patel in heads-up action. The tournament created a total prize pool of $6,940,000 and Kanit took $1,304,720 after the final table played out without any discussion of a deal. Back in March, Kanit defeated 1,260 players (playing as ‘potta_x_potta’) to win the $239,400 first prize in the FTOPS Main Event.
Incredibly, it’s his second seven figure score this month after winning over a million bucks in the €50,000 NLHE Super High Roller at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
He is, quite literally, one of the hottest players in the world, and seems destined to have a great World Series of Poker (WSOP). Last year he made three final tables finishing seventh, fifth and fifth.
The SCOOP (H) Main Event final table contained four of the best online players in the world. Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb tried his very best to match Calvin ‘cal42688’ Anderson’s record sixth SCOOP title, but his deep main event run finished in seventh place after his pocket nines failed to hold against Kanit’s ace-queen.
Christian ‘eisenhower1’ Jeppsson is another online powerhouse, and he would follow Deeb to the rail in sixth place after his king-jack failed to find the overcards needed to overcome the pocket deuces of Patel.
The heads-up encounter would fall between Kanit and Patel. The Italian held a big chip lead (7.6m v 2.7m), and both players were searching for their second SCOOP title. The hand count crept into double digits when this happened.
Patel opened to 120,000 from the button, Kanit three-bet to 343,220, and Patel called. The flop was [Qh] [Jd] [9h], Kanit led for 287,420, and Patel called. The [Qs] hit the turn, and both players checked. The [Ts] on the river produced a 947,210 bet by Kanit, Patel moved all-in for 2,565,739, and Kanit snapped him off. Patel showed [Js] [Th] for two pair, and Kanit showed pocket queens for quads.
Now that’s how you finish off a tournament.
Kanit has now earned over $4m playing online, and $3.7m playing live. He is currently the No. #1 ranked Italian player in the Global Poker Index (GPI), and ranked No. #11 worldwide.
Final Table Results
1st. Mustapha “lasagnaaammm” Kanit – $1,304,720
2nd. Emil ‘Maroonlime’ Patel – $950,780
3rd. KumariOy – $700,940
4th. I am Bobbie – $527,440
5th. Prrrak4783 – $370,596
6th. Christian ‘eisenhower1’ Jeppsson – $294,950
7th. Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb – $225,550
8th. Ableainy – $156,150
9th. Hello_totti – $104,100
