Luca Pagano is about the steadiest player on the European Poker Tour. He has cashed four times in the year-and-a-half since the series of tournaments began, including two final tables. He and Noah Boeken, each with more than 65,000 in chips overnight here, were both vying to become the first player to make a third.

I’m sorry to report that it won’t be Luca.

Steady players don’t get busted easily – and pocket kings is a fair hand to shove all the chips in. There’s one exception to that rule and it usually involves aces. Two of them. So it was that poker’s most popular pre-flop match-up accounted for the Venetian.

It’s been said before in a variety of ways. If you go into the barbers enough times you’re going to get a haircut; if you go to the bar enough times, you’re going to buy a drink. The same must go for the EPT. Luca Pagano will win one of these events soon.

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