The last Race Trophy semi-final is done and dusted and it's now time to look forward to the grand final in Vienna next month. The 6 lucky finalists have all secured themselves a minimum of $10,000 and will be fighting it out for the lion's share of the $500,000 prize pool.

There's still time though for a quick photo recap of this weekend's final semi-final in Italy. As usual, Sunday saw us head back to the track to watch the big races. As usual as well, we had the very best seats in the house in the VIP club. A highlight for the players was the gridwalk before the main race, which gave ..Mr77.., DK_DONKEY and STAMFORD05 the chance to have a chat with their compatriots Rydell, Poulsen and Priaulx. Getting to walk on the track and speak with the drivers like that really is an experience that money can't buy - you just have to play on PokerRoom.com!

It was then time for the famous farewell party. We headed to one of the oldest and best restaurants in Milan, Boeucc, for a sumptuous banquet and more than a few bottles of fine Italian wine. We were also joined by illusionista's Uncle who is also a Team PokerRoom member and is as we speak jetting off to Milan to take down the PokerNews Cup!

Heading back to the hotel, all that was left to do was drink the hotel bar dry, try and figure out how STAMFORD05 gave himself a black eye on the first night, and say our goodbyes. As ever, it's been a pleasure to get to know all the players (it really does make this job so enjoyable) and I hope I'll be seeing you all again at future events. Ciao for now!

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Congratulations to the lady from Poland! She's taken down the final semi final and secures her seat at the $500,000 final in Vienna. G.Mendez shoved pre-flop with pocket 2's and after a few moments in the tank, Master7x elected to make the fall and flipped A7o. The flop brought 54J and things looked good for our Brit. The turn was a 3 and things looked even better. Sadly for him though the river was.... yes, a 7. Bad luck G.Mendez, you played superb poker throughout and with a bit more luck it'd be you in that final. Congratulations again to Masterka7x! Now let the celebrations commence....

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Seat 4: G.Mendez 16600
Seat 6: Masterka7x 23400

Blinds are now at 400/800.

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Masterka7x has done it again! She's busted doubleclubs to set up a heads up with G.Mendez in which she holds the chip lead. doubleclubs shoved with A2 on the button and was called by Masterka7x on pocket 5's. A 2 on the turn gave a glimmer of hope, but neither the Ace or another 2 turned up on the river. Hard luck doubleclubs but I know you'll be back!

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Seat 3: doubleclubs 13600
Seat 5: G.Mendez 7900
Seat 6: Masterka7x 18500

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She's just knocked out STAMFORD05, who's suffered a bad beat - KQ somehow managing to beat his AQ after she'd called his shove pre-flop. That was after she'd opened the betting with an initial 1800 bet. The flop was 39K with T and then 9 on the turn and river. Really unlucky STAMFORD05, you didn't do much wrong there, especially being short stacked. At least you haven't got as far to go home as Ragnash though!

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Seat 1: doubleclubs 14500
Seat 3: G.Mendez 7900
Seat 5: STAMFORD05 3500
Seat 6: Masterka7x 14100

Blinds at 300/600

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doubleclubs bets 1000 holding pocket 8's and Ragnash moves all-in for around 3000 on KQs. The Latvian calls and sets up the coin flip. Flop is J56 rainbow and the turn is the dream 8 for doubleclubs, giving him the set and sending our Australian friend to the rail. It's been a hell of a long way to come for Ragnash but it seems like he's had a great time on his first trip outside Australia. Maybe we'll see you at the Aussie Millions in January mate.

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Masterka7x's Kings just held up against G.Mendez's AJ to double up and she takes the chip lead.

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Here are those chip counts again:

Seat 1: doubleclubs 6775
Seat 3: G.Mendez 17900
Seat 4: STAMFORD05 3425
Seat 5: ..Mr77.. 5250
Seat 6: Masterka7x 3925
Seat 7: Ragnash 6650

Blinds now at 150/300.

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..and he's brutally sent to the rail. G.Mendez had pushed all-in pre-flop with pocket 8's, which was of course called straight away by DK_DONKEY holding pocket rockets. Sadly for the Dane the flop brought an 8 and you can imagine the look on his face. The turn and river were blanks and his tournament has come to a cruel end. G.Mendez gets very lucky and is now massive chip leader.

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Seat 1: doubleclubs 4525
Seat 2: DK_DONKEY 8625
Seat 3: G.Mendez 10375
Seat 4: STAMFORD05 4525
Seat 5: Masterka7x 5800
Seat 6: Ragnash 6150

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..Mr77.. is next to bow out. He and Masterka7x both called a pre-flop raise of 600 with AKo and TT respectively. The flop came 436 and ..Mr77.. shoved. Our lady from Poland went into the tank for a good few minutes before electing to call. A 5 on the turn and J on the river sent ..Mr77.. crashing out and means we're already down to 6 players at this relatively early stage.

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Seat 1: doubleclubs 4525
Seat 2: DK_DONKEY 8025
Seat 3: G.Mendez 10375
Seat 4: STAMFORD05 5525
Seat 5: ..Mr77.. 1175
Seat 6: Masterka7x 3925
Seat 7: Ragnash 6450

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illusionista is out. Short stacked from the hand mentioned before, he re-raised DK_DONKEY's pre-flop bet of 600 and went all-in with KQ. The Dane flipped over AJ and the flop followed 52J to leave illusionista in big trouble. The turn brought a 3 and the river followed with an Ace to give DK_DONKEY the two pair and send our Italian to the rail. Unlucky amico. Avete giocato bene!

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After a predictably tight start, we've just had our first all-in which was called and leaves illusionista with just 1200 chips. G.Mendez raised 300 under the gun holding Queens and it was folded round to illusionista, sitting on Jacks. He promptly re-raised it up to 1200, which was called by the Englishman. The flop came 53T and illusionista moved all-in, which was insta-called by G.Mendez who flipped over his Queens. The turn was 4 and river was 8 which leaves our Italian in a bit of trouble and G.Mendez as massive chip leader. Blinds are now 50/100.

edit: As you may have noticed, although the blog posts are being created in Pokah, they're not on the blog page yet due to some computer problems. Rather than wait to put them up later, I'm putting them in Pokah for now, because I love you all so much.

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We're almost ready to go and the players are playing a few practice hands before we get under way. Here are the 8 players who will be battling it out for the final seat at the Vienna final:

Masterka7x (Poland)
G.Mendez (UK)
Ragnash (Australia)
..Mr77.. (Sweden)
STAMFORD05 (UK)
doubleclubs (Latvia)
illusionista (Italy)
DK_DONKEY (Denmark)

Starting stacks are 5000 with blinds at 25/50. Blinds will be raised every 20mins.

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Greetings from sunny Italy, ladies and gentleman. I'm glad to report that we've overcome an array of problems (IP blocks, a broken wireless connection and lack of power sockets.. you name it it's happened!) and we'll be keeping you fully up to date with all the action from Monza. As you know, the final seat to the $500,000 final is up for grabs tonight and the 8 players are raring to go.

First up though, a recap of last night's welcome party... well, what I can remember of it anyway. It kicked off in true PokerRoom style, with a stretch hummer picking us up from the hotel. All aboard it was time to crack open the champagne and get the party started!

First stop was the world famous Nobu restaurant for a fantastic meal. The best sushi AND the best steaks you could possibly imagine.

We then moved on to one of Milan's coolest bar's, Bar Cuore and it was so good we ended up staying there the whole night. The beer was flowing strong... and the rum, and the wine and the shots. And the champagne. Suffice to say we're all feeling the effects today. I should've listened to my Mum about not mixing my drinks!

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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, Billy McKloski here reporting for PokerRoom.com on our final stop of the WTCC circuit, this time from magnifico Monza!

Quite literally Blogmeister MC has just stepped off the plane after reporting from the WSOPE in London. The players are all starting to arrive one by one.

We’ll be meeting up with them all later, for you know the usual drinks and dinner at some swanky reastaurant. And of course we’ll be arriving there in style, the kind of style you know we’re famous for here at PokerRoom into Milan.

In the meantime here are some photos of Monza for you, as the say in Rhyl "Ciao for now!":

This way to the party

Monza Cathedral

Monza Cathedral home of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, but just who will be crowned champ this weekend? You'll have to wait and see!

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