Minieri and his heads-up opponent, Seth Fischer, traded blows for the better part of an hour with Minieri requiring runner-runner fours at one point to avoid elimination. Fortunately, when it came time for his better hand to actually hold up, the Italian's pocket queens held against Fischer's K-10 to deliver him the match in his first WSOP final table.

This is the first major poker tournament victory for Minieri but he has final tabled two EPT over the last couple of years, honing his skills to make this kind of deep run. His career earnings have now exceeded the $1 million mark and since Italy shut out France two days ago at Euro 2008, this is turning out to be a great week for Italians.

Elsewhere in the Amazon Room, there's a whole lot of low buy-in events going on that we'll probably get more excited about once the fields narrow down a bit. So, stay tuned for more updates live from the 2008 WSOP.

Italian online poker pro Dario Minieri is currently in the chip lead during Day 3 of the EPT San Remo. (Bodog Beat Image)

The local scarf-wearing hero Dario Minieri is becoming more and more recognizable on the live tournament circuit and is currently the chip leader after about one level of play during Day 3 at the EPT San Remo. The Italian imp has cashed in two EPT events and three WSOP events including two Main Events, and if he can hold on to finish in seventh place or higher here, it will be his largest career cash to date.

The day began with the 38 players left from yesterday's 99 and almost no well-known players in the field except for Todd Brunson and Minieri. Add in the very talented yet not so well-known online poker phenom Isaac "WestmenloAA" Baron and that was pretty much it for internationally recognized players.

There are now only 22 players left at time of publish and Brunson has already hit the rail, leaving Minieri to represent the known tournament pros in this event and Baron holding up the hopes of the online poker world.

Play will continue down to the final table today. The top 72 players will be going home with a little something for their efforts, so the money bubble is way past bursting point, with the top spot walking home with just over $1.3 million.

Stay tuned to the Beat for updates from the EPT San Remo and make sure to check out the EPT online poker qualifiers at Bodog.