Rossetti Wins WSOPC in Atlantic City
(Credit: Eqqman )
The World Series of Poker Circuit hit Atlantic City, NJ just before Christmas. The final table of the Main Event was played on Tuesday, December 19th. It started at 2:00 pm EST. Alex Gomez entered the final table as a massive favorite. He had over 1.1 million in chips. Considering there was less than 2.4 million on the table in total, it's not surprising that Gomez – and the crowd – would've picked him for a winner.
In the first few hands, Gomez added extra chips to his stack without any competition from the rest of the table. Tam Ly raised 30K. Then Ken Goldin moved in with 77,000. Tam called after thinking about it for a bit. He held a Qh, 10h. Ken had Ad, Kh. The flop came down 7d, 9d, 4s which shot down Tam's hopes for a backdoor heart flush. There was a ten of diamonds on the turn which gave Ly the lead, but his hopes were crushed when another diamond came on the river. Goldin doubled-up and Ly was on life support. Rossetti would put him out of his misery a few hands later. He dominated Ly who went all-in for 98,000 with an A,7 to Rick's A,9 off-suit. The win bumped Rossetti's stack up to 307k.
On the very next hand, Drew Gilem busted out of the tournament. A few hands thereafter, Rossetti struck again. This time, he forced Ray Lin to head for the Boardwalk when his big slick held up over Lin's A,J. With the addition of Lin's chips to his stack, Rossetti was looking pretty healthy with almost 600k in chips.
Gomez, who was fairly quiet up to this point, went in with MJ Bernstein. Gomez's pocket nines didn't need no help to defeat MJ, who had a K,J in the hole. Bernstein left in sixth place with a nice chunk of change, $57,515 to be exact. Ken Goldin was the next casualty. He moved all-in with his K,9 against Feming Chan's A,9. The board brought him no love. Chan would follow Goldin to the stands shortly afterwards. Chan moved all-in against the chip leader, Gomez. Gomez had Chan's A,3 dominated with an A,9 in the pocket. The turn paired Gomez's nine. This made the river a non-entity. Adios, Chan!
At this point, Gomez was holding 1.328 mil in chips to Rossetti's 689k and Racener's 353k. The three remaining players settled down to play some serious poker. After the dinner break, Rossetti went in for the kill. He made a miracle straight with a six on the river against Racener's all-in bet. The knockout gave Rossetti the chip lead over Gomez. Sure it was a mere 100k, but that was the first time someone besides Gomez had the lead all night.
It must've given Rossetti a bit of a psychological boost. For the first half hour or so of the heads-up contest, he pounded away at Gomez. He just kept raising it up. This tactic gave him an almost 5:1 chip lead. Gomez regained the lead for a little bit when he pushed all-in after a flop which held a jack with his pocket tens. Rossetti called Gomez but couldn't complete his straight draw or pair his ace to finish his opponent off.
Some players would've changed tactics at this point, but not Rossetti. He continued to raise and re-raise. He was very aggressive, never really backing down from a challenge. It worked. He kept taking chips from Gomez's stack and regained the lead. About 8 and a half hours after the final table play began that afternoon, the final hand was played. Rossetti paired his king on the flop and won the event. He officially earned $386,096 for the win as well as some bling-bling in the form of the gold WSOP Championship ring and an $11,000 package to the 2007 World Series of Poker. However, due to a deal between the final three players, Rossetti actually pocketed $270,000. Each of the other two earned $190,000.00.
Here are the final standings. (Note: They reflect the official winnings and not the amounts actually won by the top three finishers who made a deal to split the prize money):
1. Rick Rossetti $368,096 2. Alex Gomez $202,453 3. John Racener $103,527 4. Feming Chan $80,521 5. Ken Goldin $69,018 6. Michael Bernstein $57,515 7. Ray Ho Lin $46,012 8. Drew Gilem $34,509 9. Tam Ly $23,006 10. Brian Strahl $13,804
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