Michael Rocco Wins Wynn Winter Classic Championship For $540,800

Michael Rocco
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  • Arpit Jain December 23, 2019
  • 2 Minutes Read

The inaugural Wynn Winter Classic $5,300 Championship Event brought in a strong field of 557 entries that helped generate a guarantee-crushing $2,740,440 prize pool. The top 62 places made it in the money, and walking away with the lion`s share of the prize money was 30-year-old Michael Rocco (cover image) who defeated Michael Dyer heads-up to win a career-best $540,800.

Post his victory, the champion quoted, “I feel very tired and very good at the same time. It was a long day. I’ve never won a big tournament. My three biggest scores prior to this were third place. So, I’ve always gotten down there but never been able to close it down. Now I feel like I’m in a pretty good place compared to where I’ve been before.”

The tournament was a star-studded affair, and many top pros featured on the payouts list. Names like Galen Hall (10th for $45,987), Indian-origin Ankush Mandavia (11th for $45,987), Kahle Burns (12th for $39,474), Barry Shulman (17th for $29,848), Justin Bonomo (25th for $19,797), Ryan Laplante (36th for $15,101), Maria Ho (39th for $15,101), Maria Konnikova (42nd for $15,101), Nick Pupillo (53rd for $13,211) and Curt Kohlberg (61st for $11,619), all finished in the money.

 

Final Table Recap

Josh Bergman was the first to exit after running his pocket tens into Matt Yorra’s pocket aces. The short-stacked Adam Hendrix was the next one to depart in eighth place with the other short-stack Tomas Soderstrom following suit in seventh place.

Matt Yorra ended his run in sixth place after losing the flip with pocket nines to Dyer’s .

Next up, Joe Kuether’s were defeated by Ben Farrell’s pocket sevens, forcing the former to settle for fifth place.

Louis Salter hit the rail in fourth place after his failed to get any help against Ben Farrell’s .

Ben Farrel first lost a massive pot to Dyer and then hit the rail in third place to set the heads-up play in motion between Rocco (17,675,000) and Dyer (10,200,000).

Michael Dyer got crippled quickly, and he doubled up to gain some ground, but it all came to an end soon enough. On the final hand, Dyer opened, and Rocco called to see the flop . Both players checked through to see the turn card open . Rocco led out, and Dyer called to see the complete the board. Rocco moved all-in tabling for two pairs, and Dyer called, showing mere ace high. Rocco won the title and walked away $540,800 richer.

Michael Rocco
Michael Rocco

Final Table Results

  1. Michael Rocco – $540,800
  2. Michael Dyer – $353,242
  3. Ben Farrell – $239,789
  4. Louis Salter – $168,312
  5. Joe Kuether – $124,690
  6. Matt Yorra – $96,738
  7. Tomas Soderstrom – $77,006
  8. Adam Hendrix – $63,852
  9. Josh Bergman – $53,987

 

Image & Content Courtesy – PokerNews

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