Event #45 winner Jesse Rockowitz
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010Twenty-four-year-old poker online pro Jesse Rockowitz from Petaluma, Calif., obliterated a field of 3,097 players to capture the sixth $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em title (Event #45) at the World Series of Poker for a $721,373 payday. Rockowitz said initially disliked Hold’em when he first played the game. He now plays the game many hours per week. He started playing for a living in 2006. The runner up was Raymond Coburn, from Jackson, N.J. A 24-year-old poker online pro, Coburn added $446,274 to bankroll. Coburn was eliminated when Rockowitz hit two pair on the flop with seven-deuce of hearts. When Coburn hit an open-ended straight draw on the turn, all the chips went into the middle, but Coburn couldn’t catch up, and Rockowitz’s celebration began. Thiago Nishijima, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, finished third. A 31-year-old former banker turned poker pro, Nishijima hoped to become the second Brazilian WSOP (sponsored by Everest Poker) title winner in history after Alexandre Gomes became the first gold bracelet winner from South America in 2008. Nishijima earned a well-deserved $315,828. Kevin O’Dell, from Birmingham, Mich., a 40-year-old chiropractor, was fourth to cash in for $228,614. Michael Goldfarb, a 43-year old recreational player from Coral Springs, Fla., received $167,405 for fifth place. Steven Brown, a 46-year-old sportsman from Cape Town, South Africa, finished sixth for $124,006. Brown was a former table tennis champion in South Africa who started playing poker seriously about 10 years ago. haun Malough, from Port Coquitlam, B.C., was seventh, Justin Conley, a 22-year-old former student-turned poker pro from Prestonburg, Ky., was eighth, and Johan Jakobsson, a 29-year-old student from Umea, Sweden, was ninth. The top 324 finishers collected prize money. Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included: Dutch Boyd (15th), Ayaz Mahmood (55th), John “Razor” Phan (59th), Berry Johnston (121st), Tom Schneider (128th), John Juanda (297th), and Jeffrey Papola (308th). Johnston cashed for the 61st time in his career, which ranks fourth on the all-time WSOP cashes list.