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Northern California online poker pro wins WSOP title, $721,37328 June 2010Twenty-four-year-old online poker 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. No one knows if Rockowitz — who had just one previous WSOP cash for $5,051 earlier this month — will be a one-hit wonder, or will continue to play live tournaments and gradually emerge as one of poker's newest stars. "I do not like live poker that much," said Rockowitz. "It is slow compared to online games. I play up to 35 tables at once. But in live poker I may get 30 hands an hour at the most." Rockowitz 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. "I thought coming (to the WSOP) that I would only care about the cash," said Rockowitz. "But tonight when I got heads-up, I realized that I wanted to win a bracelet. I do not want to be famous. But having peers see that is pretty cool." The runner up was Raymond Coburn, from Jackson, N.J. A 24-year-old poker 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 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. Shaun 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. Modified from notes provided by Nolan Dalla for www.wsop.com
Northern California online poker pro wins WSOP title, $721,373
is republished from Online.CasinoCity.com.
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