Rossetti overcomes long odds for WSOPC win

Heading into the Harrah's World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) main event in Atlantic City Tuesday, most people were expecting Alex Gomez to come out on top. He had nearly half the chips in play in his pot, but Rick Rossetti came back to win it all.

The 37-year-old roofing contractor from Linwood, N.J., ended up going heads-up against the chip leader for 75 hands before finally toppling him. He won $368,096, a championship ring, and a seat in the $10,000 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The first elimination at the final table came when Tam Ly faced off against Rossetti with A-7 versus A-9. The board came J-3-3-6-A, and the senior engineer from Pennsylvania went home with $23,006.

On the very next hand Drew Gliem was eliminated by Michael Bernstein. Ray Lin only lasted a few hand after that, when he too was eliminated by Rossetti, giving Rossetti the second place spot in the chip count with 575,000 compared to Gomez's still dominant 1,099,000.

Bernstein was the next to go, helping increase Gomez's chip lead, followed by Ken Goldin. Gomez later took out Feming Chan to bring the table down to the final three players.

Gomez still held an impressive chip count with 1,325,000, with Rossetti at 689,000, and John Racener with 363,000. Racener was up to 489,000 at one point, but those chips were soon to be Rossetti's as his straight on the river defeated Racener's flush draw.

Rossetti's aggressive play in heads-up helped him overcome the chip difference, and he and Gomez traded the chip lead back and forth. The final hand had Gomez all-in with pocket 10s against Rossetti's K-7. A king on the flop gave Rossetti the higher pair and held up through the turn and the river.

Gomez, a management consultant from Brooklyn, N.Y., took home $202,453 for his efforts.

The final table results were as follows:

Place Name Prize
1st Rick Rossetti $368,096
2nd Alex Gomez $202,453
3rd John Racener $103,527
4th Feming Chan $80,521
5th Ken Goldin $69,018
6th Michael Bernstein $57,515
7th Ray Lin $46,012
8th Drew Gliem $34,509
9th Tam Ly $23,006

courtesy of Sarah Polson

News Added: 20 December, 2006

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