Michael Rocco Wins 2019 Wynn Winter Classic Championship for $540,800
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The inaugural Wynn Winter Classic $5,300 buy-in Championship Event �C the biggest buy-in tournament the venue has held in over five years �C crushed its $1.5 million guarantee as 557 entrants created a $2,740,440 prize pool.
After a marathon 16-hour final day, it was longtime poker pro Michael Rocco, 30, besting 2018 World Series of Poker third-place finisher Michael Dyer in heads-up play to win the title outright for $540,800.
It was Rocco��s long-awaited signature win and a new career-high score passing his previous best of $423,440 for finishing third in the 2014 World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic. He also finished third in the 2017 PCA $25K High Roller for $409,020.
"After spending the time learning new things I feel like I have a different approach to playing.��
��I feel very tired and very good at the same time. It was a long day,�� Rocco said after the win. ��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.��
Rocco credits a recent trip to Africa in helping his honing his game: ��I��ve tried to relearn how to play poker better. I was studying every day for 8-10 hours, which I��d never done before. I was playing bad for a really long time and I just didn��t realize it. After spending the time learning new things I feel like I have a different approach to playing.��
He continued: ��There��s so much work to do if I want to be where the best players are. I still have so many leaks compared to them. If I want to play at the highest level I have to keep working every single day �� Now, moving forward, I need to work way harder. If I want to play the high rollers, which I do, I just have to try as hard as I can.��
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Rocco | USA | $540,800 |
| 2 | Michael Dyer | USA | $353,242 |
| 3 | Ben Farrell | UK | $239,789 |
| 4 | Louis Salter | UK | $168,312 |
| 5 | Joe Kuether | USA | $124,690 |
| 6 | Matt Yorra | USA | $96,738 |
| 7 | Tomas Soderstrom | Sweden | $77,006 |
| 8 | Adam Hendrix | USA | $63,852 |
| 9 | Josh Bergman | USA | $53,987 |
Day 3 Action
Day 3 saw 31 players return to action and it didn��t take long for action to heat up. Among those to fall on the way to the final table were PCA champ Galen Hall (10th - $45,987), Ankush Mandavia (11th - $45,987), Kahle Burns (12th - $39,474), Shannon Shorr (15th - $34,325), two-time bracelet winner Barry Shulman (17th - $29,848), Justin Bonomo (25th - $19,797), Ryan Leng (28th - $17,290), Daniel Strelitz (30th - $17,920), and Matt Glantz (31st - $17,290).
At the final table, Josh Bergman was the first to fall after running pocket tens into Matt Yorra��s aces, and then the short-stacked Adam Hendrix followed him out the door after his king-five went down to Joe Kuether��s king-deuce after a deuce appeared on the flop.
The next-shortest stack was Sweden��s Tomas Soderstrom, and he took his leave in seventh place after jamming with jack-nine suited and failing to get there against Dyer��s ace-ten. Soon after, Yorra bowed out in sixth after losing a race with pocket nines to Dyer��s Big Slick.
Kuether then lost a race with ace-ten to Ben Farrell��s pocket sevens to finish in fifth place, and then it was time for Louis Salter to go after losing ace-eight to Farrell��s ace-jack all in preflop.
During three-handed play, Dyer doubled through Farrell ace-jack to ace-seven, and then the latter lost the rest of it to the former a short time later busting with queen-four to ace-eight suited. That set up a heads-up match in which Rocco held 17.675 million to Dyer��s 10.2 million.
Dyer got short, managed a double, and then the final hand developed. Rocco had flopped two pair and jammed big on the river. Dyer had nut no-pair with ace-queen and opted to call it off only to see his run come to an end in second place for $353,242.
The Wynn will host its next series �C Wynn Signature Series �C from January 15-February 2, 2020. The festival guarantees more than $1.3 million in prize pools. Click here for further details.
