Italy's Rocco Palumbo Wins WSOP $1k NLHE
June 27, 2012 11:49 amItaly’s Rocco Palumbo has won WSOP Event#44: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em, after defeating a field of 2,949 players over three days to capture the gold bracelet, and the $464,464 first place prize.
In so doing, Rocco Palumbo not only puts Italy on the map at WSOP 2012, but also becomes the first Italian-born player to win a WSOP event since 2008. Commenting on his remarkable achievement, Palumbo said:
“We haven’t had a great year at the World Series. And it’s been two or three years since we’ve won a bracelet, I don’t know exactly. Max Pescatori must have been the last one. I’m surely happy for me, but I’m happy for Italy too.”
Having the second largest field of the WSOP 2012 so far, the $1k NLHE naturally attracted a star studded field. Amongst the most notable names cashing in at the tournament was Eric Seidel in 261st ($1,937), Joe Cada in 112th ($2,920), Jude Ainsworth in 72nd ($4,406), Ivan Demidov in 76th ($4,406), and Blair Hinkle in 24th ($13,297).
By the time the final table was reached, Rocco Palumbo was lying 5th out of nine remaining players with just Germany’s Anke Berner left as the other non-USA competitor at the table.
Rocco Palumbo (A-A) then dispatched David Forster (A-K) in 9th ($34,503), and Kevin Elia in 6th ($79,464), before being dealt Ad-7h and calling a short-stacked preflop push by Thomas Conway with Kc-10d. Subsequently, the board ran out Qd-5d-2d-3d to eliminate Conway in 3rd ($203,437), thus ushering in the heads-up phase between Palumbo and Nelson Robinson.
Palumbo with a slight chip advantage then managed to whittle his opponent down gradually before the final hand was played with Palumbo (Ad-9d) and Robinson (Ks-6s) all-in after a preflop raising war. With the board running out 4-A-J-3-K, Nelson Robinson finished the runner-up for $288,448, while Rocco Palumbo was crowned the winner and captured a career first WSOP bracelet.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1: Rocco Palumbo (Italy) – $464,464
2: Nelson Robinson (USA) – $288,448
3: Thomas Conway (USA) – $203,437
4: Niel Mittelman (USA) – $146,931
5: Jason Everett (USA) – $107,411
6: Kevin Elia (USA) – $79,464
7: Anke Berner (Germany) – $59,478
8: Patrick Karschamroon (USA) – $45,040
9: David Forster (USA) – $34,503