Newcomer poker pro Jesse Rockowitz from Northern California defeated a total of 3,097 players and won the highly coveted championship bracelet at the recent $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). During the 45th event of the 2010 WSOP, 24-year old Rockowitz was able to show what he’s got as a professional poker player. Because of Rockowitz’s win, many are speculating as to whether he is just another one-hit wonder or will continue to shine as an excellent poker pro. Aside from grabbing the highly coveted WSOP bracelet, Jesse Rockowitz was able to go home with a whopping $721,373 cash prize. According to Rockowitz, he doesn’t really like to play live poker games because of their slower pace compared to online games. When playing online poker, Rockowitz claims that he can actually play at 35 tables at once. When playing live poker, he can handle a maximum of 30 hands in an hour. Rockowitz also intially didn’t like Hold ’em poker when he first tried it out but now, he plays Hold ’em poker for several hours in a week. As a poker player who started playing professionally in 2006, Rockowitz first thought that joining the WSOP only meant getting the cash prize. But when he got the heads-up, he thought that winning a WSOP bracelet would be an amazing achievement. He doesn’t really wish to become famous, but showing off the bracelet to his peers would be “pretty cool.” Runner-ups and other cash prize winners Following Rockowitz was Jackson, New Jersey’s Raymond Coburn. Another 24-year old poker pro, Raymond Coburn was able to add $446,274 to the game’s bankroll. However, he was eliminated when “Rockowitz hit two pair on the flop with seven-deuce of hearts.” As Coburn hit a straight draw (open-ended) on the turn, the chips were placed on the middle of the table. Since Coburn couldn’t really catch up, Rockowitz was able to eliminate him and grab the WSOP title. In the third place was Sao Paulo, Brazil’s Thiago Nishijima. Nishijima was a former banker before playing poker for a living. It was Nishijima’s dream to become the second WSOP title holder from Brazil, but he was finally eliminated as the game reached the final battle between Rockowitz and Coburn. However, Nishijima was able to take home a huge cash prize of $315,828. The fourth player to cash in was Birmingham, Michigan’s Kevin O’Dell, who was able to take home a total of $228,614. The fifth placer was Coral Springs, Florida’s Michael Goldfarb, who earned a cash prize of $167,405.
