It took three days for Event #44 of the 2012 World Series of Poker to finish up and in the end it was Italian Rocco Palumbo who earned the first place win. The $1,000 No Limit tournament started with 2,949 players, which was the second largest field of players so far this year. Many top pros would compete in this event and fall short during the first two days. In the end, Palumbo would face Nelson Robinson of North Carolina in heads up play to fight for the gold bracelet.
By day 3, only 16 players remained and many top pros had been eliminated from the tournament. Such players as Barry Shulman, Liv Boeree, Joe Cada, Jude Ainsworth, Amnon Filipi and Jonathan Little all were eliminated before final table play.
The sixteen remaining players would quickly be whittled down to the final nine with Palumbo 7th in chips. After eliminating a few players, Palumbo would set himself up to hold a slight chip lead once heads up play began between himself and Robinson. Palumbo began heads up play aggressively and he was able to take the majority of Robinson’s chip stack.
Robinson would prove to be hard to beat however, when he doubled up two times. But Palumbo was not ready to give up on the gold bracelet and he would come back after the dinner break to gain the lead and eventually win the tournament.
The final hand went down like this: Robinson woud open on the button with 120,000. Palumbo would ask how much Robinson held and then three bet to 300,000. Robinson then four bet all in and Palumbo called.
Palumbo held A-9 with Robinson holding K-6. The flop fell 4-A-J and a 4 on the turn and a King on the river of course gave Palumbo the better hand and he was the winner of Event #44 and his first ever WSOP gold bracelet!
Final Results:
Rocco Palumbo (Italy) – $464,464
Nelson Robinson (USA) – $288,448
Thomas Conway (USA) – $203,437
Niel Mittelman (USA) – $146,931
Jason Everett (USA) – $107,411
Kevin Elia (USA) – $79,464
Anke Berner (Germany) – $59,478
Patrick Karschamroon (USA) – $45,040
David Forster (USA) – $34,503
Darren Rabinowitz (USA) – $26,727
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