Esposito Wins WSOP Circuit Event New OrleansNew Yorker Outlasts 345 Players to Claim Ring |
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The World Series of Poker Circuit event at Harrah's New Orleans concluded yesterday with Lou Esposito winning it and the $516,801 top prize. Esposito came back from a 7.5-to-1 chip deficit at the start of the final table to win it.
Esposito also received an entry into the WSOP main event this summer, $1,000 traveling money, and a gold ring.
The $5,000 event attracted 346 and generated a prize pool of more than $1.6 million. The entire top nine were:
The top 38 got paid, although there was a three-way split for 36th place.
Gordon was the main story for most of the three-day event because of his domination after coming way back. At one point during the first day, he was down to $525 in chips. It looked like the end of the day for Gordon after having squeaked his way up to $1,200 when he ended up all in with K-2 against A-Q with a board reading K-J-T.
"I figured my chance of winning this tournament at the point when I was all in with the K-2 against the made straight was about 150,000-to-1 against," Gordon said. "My equity in this tournament was a grand total of $17. I've never experienced such an incredible turnaround."
But running twos kept Gordon alive. He ended the day as chip leader with more than $100,000 in chips and kept the lead all the way to the final table.
About two hours into the final table, Gordon's luck ran out when he ran into Esposito's A-A while holding K-K. After all the dust cleared from the hand, Gordon was left with about $500,000 and Esposito, more than $1 million.
After building his chip stack up to more than $1 million again, Gordon would first lose about $300,000 when he lost a race against Schafer. Then, he found himself all in with A-T versus Schafer's A-Q, and never improved.
Three-handed, Esposito first knocked out Fox holding A-A against 7-7, which gave him a little more than $2 million in chips. At this point, Schafer had about $1.4 million.
The heads-up portion lasted about two hours, and ended after both players flopped a pair of sixes. But Esposito had a king as a kicker, and that was good enough to send Schafer home in second place.
Esposito is a 31-year-old businessman from Howard Beach, New York. He owns a pizzeria, vending machines, and a cell phone store. He's only been playing poker for about two years, but has already competed in more than 40 events. This is his first major win.
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