Michael Rossitto wins $3,500 Wynn Millions Championship ($604,637)

March 13, 2023

After nine days, a champion was proclaimed $3,500 Main Event In the 2023 Wynn million. Michael Rossito climbed to the top, beating a field of 1,314 entries to take home $604,637. Rossitto made a final table in just over 10 hours on Day 6 and survived Andrew Esposito in a heads-up duel.

Rossitto went into midfield for the final day but never really suffered major setbacks throughout the day. As one of the strongest players in the field, Rossitto got down to business and took home the title. Both players held the chip lead at one point in a heads-up match that lasted about 2.5 hours, but it was Rossitto who had the last laugh.

It’s the highest score of his career for Rossitto, who said he spent most of the final table patiently.

“I was just waiting for good hands early on to get chips and play more aggressively,” he said in his post-win interview with PokerNews.

Rossitto will add this to his already impressive poker résumé, which boasts over $2.1 million in career earnings.

The only hiccup of the day for the new Las Vegas resident was when he cracked his aces heads-up to give up the chip lead.

“We were still quite far ahead, so I got advice from some better players on how to adjust my strategy and I played well,” said Rossitto. “It’s pretty good to bounce ideas off of everyone and everyone had great knowledge to give. I just did my own readings and I think it’s good.”

As for the runner-up from Texas, Esposito also earned his biggest payday of $480,752 after another solid performance since returning to the tournament scene. Esposito mentioned throughout the day that he is mostly interested in cash games but has since indulged in more tournaments and his track record over the past few months has been outstanding. “I’m very happy with it,” Esposito said of his good run, which also lasted over 10 hours on Day 6.

action from the last day

The day started with nine players returning to the felt and if the end of Day 5 was any indication of the pace of play, players might have had a long and drawn out final day before the winner would be announced. This wasn’t the case, however, as the action was fast and furious from the start, with a cold deck aiding the situation.

cliff no came into the day with an average stack, but in the second hand of the day, his pocket tens were no match for Esposito, who rived an ace with ace-king. Stacked small Kharlin South took another orbit, but Esposito’s straight flush also sent it to the rails in the early stages.

Towards the end of the first level Zhi Gang Yang got the last of his chips in the middle with pocket nines, but was picked up by a matching Broadway holding Markus Zaidner. A runner-runner flush for Zajdner sent Yang to the paytable in seventh place and the field was quickly down to the last six.

As players returned from their first break of the day, it was the chip leader at the start of the day Zachary Donovan who was on the wrong end of a cooler when his pocket kings took on Zajdner’s pocket aces. The board didn’t bring any change and Donovan stayed on the short stack.

Jacob Powers was full of unorthodox plays throughout the final table, and today he even pulled out the straddle (blind raise). However, those lost chips eventually caught up with him and he ran out of chips in sixth place. Donovan managed to survive long enough to move up to fifth place, but lost a flip against Zajdner’s big stack, leaving only four players.

Pedro Ingles was pretty quiet at the final table, patiently watching other stacks implode around him. The Spaniard eventually found a spot to place his 20 big blinds with ace-jack in the middle, but ran straight into Rossitto’s ace-king. The board came out clean and Ingles hit the rails in fourth.

That left the bottom three to battle each other, with plenty of chips in play to create a momentum that saw the chip lead feverishly bouncing around. Another cooler surfaced when Esposito’s aces earned him a double-up through Zajdner’s kings, but the Canadian bounced right back with a triple-up on the next hand.

The three-player game continued for another two levels after the dinner break, with chips being fairly evenly distributed around the table. However, Zajdner was never able to escape the short stack and eventually another cooler was dealt. In a blind vs blind matchup, Zajdner got his chips in the middle with pocket jacks against Rossitto’s ace-king. An ace on the flop made Zajdner draw thin and he couldn’t catch up and was eliminated in third place.

When the heads-up match started, Rossitto was comfortably in the lead and was slowly adding more chips to his stack. However, his pocket aces were cracked by Esposito, who flopped two pair when all the chips went in the middle. Esposito held onto a big double-up to pull the chip lead his way. After a final pause, Rossitto returned to the felt on a mission and quickly climbed back to the bottom.

After Rossitto started pulling forward over the next hour, he finally dealt some bigger punches to Esposito’s stack, and everything came to a head in one final hand. Rossitto hit the turn with the nut straight and Esposito bluffed at the wrong time. All chips went in on the river and Rossitto celebrated with his rail.