Michael Rossitto wins $3,500 Wynn Millions Main Event for $604,637

The Wyn million returned for 2023 with a new price point for its Main Event, with the $10,000 buy-in reduced to $3,500 from 2021 and 2022. This shift caused the guarantee to drop to $3 million from the $10 million of the previous two offerings. By the registration deadline, the redesigned Main Event had attracted a field of 1,314 participants Wynn poker room in Las Vegas and built up a final prize pool of $4,171,950.

After nine days of tournament action, it was Las Vegas resident Michael Rossitto who took down the trophy and the largest share of the prize pool. Rossitto earned a career-high payday of $604,637 for the win, blasting away his previous high points total of $250,073, which he earned as the 2021 winner WPTDeepStacks Championship main event. This latest win boosted his tournament earnings to over $2.7 million.

Rossitto earned 1,440 card player Player of the Year Points for being the champion of this event. This was his third final table finish of the year, with 1,795 total points earned and $645,611 POY merits. The result of all this is that Rossitto now sits in the top 30 in 2023 POY Race standings presented by Global Poker.

This tournament featured three start flights, two Day 2s, and then four more full days of full-field action. The final day began with nine chips remaining, with Zachary Donovan at the top and Rossitto in sixth chip position.

Andrew Esposito notched the first two knockouts, defeating Clifford Ziff (9th – $67,765) and Kharlin Sued (8th – $80,310) to secure the lead. Zhigang Yang was the next to fall when he lost a race to Mark Zajdner’s Q-10-suited with his pocket nines to finish seventh ($96,706). Zajdner kept climbing thanks to pocket aces against Donovan’s pocket kings.

Rossitto’s first knockout of the final table came when his pocket tens held up against Jacob Powers’ (6th – $120,361) A-6. Donovan’s run then ended when his pocket sevens were outperformed by Zajdner’s A-9, who made aces to win the pot. Donovan took home $154.29 in fifth place.

In the next big match, Pedro Ingles moved all in with a 3-bet while AJ was faced with a small blind raise from Rossitto from the big blind. Rossitto called with AK and held to narrow the field to three. Ingles received $208,598 for fourth place.

After being on the good end of an aces-versus-kings preflop cooler earlier at the final table, Zajdner found himself on the other side during the three-three play. Unable to come from behind, he stayed in smoke after Espoito’s aces stopped. Zajdner immediately tripled to get off the mat, but was soon all in again and in danger again. This time it was a classic race, with his pocket jacks versus Rossitto’s AK. An ace-high flop gave Rossitto the lead, which he held until the river to win the pot. Zajdner raked in $294,540, the first six-figure total on his poker resume.

Heads-up play began with Rossitto just 2-1 in chips over Esposito. The tide soon turned when Esposito flopped two pair against Rossitto’s pocket aces. The chips came before the turn and Esposito held from there to take a roughly 3-2 lead.

During the heads-up action, the final two agreed that $50,000 was deducted from the projected top payout and added to the second place payout. That resulted in $604,637 for the winner and $480,752 for the runner-up.

Rossitto managed to retake the lead and then extend it. When the last hand was dealt, he had an advantage of more than 2.5:1. Esposito limped off the button with 97 and Rossitto checked with 86. The flop came K75 and Rossitto check-raised a bet from Esposito, who came with second pair. The turn brought the 4 to give Rossitto a road. He bet and Esposito called again. The 2 completed the board and Rossitto moved all in for an effective bet of 9,600,000. Esposito thought about that before calling with second pair, only to see his opponent’s eight-high straight.

Here’s a look at the payouts and POY Points awarded at the final table: