Joseph Lapinta Wins Atlantic City WSOP Circuit Main Event
New Jersey player Joseph Lapinta won the Atlantic City WSOP Circuit Main Event, the championship gold ring and a cool $182,070. He will also take his seat in the National Championships in the spring too. This was Lapinta’s first big poker payday, well at least the first 6 figure one and to take the prize it was his roommate Joseph Wertz who he had to beat in heads up play. As play hit the final table there were many thinking that it could be James Dorrance taking the 1st place as the Horseshoe Hammond Main Event winner had both the experience and the large stack to do it, but it wasn’t his day at all and he went to the rails in 8th place collecting $21,259.
Lapinta hit the final table way down in 8th place and slow sensible play was the order of the day, picking his hands well and playing with patience. As the field decreased Lapinta upped the aggression and that tactic also paid off as he wound up in a very good position when heads up play began. As Fabrizio Sarra left the table in 5th place it was in fact Lapinta who eliminated every other player and heads up play didn’t take long with Lapinta picking up a great payday, and he’ll return to Atlantic City in May for the Nationals. It was a very good overall event with a fine turnout of 578 players creating a prize pool of $867,000 with plenty of players from New Jersey and the East Coast involved. It was also an event that saw players involved that had qualified via the new WSOP.com website in the Garden State, getting their seats through qualifiers on the site, and that will probably be an ongoing thing. With WSOP.com real money poker now available to residents of the state this huge brand will of course be utilizing all they have to give the WSOP Circuit as much exposure as possible.
