Mike Del Vecchio Wins WPT Rolling Thunder

By Ryan Lucchesi
Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com

Winning a World Poker Tour title can mean many things to many different players. Winning a tournament on the tour is an achievement for any poker player, but it is especially meaningful when it’s their first WPT title. Mike Del Vecchio claimed his membership in the WPT Champions Club tonight at Thunder Valley Resort Casino, and you could tell that it was a cherished victory for him by the flood of emotion he felt right after the win. “I’m just so overcome, ten years of blood, sweat, and tears. I always dreamed of something like this,” said Del Vecchio.

He beat a talented table of competitors, and made it through a particularly tough three-handed battle to win the top prize of $284,638. “I was joking with my friends that this was probably one of the toughest WPT final tables I’ve ever seen, it means a lot to win, it feels really good. This feels really good, I definitely ran really hot the whole tournament and stuff like that, but it feels validating,” said Del Vecchio when he was asked about the late stages of play.

Del Vecchio came into the final table with the chip lead, and he was able to wield his stack effectively on the final day of the tournament, just as he had during the play-down stretch to the final table. “When it gets down to this, where the pay jumps are so big, then I was really trying to use my stack for leverage. When we got three-handed, and [Steven] Tabb was really short, Sorel [Mizzi] had to stop playing hands versus me, because he just knew that he had to wait. So then when I had the big stack it was easy. But when Tabb had all of the chips and we were short we went back and forth, and we were in bad positions. A lot of that is just how the cards lie, and how you can use your stack size to your advantage,” said Del Vecchio.

Del Vecchio also acknowledged the shifting styles of play he had to adopt during different points of the tournament because of the structure. “It was interesting because the bubble took so long and it got really, really short. It switched to six-handed and 90-minute levels, and everybody got so deep, and all of a sudden the average stack was 90 big blinds when you came into the final table. It was really interesting going from really shallow to then just so deep six-max, and then shallow again going through everything,” said Del Vecchio.

Del Vecchio was the last man standing in a field of 421 entries, and in addition to the top prize money, he won a seat in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions. That was also something that meant a lot him. “I had no intention of going to Florida. Jesse Sylvia is one of my best friends … he told me he really wanted to play the Tournament of Champions with me,” said Del Vecchio right before he paused a moment to collect his emotions. He now has a chance to join Sylvia in that prestigious event, and it will take place just over three weeks from today.

Here is a look at the chip counts when cards got into the air this afternoon at the final table.

Seat 1.  John Hadley  –  2,978,000  (124 bb)
Seat 2.  Sorel Mizzi  –  2,283,000  (95 bb)
Seat 3.  Mike Del Vecchio  –  4,270,000  (178 bb)
Seat 4.  Steven Tabb  –  1,075,000  (45 bb)
Seat 5.  Olivier Busquet  –  676,000  (28 bb)
Seat 6.  Connor Drinan  –  1,349,000  (56 bb)

Action pulled out of the station slowly to start the final table, and two dozen hands transpired before John Hadley doubled thru Connor Drinan in the first all-in pot. Drinan lasted just a few hands longer after that, and he busted in sixth place ($52,222) in a three-way all-in hand against Olivier Busquet and Hadley. Busquet made a full house to win that hand and triple up.

Steven Tabb got on the board with a double up thru Hadley, and then Hadley doubled up for a second time to keep action five-handed coming out of the first break in play. Tabb came on strong coming out of the break, and he took the chip lead on the 57th hand of play. But Del Vecchio grabbed it back ten hands later.

The five-handed stalemate was broken when Busquet called all in preflop with A-8 against the K-4 of Tabb on Hand 76. Tabb held two diamonds and he made flush on the river to eliminate Busquet in fifth place ($63,013). That gave Busquet five cashes during Season XV, and he is now in the top 20 players in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.

Hadley faced off against Del Vecchio four hands later with his tournament life on the line. Hadley was all in preflop with ace-queen, but he was behind pocket sixes and never caught up. The freeroll seat winner from Livermore Casino busted in fourth place, so all of his $81,930 in prize money was pure profit.

Coming out of the second break in play, Sorel Mizzi tripled up, and then he doubled up to sustain a prolonged three-handed battle. Del Vecchio then took a turn doubling up, and Tabb did as well, so all three players survived their turn testing fate.

Tabb had survived on Hand 156 thanks to kings full of tens, but he was all in again on the very next hand. Tabb held king-queen against the ace-eight of Del Vecchio, but there were no more kings to come to his rescue this time around. Tabb was eliminated in third place, and he took home $122,296 in prize money.

Del Vecchio held close to a 2-1 chip advantage at the start of the heads-up final against Mizzi, but it didn’t take too long for the chip stacks to even out. Del Vecchio took the lead once again though, and he had a larger than 2-1 chip advantage when all the chips got into the middle for the final time on Hand 182.

Del Vecchio raised to 300,000, and Mizzi called. The flop came , Mizzi checked, Del Vecchio bet 225,000, and Mizzi called. The turn card was the , Mizzi checked, Del Vecchio bet 600,000, and Mizzi tanked for about two minutes before check-raising to 1,725,000. Del Vecchio thought for about 30 seconds before he moved all in, and Mizzi quickly called all in for 3,385,000 with for an open-ended straight-flush draw. Del Vecchio turned over for trip fours, and Mizzi needed to improve to stay alive. The river card was the , and Del Vecchio wins the pot — and the WPT title — with trip fours. Sorel Mizzi finished as the runner-up, earning $190,105.

Del Vecchio is the WPT Rolling Thunder champion, earning $284,638, which includes his $15,000 entry into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions. Del Vecchio also received a WPT Champions Trophy, and his name will be inscribed on the one-and-only WPT Champions Cup, alongside every WPT champion from all 15 seasons.

Congratulations to Mike Del Vecchio!

Final Table Results

1st:  Mike Del Vecchio – $284,638*
2nd:  Sorel Mizzi – $190,105
3rd:  Steve Tabb – $122,296
4th:  John Hadley –  $81,930
5th:  Olivier Busquet – $63,013
6th:  Connor Drinan – $52,222

We would also like to congratulate WPT California Swing champion Rainer Kempe. He claimed the prize package with 212 points thanks to an 18th-place finish at the L.A. Poker Classic, and a sixth-place finish at the Bay 101 Shooting Star final table. With WPT Rolling Thunder now in the history books, the World Poker Tour heads to the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida for a week of events to close out Season XV. The $3,500 buy-in Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown will kick off the action, and it runs from March 31st to April 5th. Return to WPT.com for live coverage of this and all main tour WPT events.