Down 2-1, Joe Scimeca Comes Back For the Win
Joe Scimeca is the winner of WSOP Circuit Event #9 at Harrah’s St. Louis.
 
Scimeca had half the chips of his heads-up opponent, 64-year-old retired beer brewer, John Adams but strong two-handed poker play more than made up for a deficient stack.

The $1,000 (+90) buy-in No Limit Hold’em event drew an impressive field of 258 runners, generating a prize pool of $250,260, the largest poker tournament prize pool so far at the World Series of Poker Circuit Events at Harrah’s St. Louis. The quarter million dollar purse was also the largest ever in the state of Missouri.

21 players made it to day two including event # 6 winner, Gene Esker and Paul Wasicka, who would finish the day in 14th place.

Scimeca was in the middle of the pack heading into the final table. 
 
 
 
 

Name

Hometown

Seat

Chip Count

Joe Scimeca

Kansas City, MO

1

245,000

Lance Dorsey

Columbia, MO

2

101,000

Mike Patterson

Springfield, IL

3

90,000

Patrick Fogleman

Springfield, IL

4          

133,000

Dexon Ruecker

Phoenix, AZ

5

380,000

Andrew Rubinberg

Skokie, IL

6

106,000

John Adams

St. Louis, MO

7

483,000

Jason Thornhill

Spring, TX

8

136,000

Larry Smith

Quincy, IL

9

215,000

 
Ninth Place
Final table play began just before 4:30 pm with blinds and antes at 5,000/10,000/2,000. Jason Thornhill, in his third WSOPC final table in 2010, was the first casualty of the evening after moving all-in on a board of     with pocket jacks. John Adams made the call with AQ off and after a 10 and 8 of diamonds on the turn and river, Thornhill was eliminated in ninth. The 27-year-old poker pro from Spring, TX earned $5,306.

Eighth Place
“Uncle” Mike Patterson was all-in a short time later with pocket eights, but was far behind Dexon Ruecker, who made the call with pocket nines. The ace-high board was no help to Patterson, sending the 42-year-old poker player from Springfield, IL off to collect $6,257 for eighth.

Seventh Place
Blinds moved up to the 6,000/12,000 level with 2,000 antes. Ruecker moved his huge stack all-in from the cutoff with AsKd while Andrew Rubinberg called from the button with his remaining chips holding   . The flop came    , giving Ruecker top pair. A   and   on the turn and river resulted in a seventh place finish for Rubinberg worth $7,708.

Sixth Place

Larry Smith, a 51-year-old insurance company field rep, was the sixth place finisher. After doubling Patrick Fogleman a few hands earlier, he was all-in with   . Adams called with   . The flop was a monster for Adams,     . Smith was unable to catch running aces or straight cards, ending his tournament run. Sixth place was worth $11,562.

Fifth Place

In his second final table in as many days, Fogleman was determined to best his fourth place finish in event #7. However, after a bad run of cards, he got the rest of his chips in with Ad9s. Ruecker was behind after calling with   , but was looking good after a     flop. The turn and river were of no help to Fogleman, ending his ring bid in fifth, which paid $15,416.
    
Fourth Place
After a heads-up flop of    , Adams made it 40,000 to go. Ruecker, sensing that he was being
pushed off a hand by the big stack, decided to raise Adams for most of his chips. Adams moved-all in and Ruecker could only call with   .

Ruekcer discovered his read was off when Adams tabled    for the flopped set. Adams was forced to sweat a bit after a   hit the turn, but added more ammunition to his already huge chip stack after a river  . Ruecker is a 22-year-old college senior from Phoenix, AZ. He took home $19,270.

Third Place
Down to the final three, Adams had over half the chips in play with about 1.25 million. The short stack was Lance Dorsey with about 80k left in the tank. With his few remaining chips in the middle, the 30-year-old radiology resident physician’s    failed to stay ahead through fifth street against Adams’    and he was eliminated.

Dorsey is a former D2 football player at Truman State College and class of 2006 graduate of the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Medicine. He adds a WSOPC third place finish worth $26,978 to a fine list of accomplishments.

Second Place
Heads-up play began at 5:35 pm with Adams holding about a 2-1 chip lead over Scimeca. Blinds and antes were at 6,000/12,000/2,000. Undaunted, Scimeca  slowly chipped away at his opponent to take the lead.

In the final hand of the night, Adams fired out 60,000 on a flop of    , which Scimeca called. The turn brought a  . Adams moved all-in. After about seven or eight minutes, Scimeca called and turned over   . Scimeca had bottom pair and was drawing to a river flush. Adams turned over    for king high. The river was a  , giving Scimeca the win worth a healthy $62,289 and his first WSOP Circuit Event gold ring.

Adams took home $37,964 for second place.

Scimeca is a 28-year-old poker player from Kansas City, MO. With over a $25,000 difference in first and second prize and a WSOPC gold ring on the line, Scimeca did not want to let tournament be decided by a couple of fateful all-ins.  

“I was trying to chip away and figure out what he was doing and finally got a couple of reads on him,” said Scimeca about the heads up duel.

After settling with a backer, the married father of two children says that he will put his winnings toward the household.

“They get all of it,” he said with a smile.

Still to come are 3 more events and nightly (single-day) non-ring $230 and $340 buy-in events which begin at 4 pm and 7pm. The WSOP Circuit at Harrah’s St. Louis runs through April 15th.