Veni, Vedi, Vici

“I came, I saw, I conquered.”

While these words were not uttered by James Caporuscio Saturday night, nobody would have blamed him if they were. The 24-year old amateur from Long Island, New York, entered the final table of the United States Poker Championship as the chip leader and absolutely rolled over the competition en route to victory and an $831,532 prize.

Even though two huge poker stars, John Juanda and Men “The Master” Nguyen, were at the final table, Caporuscio and runner-up Ralph Pecorale were not only the stars of the night, but the best story of the tournament. It is not unusual for poker players to be friends outside of poker, but these two guys have been friends back home for over a year and happened to find themselves heads-up against each other at the USPC.

Caporuscio, known by his friends as “Capo”, is a mortgage banker and Pecorale is a real estate attorney who works with him. Their poker experience comes from the office game they play every week together. Earlier this year, they participated in a sort of office poker league, where they bought into a game every week. Part of the buy-in went to the prize pool, and part was put into escrow to fund the overall winner’s entry to the USPC. Because Caporuscio is still a young man at the beginning of his career, he didn’t quite feel comfortable with the size of the buy-in, so Pecorale paid for half. In the end, Caporuscio won the USPC money and Pecorale decided to pay his own way and enter the tournament, as well.

Most of the crowd at the final table was friends and family of the two finalists. And boy, were they vocal. It was one of the best cheering sections you will ever see at a poker game. Their parents were there, Capo’s girlfriend and Pecorale’s wife were there. Cousins, colleagues, and childhood buddies were there. Friends were even calling other friends to get them to drive to Atlantic City to join in the fun. They had such immense support that there weren’t enough seats for everybody. Some people were sharing chairs. The ESPN crew had to keep bringing in more and more seats as the final table went on (yet they never told the extras – yes, paid spectators – to leave in order to make room for the real fans).

It was an amazing scene to see two buddies who had no illusions of really being able to compete with pros, not only competing, but winning.

And Capo did it with style.

After knocking out Andrew Barta in 7th place, Caporuscio got busy stacking his chips. The next hand was dealt and when it was his turn to act, Capo was still stacking the chips from the previous pot. Seeing a hand worth playing, he called the bet, not by counting his chips and placing them on the table, but rather, by simply announcing his call, and just shoving part of the still unstacked pile of chips to middle of the table, allowing the dealer to count out the bet. After the flop, he calmly placed one of his $100,000 stacks in front of him, getting everybody to fold.

The next hand, again, still stacking chips, he received his cards and raised to $100,000. Bermuda’s Chris Furbert (a story in himself, as he was the smallest stack when the tournament was down to 27 players) re-raised to $340,000. Almost instantly, without looking up from his chip stacking, Capo flicked his wrist and said, “All-in.” Furbert pondered his move for a short while before calling, putting himself all-in.

Both players held A-K unsuited, but Capo caught four clubs to complete a flush and knock Furbert out in 6th place. When the four of clubs landed on the river, the roof almost came off the arena. John Juanda even looked amazed and entertained by what was happening. One of Capo’s friends turned to me, and in a voice painfully hoarse from screaming, and said, “I told him it was fate! He can’t lose! It’s fate!”

It was readily apparent at that point that his friend was right. Capo had steamrolled the table prior to that hand and continued to do so after. In all, he eliminated all but one of the other eight players Saturday. It was foregone conclusion that he would win once play was heads-up with his pal that he would take it all, as he had a seemingly insurmountable 10-1 chip lead.

Pecorale made a game of it, though, and built his stack back to over $1,000,000. But finally, after more than 60 heads-up hands, Capo emerged as champion.

After a flop of 10-9-7, Pecorale moved all-in and was called by Caporuscio. The chip leader had 10-8 for top pair plus an open-ended straight draw, while Pecorale only had 8-2 for the same straight draw. The final two cards, an Ace and a 4, were no help to Pecorale and Caporuscio won $831,532.

Some poker fans may not be thrilled with yet another unknown winning a major tournament, especially with two very popular players, Nguyen and Juanda, at the final table. But when you see this event on television in a few months, you will see why, regardless of whether or not Caporuscio continues to play in major tournaments, he is a worthy champion. Not only did he have a following in the crowd, he seemed to be very well liked by the other players. He looked to have befriended Frank Vizza and he gave Barta a hug before the final table and after Barta was eliminated. Even Men “The Master” split his one of his trademark Corona’s with him.

With the Caporusci/Pecorale matchup on Saturday, we were given a fantastic storyline. On top of that, we were treated to some amazing poker. It was hard to ask for anything more.

Complete Money Standings

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. James Caporuscio -- $831,532
2. Ralph Pecorale -- $436,500
3. Steve Brecher -- $218,250
4. Men Nguyen -- $130,950
5. John Juanda -- $98,213
6. Chris Furbert -- $76,388
7. Andrew Barta -- $54,562
8. Frank Vizza -- $43,650
9. Michael Santoro -- $37,102
10. Kevin Chan -- $28,372
11. Mark Seif -- $28,372
12. Tommy Wang -- $28,372
13. Kathy Liebert -- $28,372
14. Vadim Trincher -- $28,372
15. Joseph Palma -- $28,372
16. Surinder Sunar -- $28,372
17. Phuong Tran -- $28,372
18. Paul Magriel -- $28,372