Event 13
The first week of the Winter Poker Open saw six players walk away with WPO trophies and since then, ten more players have walked away with “tiny glass Borgatas”. Those trophies have been awarded through a wide variety of events and the first saw Marc Matz take home the Event 7 ‘Omaha/Stud H/L’ title and an over $6,000 score. That was Matz’s first career tournament win and that kicked off a busy week, with ‘The General’ claiming the next WPO trophy.
That came in the Event 8 ‘Super Stack Elevator’ and prior to the ‘Borgata Million’ starting on Tuesday, James Chen won the Event 9 ‘Pot Limit Omaha High’. The trophies were then kept out of sight for a few days, as that ‘Borgata Million’ played through six starting flights but ‘All-Star Weekend’ did not disappoint, creating plenty of headlines and storylines over the last few days.
The biggest of those storylines was Joe ‘Black’ Reddick claiming his first career title in the $1,000,000 GTD Event 10. Reddick took home just over $215,000 for his ‘Borgata Million’ win and while that wasn’t the first title awarded during ‘All-Star Weekend’, Reddick was the weekend’s highest earner.
Mike Rees was the second biggest earner, after he claimed the Event 11 ‘$1,000 Six Max’ title early Sunday morning. After a nearly seven hour final table, Rees outlasted a stacked field to take home $80,000 and his first BPO title, with Rex Clinkscales doing the same on Saturday night. He won the Event 12 ’40 Big Blind Bounty’ for just over $30,000.
Those two wins bookended Allan Vrooman‘s $100,000 GTD ‘Saturday Series’ win, as he claimed the Event 13 title for his first career Borgata victory. The final trophy awarded on a busy Saturday, saw partypoker’s Jamie Kerstetter take down the Event 16 ‘Charity Series of Poker’ title. That was a win-win for both Kerstetter and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, as over $13,000 were raised through another extremely successful CSOP event.
While Saturday saw plenty of hardware get handed out, Sunday was a slightly less hectic schedule, with only two players claiming WPO trophies. The first was Alex Benyayev, who outlasted a 75 player field to win the Event 15 ‘Pot Limit Omaha High’, the second event of it’s kind during this WPO series.
The big winner from Sunday though was Matt Emmel, who claimed potentially the most prestigious non-main event title, when he outlasted a 64 player bracket to win Event 14. Emmel, who is a heads up sit & go specialist used that experience to claim the ‘Heads Up Championship’ title and a nearly $50,000 score. Emmel was the last WPO title winner but over the next few days, five more trophies are up for grabs, including the WPT Champions Cup.
The WPO blog will be here to bring you all of that action but if you want to go back and catch up on what’s happened over the last week, the links at the top of this post will bring you to each event’s individual coverage. It should also be noted, that a complete list of results from each event are linked as well.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 31: Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 1
Allan Vrooman (Winner of Event #13!)
Allan Vrooman wins $53,962 and the impressive, and extremely heavy, Borgata trophy. He had us take a silly photo before the serious one for a young family friend, as long as we promised not to post it anywhere. (It’s here. Just kidding, Allan.)
Allan, who works in commodities, tells us that he ran like a god today, that’s all there is to it. He also said, and we quote, that he would not have won if “Chris Bell’s lucky ass” was at the final table.
This is Allan’s first win at Borgata, but he’s previously made third place at a $1500 No-Limit Hold’em WSOP bracelet event. He also made a final table of the main event here at Borgata back in 2011, and has over $377,000 in tournament winnings. He’ll be playing in the main event, so we’ll keep an eye on him to see if his run continues. Congratulations, Allan!
Tim Polcari (Out in 2nd)
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 31: Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 1
After the beat that knocked Tom out of the tournament, Tim, in the short stack, thanked Allan for vaulting him up to second in the standings. “Anywhere you want to eat, I’m buying,” says Tim.
Heads up started with Tim holding 4,375,000 and Allan 12,175,000 in chips. It only lasted a few hands.
Tim raised to 500,000, Allan went all in and Tim called.
Tim: {Ac}{6c}
Allan: {7c}{7h}
Board: {8d}{Kc}{5s}{9d}{8h}
No surprises here: Allan was ahead and stayed ahead. Tim is out in second and wins $30,341. Prior to this, he had won almost $40,000 in tournaments, so this nearly doubles his total. And, this is his first finish higher than 7th besides. Congratulations for Tim’s second place finish.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 32: Blinds 100,000/200,000/30,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 2
Average Stack: 8,275,000
Tom Pomponio (Out in 3rd)
Tom Pomponio went all in preflop and Allan Vrooman called.
Tom: {As}{Kd}
Allan: {Ah}{Jd}
The board started out fine with {9s}{Qh}{10s}{5d}, but finished with a {Kc} to give Allan a gutshot straight and send Tom out in third place.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 31: Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 3
Average Stack: 5,520,000
Here are the chip counts of our Saturday Series final three competitors.
1 Allan Vrooman 6,900,000
2 Tim Polcari 3,400,000
3 Tom Pomponio 6,700,000
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 31: Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 3
Average Stack: 5,520,000
Allan Vrooman raises to 400,000 preflop and Tom Pomponio re-raises all in for 1,285,000 total. Allan calls with {Ah}{3d}, while Tom has {Kc}{Js}.
The board runs out {6d}{Ac}{Kd}{7d} …..
{Ks}!
The extra king on the river doubles up Tom to over 2.5 million.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 31: Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 3
Average Stack: 5,520,000
Jim Dalessandro (Out in 4th)
After Tom Pomponio taking most of Jim Dallesandro’s chips in a massive pot where Tom had a straight, Jim is all in and Tom calls.
Jim: {Js}{10h}
Tom: {Ad}{Jh}
Board: {4h}{3d}{9h}{Qc}{6d}
Jim is out in fourth place.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
End of Level 30: Blinds 60,000/120,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 4
Average Stack: 4,138,000
While the final four competitors in the Saturday Series are on a 10-minute break, here are the four chip stacks remaining.
1 Jim Dallesandro 3,450,000
2 Allan Vrooman 7,495,000
3 Tim Polcari 2,325,000
4 Tom Pomponio 3,280,000
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 30: Blinds 60,000/120,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 4
Average Stack: 4,138,000
Kat Khaterzai (Out in 5th)
Kat Khaterzai is all in, and Allan Vrooman calls:
Kat: {2s}{2h}
Allan: {Ac}{Qs}
Seems like it’s going OK for Kat as the board is run out…
{3s}{Jd}{Kd}{8d}
But the river completes the straight with a {10d}, sending Kat out in 5th. She got 14th in this Saturday Series event one week ago, and second in a Saturday Series back in November, so the Saturday Series has been good to her! Kat is the last woman standing.
Kai Koppe (Out in 6th)
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 30: Blinds 60,000/120,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 5
Average Stack: 3,310,000
Kai Koppe and Tom Pomonio are all in. Allan Vrooman with the chip lead nearly calls as well, but opts to fold, wisely, as it turns out.
Kai: {10c}{10d}
Tom: {As}{Ah}
Board: {7c}{Kd}{5d}{3s}{8c}
And Kai is out in sixth place, just that fast.