Event 12
Update: The final table of the World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship was held as scheduled March 13th at the Luxor HyperX Esports Arena.
1st Place – Vinicius ‘Viny’ Lima
Vinicius ‘Viny’ Lima had the biggest climb of the final six players, starting play at the bottom of the chip counts. At the end, it was the youngest player, Viny, at only 24 years old, against the oldest, David Farah, who was twice his age at 48 years young.
Viny emerged victorious, winning $728,430, which includes $15,000 for a seat in the WPT season-ending Baccarat Crystal Tournament of Champions, along with a Hublot Big Bang Steel Watch, and the WPT Champions Cup trophy.
The $2 Million Guaranteed Kick-Off Deep Stack drew a massive 5,130 entrants, which is the second-largest WPO Kick-Off field on record, behind 2017’s 5,512 entrants. The total buy-ins of more than $2.77 million did set a new record, due to the increased buy-in of $540.
Pascal Zaklama – 1st Place – 2019 BWPO Kick-Off
The final 500 players shared in the massive prize pool and thanks to a three-way adjusted payout agreement at the final table, the final two earned better than second-place prize money. Pascal Zaklama was the chip leader and claimed 1st place and the BWPO trophy, along with $328,695.
Vladimir Alexandrov
Also notable was the 3rd place finisher, Vladimir Alexandrov. He won his entry through a BorgataPoker.com online satellite. Alexandrov managed to parlay his $45 satellite entry into his largest career tournament score, earning a $216,000 payday.
Barry Leventhal wins 4th Seniors Event
Barry Leventhal won his record fourth Borgata Seniors Event, which was also his eighth Borgata title, putting him in a tie for second-most wins at this venue, trailing only Abraham Korotki with nine Borgata titles.
Raj Desai – 1st Place – Almighty Million
The $1 Million Guaranteed Almighty Stack generated total buy-ins in excess of $1.4 million with a BWPO Almighty record of 3,508 entrants. Raj Desai held the chip lead wire-to-wire on Day 3, from 37 players down to the final three, who agreed on adjusted payouts based on chip counts. As the leader, Raj took the lion’s share of $175,429 and his first-ever Borgata trophy!
The first-ever “Ladies Brunch and Learn” was hosted by the Borgata and the World Poker Tour, with guest lecturers WSOP Ladies Champion Jessica Dawley and Loni Harwood, a professional poker player with nearly $3 million in tournament earnings. The sold out seminar was held the morning of the Ladies event, to give the Ladies some beginner instruction on tournament basics and tips to improve their play. In addition to brunch and mimosas, there were gifts and prizes for the attendees. (Due to the event’s popularity, it may appear again on a future tournament schedule!)
Kujdes Galiardi takes down the CSOP event and poses with her sister Alida Veliu, who won the Ladies Event.
The Ladies NLH tournament followed the seminar and drew a field of 154 entries. The eventual winner was Alida Veliu, who took home her second Borgata Ladies Event trophy and claimed her fifth lifetime Ladies Event win. Just a couple of hours earlier on the other end of the Event Center, Alida’s sister, Kujdes Gagliardi, won the CSOP NLH event, accomplishing something we believe has never happened before in the history of poker — two sisters winning trophy events on the same day!
Phil Hellmuth claims BWPO Heads-Up title
For the first time in probably a decade, Phil Hellmuth made an appearance at Borgata, arriving in time to play the Heads-Up Championship. The WSOP bracelet record-holder (15) and new World Poker Tour Raw Deal host blazed a path through the 64-player bracket to take the title and $37,245. He followed that up with a cash in the WPT BWPO Championship for another $7,176.
Speaking of the WPT BWPO Championship, it was another record-breaking turnout. The final tally of entrants was 1,415, beating both the 2017 WPT BWPO Championship record (1,312 entries) and the largest of all WPT Borgata Open Championships, which was in 2011 (1,313 entrants). The prize pool of nearly $4.7 million crushed the $3 million guarantee.
BorgataPoker.com Ambassador Dan Buzgon
The field played down to the final six, who bagged up their chips and paused the clock until March 13th, when they will reconvene at the new HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas to play it out under the lights and cameras of the World Poker Tour. BorgataPoker.com Ambassador and tournament grinder Dan Buzgon will make his third WPT final table appearance. He will start in the middle of the pack with an average stack when play resumes.
With more than $728,000 waiting for the eventual winner, the “HyperX Six” finalists must be chomping at the bit to get started, but they still have four weeks to wait. Make sure to check back here in the Winter Poker Open Blog for updates on that final table which begins the evening of Wednesday March 13th.
A list of main event winners is below, along with their earnings.
* Indicates Adjusted Payout
Thank you to all the participants and congratulations to all the winners! A special thanks goes out to all Borgata tournament staff and dealers for a terrific series.
On behalf of Borgata Poker Bloggers Tim Kelliher, Chris Murray, and myself, thank you for reading! Mark your calendars now for the Borgata Spring Poker Open, which takes place April 2nd-19th. Hope to see you then!
@Kaelaine
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
End of Level 28: Blinds 30,000/60,000/5000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 2
Average Stack: 3,200,000
In the most challenging of NL tournaments offered by the BWPO so far, Josh Bergman is ascendant.
Josh went for the throat postflop, checkraising a flopped a low straight, and his sticky opponent Gary Bowker could not find a fold with TPTK. They got it in – disaster for Gary.
Covered and drawing slim, Bowker is out in second. A terrific run for the late emerging stack.
Gary Bowker, Philadelphia, PA 2nd $47,724.
Joshua Bergman, Brookliine, MA 1st $77,946
Congratulations to Josh and Gary for their exceptional runs!
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
End of Level 28: Blinds 30,000/60,000/5000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 2
Average Stack: 3,200,000
So far the big stack Bergman has taken from Bowker. Having already earlier declared what happens when you hero call, Bergsman gets a nice thin value bet from what looks like bottom or ace high in Bowker’s hands. That 175,000 river bet takes him down to 1,300,000.
However, Bowker’s fearlessness now helps him. On a 
board, Bergman rips it all in over Bowker, who takes about a minute to decide. “Fade the hearts,” he says, both to himself and his opponent.
Gary is right. Josh has put him to the test with the 
, and all Gary has is 
for a very marginal made hand subject to counterfeit. However, Gary gets the double as the deck runs entirely in his favor. The turn is the 
, and the river somehow the 
.
The dealer reaches to pull in the missed flush cards from Bergman, who had been a card away from ending the match.
That takes Gary to 2,7000,000, less than a 2:1 dog now.
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
End of Level 27: Blinds 25,000/50,000/5000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 2
Average Stack: 3,200,000
Toward the end of the level, Bowker gets another strong ace bluff through Bergen. Interesting choices by these great players in a well fought final table.
SB versus BB, William Valladares, long-time chip leader but now in third, found a shove with 15 bigs. Unfortunately, his 
was dominated by Bergman’s 
.
William Valladares, 3rd for $36,270.
It’s Josh Bergman versus Gary Bowker for the trophy. Josh leads with about 5,000,000 to 1,600,000 to start.
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
End of Level 27: Blinds 25,000/50,000/5000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 3
Average Stack: 2,186,000
After many pots together, it was simply a flip that helped Bergman do in Jeremy Moore, 
running down . Great tournament for Moore who takes $29,430 for 4th.
Moore, right, is gone.
Shortly after, a disaster is avoided for William Valladares, who runs into for Bergman. They chop on a wheel runout. Easy game.
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
Level 26: Blinds 20,000/40,000/4000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 4
Average Stack: 1,640,333
Bowker about to get the bad news from Valladares.
Updated chips:
Bowker 800,000
Jeremy Moore 500,000
William Valladares 2,600,000
Josh Bergman 2,600,000
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
Level 26: Blinds 20,000/40,000/4000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 4
Average Stack: 1,640,333
Bergman has 2,700,000, even after paying off Moore.
Andrew Ostapchenko, from an earlier pot. He takes $16,385 for 6th.
In big action, Andrew Ostapchenko got caught up in a huge pot holding the effective nuts on 
with 
and a million behind. With the 
Josh Bergman took an aggressive stance with so much equity, and all the chips went in with the lead on the line.
A 
on the turn put Josh ahead and Andrew could not fill up.
A massive lead, briefly, then Josh takes a natural shot at felting Moore who was down to ten bigs. Jeremy holds with ace-king high vs 
and gets out of trouble.
Next, it’s more all-in action, but this time someone will be definitely hurt or out. Bowker gets about 550,00 in with into Metin’s 
. A clean runout and Metin is down to a couple bigs.
Metin doubles once, with 
over Moore’s 
. He’ll be all in again soon.
Then he’s out, but in an interesting way. Metin jams 286,000 and now with his million, Bowker somehow finds a flat in position, leaving William to jam all in from the BB. Bowker is upset, having fallen into it, but ultimately folds.
Metin Aksoy can’t fade another all-in.
Valladares felts Metin with . Great run for Aksoy to 5th for $22,748
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
Level 25: Blinds 12,000/24,000/3000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 6
Average Stack: 1,093,333
Just before break Jeremy Moore fired turn and river into Bergen, getting the fold at the end on a coordinated board.
“One for the fans,” he announced, flashing the old . Possibly the best hand, Bergen hinted.
In any case, Moore looked a little snake bit after the break when making a tough decision, of course against Bergen.
Moore, left thinks it through.
Was Bergen getting more out of line than usual? Moore pays off the little value bet, 125,000 or so. Ouch.
That fan Moore was talking about exclaims “Two Pair!”
Updated chips:
Bowker 620,000
Andrew O. 1,100,000
Jeremy Moore 500,000
William Valladares 1,800,000
Metin A. 800,000
Josh Bergen 1,750,000
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
End of Level 24: Blinds 12,000/24,000/3000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 6
Average Stack: 1,093,333
That seven handed moment goes quickly. Ramdin takes 7th for $11,931.
Estimated sacks by seat
- Gary Bowker 1,350,000
- Andrew Ostapchenko 800,000
- Jeremy Moore 500,000
- William Valladares 1,900,000
- Metin Aksoy 500,000
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
Level 24: Blinds 12,000/24,000/3000 ante
Total Entries: 328
Players Remaining: 8
Average Stack: 820,000
Table 1, Valladares in foreground.
Table 1 by seat
Andrew Ostapchenko – 700,000
Metin Aksoy – 650,000
William Valladares – 1,900,000
Gary Bowker – 1,100,000