- Borgata Winter Poker Open 2017 Results
- Borgata Winter Poker Open 2020 Blog
- Borgata Winter Poker Open 2019
Canada's Eric Afriat defeated a field of 1,244 entries to come out on top of the WPTWinter Poker Open Championship at the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Afriat won his second WPT title, following up on his win in the Season XII Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
The Borgata Winter Poker Open featured a $3 million guaranteed prize pool. Afriat took home $651,928 for winning the title in his second final table of Season XVI. The Quebec native claimed a fifth-place finish at WPT Montreal last November.
The Borgata Winter Poker Open featured a $3 million guaranteed prize pool. Afriat took home $651,928 for winning the title in his second final table of Season XVI. The Quebec native claimed a fifth-place finish at WPT Montreal last November. Esther Taylor took her spot in the last eight when she defeated former WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open champ Aaron Mermelstein. Jason Rivkin already cashed big in this series, a runner-up finish in the Black Chip Bounty event, and now he's onto the fourth round after defeating Ian Davis.
Zach Gruneberg started the final table with half of the chips in play, but Afriat was able to overcome the giant stack and a group of formidable opponents on his way to victory.
Final table lineup
Seat 1: Eric Afriat – 2,280,000 (23 bb)
Seat 2: Zach Gruneberg – 17,600,000 (176 bb)
Seat 3: Joe McKeehen – 5,955,000 (60 bb)
Seat 4: Justin Zaki – 5,565,000 (56 bb)
Seat 5: Stephen Song – 2,740,000 (27 bb)
Seat 6: Michael Marder – 3,080,000 (31 bb)
The youngest falls first
Stephen Song entered the nine-handed unofficial final table as the chip leader but started Day 5 as the short stack. At only 22 years old, Song was a relative unknown in the pro-heavy WPT field. Song never got much going and his elimination started the rise of Afriat.
Song limped in the cutoff with ace-deuce of hearts and Afriat came in from the small blind with pocket threes. Afriat flopped a full house and Song the nut-flush draw. All the money went in with Song drawing nearly dead and he departed in sixth-place. Song earned his first ever six-figure tournament score.
Joe McKeehen falls short of first WPT win
After New Jersey pro Michael Marder's fifth-place elimination, Joe McKeehen exited in the 72nd hand of the final table. Afriat claimed most of McKeehen's chips and Gruneberg swept the rest up.
With the blinds up to 100,000/200,000, Afriat raised to 425,000 under the gun with queen-ten suited. Gruneberg called and McKeehen three-bet out of the small blind for 1,500,000 with two nines. Afriat put in a fourth raise to 2,675,000 and McKeehen called to a queen-high flop. Afriat bet 950,000 into a pot of six million and McKeehen folded.
McKeehen three-bet shoved with ace-jack offsuit the next hand over a Gruneberg open but Gruneberg held ace-king and eliminated the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion. Top rated free slot app for kindle.
The final table is the second for McKeehen on the World Poker Tour and he matched his fourth place result from the Season XIV Winter Poker Open.
Gruneberg unable to claim Borgata redemption
Zach Gruneberg placed second to Jesse Sylvia in the Season XV Borgata Poker Open and was eager to best that finish. Gruneberg's chip lead dwindled relative to the blinds throughout the final table and his run ended in third place.
Gruneberg four-bet shoved with ace-nine offsuit in a blind versus blind encounter with Justin Zaki, who held pocket tens. No help for Gruneberg and his third-place run came with a $321,533 consolation prize.
On Day 4, Gruneberg was all-in with ace-queen on a queen-high board against the flopped set of Chase Bianchi. Gruneberg went runner-runner for quads and spun that second life up into his podium finish.
Heads up battle
Afriat entered heads up play with a 2:1 chip deficit against Zaki. Thanks to some patient play and timely cards, Afriat pulled ahead of the Florida pro to win the title after a 100-hand match.
The chip lead switched hand numerous times during heads up before Afriat took control for good.
The big blind was a robust 1,000,000 and Afriat raise to twice that and then called an all-in of 17,300,000 from Zaki. Afriat had ace-king and a huge lead over Zaki's king-eight. No help came for Zaki and Afriat closed out the tournament on the next hand.
Zaki's second career WPT final table came with a career-best payout.
Final table results
1st Place: Eric Afriat – $651,928
2nd Place: Justin Zaki – $434,614
3rd Place: Zach Gruneberg – $321,533
4th Place: Joe McKeehen – $240,251
5th Place: Michael Marder – $181,329
6th Place: Stephen Song – $138,254
Afriat up to second in Player of the Year
There were no true challengers to Art Papazyan's Season XVI Player of the Year rule until Afriat won on Friday. Afriat is up to 1,700 points, putting him 700 behind Papazyan. If Afriat makes another WPT final table this season he will have the chance to pass Papazyan and earn the Player of the Year title.
The next stop is…
Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, ON is the next stop on the World Poker Tour. The WPT will be there from February 10-12. Darren Elias won his third career WPT title in this event last year.
Lead image courtesy of WPT/Flickr
The final table for the World Poker Tour's 2017 Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City, NJ, is shaping up to be a 'one versus all' affair. The reason? Chip leader Nathan Bjerno, who garnered most of his chips in taking down two of the players who had been around the top of the leaderboard virtually the entire tournament, has almost a third of the chips in play.
34 players returned to the baize at the Borgata on Thursday with the difficult task of getting to the final six. Charles Coates held the lead with his 3.371 million in chips, but right behind him was Blake Bohn and his 3.024 million stack. With both players on the same table, the potential for fireworks was in the mix, but it would take some time for the fuse to be lit.
There was still a bit of play in the stacks (even short stacked Asher Conniff was sitting decently with his 406,000 in chips, good for 17 big blinds), so it took a bit of time before the first elimination of the day. That occurred when Day 2 chip leader Jack Duong pushed his stack all in against Shaun Deeb about 40 minutes into the day. Deeb was more than happy to call Duong's push with his pocket Kings and Duong, with Big Slick, would hit on the K-J-10 flop for a gut shot straight draw. Unfortunately, Duong couldn't find the filler for the hole in his straight – the Queen – on the turn or the river, sending him out of the tournament 34th place.
The next competitor out surprised many in the tournament room. Coming in with an even million chips, Olivier Busquet would send more than half of them to Bart Dowling after Dowling turned a set and rivered quad sixes against him. That wasn't the most painful beat, however, as moments later Busquet would take on Bohn in the hand that would end his tournament.
After Bohn raised and Dowling called, Busquet would squeeze the action with an all-in move. Bohn looked him up (Dowling exited at this point) and the players turned their cards up. It was the classic race situation, Busquet's A-10 off suit versus Bohn's pocket eights. In the window was an Ace for Busquet, but the third card on the flop was an eight to give Bohn a set. Once an innocent trey and a four came on the turn and river, Busquet was suddenly out of the tournament in 33rd place.
Bohn was quite aggressive with those new chips and it paid off well for him. He would eliminate David Stefanski in 28th place and forced Adnan Mohammad to lay down another hand as his chip stack climbed to almost five million chips. After Tony Ruberto bluffed off a stack of chips to him, Bohn was in prime shape for the final table as his stack reached the 6.5 million mark.
Borgata Winter Poker Open 2017 Results
That would be the epitome of Bohn's day, however. He would bleed chips off over the course of the evening but reach the unofficial final table with about half the chips he had after Ruberto's bluff. Those chips would hit the center against Bjerno, who had stormed out to a decent lead over the field by earlier knocking off Coates in tenth place with his pocket threes flopping a set against Coates' pocket sixes. Bohn was in a different situation, however, as his A-K would need help against Bjerno's pocket tens. It wouldn't come as the board came down ten-high, giving Bjerno an unnecessary set against Bohn's Ace-high and sending Bohn to the rail in eighth place.
After Jia Liu took down Thomas Penza in seventh place – Liu's pocket Jacks handling Penza's A♥ 8♥ with ease on a K-5-3-5-Q board – the official WPT final table was set with Bjerno over the 12 million mark in chips:
Borgata Winter Poker Open 2020 Blog
1. Nathan Bjerno, 12.415 million
2. Jia Liu, 6.815 million
3. Tyler Kenney, 6.03 million
4. Daniel Weinman, 5.41 million
5. Richard Foster, 5.13 million
6. Nicholas Immekus, 3.55 million
Borgata Winter Poker Open 2019
For those who plan to be in attendance for the final table action, it may be a long evening. Immekus, on the short stack, still has 44 big blinds to play with (the table was paused in Level 29 with blinds of 40K/80K with 10K antes), plenty of time for him to look for a moment to strike. Of the remainder of the table, Kenney is the best-known player of the lot, having made a WPT final table before (2014, a third-place finish at the WPT Legends of Poker). While he does have about a third of the chips, Bjerno is the epitome of that old axiom 'uneasy lies the head that wears the crown' as he tries to seal the deal in Atlantic City beginning at 2PM this afternoon (live stream with hole cards begins at 2:30 at WPT.com)