The first event at the Borgata Poker Open (BPO) was the $600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’ Em event which saw a field of 3,106 players compete over five flights and the prize pool of $1,626,932 exceeded the original guarantee of $1.5 million.
The event was a great way to start the tournament and four players cashed out with over 6 figures.
Poker pros Daniel Park, Justin Leeds, Jacob Naumann and Donny Maloney were the last players left standing when they decided to cut a deal instead of playing it out.
All four took home $170,000 in cash while Justin Leeds was officially named the champion. It is quite a feather in Leeds’ cap as he had just $5,216 in tournament winnings when he entered the event.
The Final Table
After the final table convened, Pierre Deissler became the first to get knocked out when he called Naumann’s all-in bet. With his ace-six suited, Deissler nailed his ace for a pair but the board also had four clubs aboard. Naumann just happened to have a club which sent Deissler packing with $22,777. Naumann then took his king-ten against Mike Lavenburg’s ace-jack suited and ended up with a full house. Lavenburg’s 8th-place finish resulted in a payday of $31,725. Doug Shirk then picked the wrong time to bluff and ended up losing to Maloney’s pocket queens. Shirk finished with $47,181 in his pockets.
Dustin Lee was bounced next when he took his ace-jack against Kevin Lutz’s ten-nine. The board gave Lutz a straight and Lee was gone with $64,263 for his troubles. The last man to get sent to the curb was Kevin Lutz who pushed his stack with a six-five. Naumann called with his king-jack and spiked a set after jacks came on the turn and river. Lutz ended up with $81,753 in winnings.
BPO Action Heating UP
Blake Whittington, who is an MSPT champ and a WSOP bracelet winner, outlasted a field of 781 players to win the $500 Black Chip Bounty Deep Stack. He capped off his tournament run by collecting his last of 10 bounties from Jackie Liu who ended up with $35,795 in winnings. Whittington’s first-place finish netted him $61,518.
The Borgata Poker Open will run until September 21. The grand finale will be the World Poker Tour Borgata Open Championship which has a $3,500 buy-in and features $3 million in guarantees. The event kicks off on September 16th and will be live streamed.
