Event 14: 8th Place - Kakon

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

William Kakon (Miami, FL)
$2,556

William Kakon will head back to Miami with $2,556 in his pocket after his A-K ran into AA.

Rough way to exit but not much Kakon could do in that predicament.

William Kakon finished in 8th Place for $2,556.

Event 14: 9th Place - Nguyen

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

Viet Nguyen (Philadelphia, PA)
$1,704

Good run for Viet Nguyen who got his chips in against the big stack big blind.

Viet had A♥ 9♥ on a flop of J♥ 9♣ 2♥. Opponent had J-2 and all the chips tumbled in.

Viet bricked out and had to call it a night.

Viet Nguyen finished in 9th Place earning $1,704.

Event 14: 10th Place - Roitman

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

Dennis Roitman (Brooklyn, NY)
$1,108

End of the road for Roitman who jammed with A-4 but ran into Viet Nguyen's K-K.

Nguyen's Cowboys actually improved to a full-house on the river scoring the knock-out punch.

Dennis Roitman finished in 10th Place earning $1,108.

Event 15: Trading Chips

$1500 + $150 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em

Jesse Yaginuma just had aces cracked to Daren Elias two pairs, kings and jacks.

Elias bets 2,800 on the turn and Yaginuma calls. On the river Elias moves all in for 8k and Yaginuma reluctantly calls looking to end the match.

When Yaginuma sees the bad news he asks Elias, "why couldn't you just check-raise the turn, I'd feel better about telling a bad beat story. Elias smiles and says, "I thought about it," as he now takes the chip lead 32k to 8k.

Blinds are 400/800, so it's far from over; these two are grinding for a spot into the Elite 8, and a $3,638 payday.

Event 14: Perfect 10

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

Final Table:
1. Johanny Joseph(Connecticut) ........................200,000
2. Justin Friedman (Yardley, PA) ......................143,000
3. Pearce Arnold (Washington, DC) .....................690,000
4. Leonardo Palermo (Toms River, NJ) ...............355,000
5. William Kakon (Miami, FL) ................................160,000
6. Kenneth Brown (Redondo Beach, CA) ................170,000
7. Dennis Roitman (Brooklyn, NY) ........................120,000
8. Viet Nguyen (Philadelphia, PA) ..........................230,000
9. Jeff Edgerton (New York, NY) ..........................315,000
10. Andrew Interdonato (Washington, DC) ...........480,000

Final Table of Ten

Congratulations to the final ten players who outlasted 251 players.

10th place gets $1,108.

1st place earns $23,861.

We're playing this one out until we have a winner.

Event 14: Moving on Up

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

10 players remain and they're drawing for their final table seats.

Last 8 eliminations:

Place-Name-Amount

11 Michael Sandler (Larchmont, NY) $1,108
12 Nick Sanfilippo (Warren Twp., NJ) $1,108
13 Geumsaeng Kim (Cherry Hill, NJ) $937
14 David Dalesandro (Wenonah, NJ) $937
15 Donald Gibson (Clifton, NJ)$937
16 Greg Pogarsky (Rexford, NY) $852
17 Dimitry Shamilov (Brooklyn, NY) $852
18 Michael Mansfield (Parsonburg, MD) $852

Event 15: Zinno MoveZ on

$1500 + $150 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em

Anthony Zinno

Anthony Zinno (Boston, MA) sweeps Feming Chan (W. Windsor, NJ) 2 games to none in the best of three series to advance to the Elite 8 and earn a min cash of $3,638.

The last match of the night is Darren Elias vs Jesse Yaginuma, as they're playing the rubber match after splitting the first two games.

Event 15: Two Still Going

$1500 + $150 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em

Zinno (right) folds to Chan

Some early bird grinders who arrived at Borgata at 11 am for the heads up draw are now night owls 12 hours later.

Two Sweet 16 matches continue as the four players are battling to make the money.

Anthony Zinno leads Feming Chan 1-0 in the best of three as game two continues. And it's tied at 1 between Darren Elias vs Jesse Yaginuma.

Yaginuma won this event in September 2009.

Winners get the min cash of $3,638.

Zinno & Yaginuma

Event 15: Two More Advance

$1500 + $150 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em

Olivier Busquet

2009 Borgata Poker Open Champion Olivier Busquet (New York, NY) defeats Dave Inselberg (Long Beach, NY) to advance to the Elite 8 and guarantees himself at least $3,638

Randy Feder (Plainview, NY) also moves on with a win over Tom Cope (Westport, CT) and gets the same min cash.

Both players return Friday to play in the quarterfinals and still have a shot at the $29,098 top prize.

Randy Feder

Event 13 Recap

$400 + $50 H.O.R.S.E.

Post-time for the HORSE event was pushed back an hour due to the massive field in the 11am tournament, but the HORSEs were off and running in good form, just an hour late.  There were 104 entries for this event, making the total purse $41,600.  The final 18 would get a peice of the pie with the eventual winner taking $12,107.

Among the notables entering this event were Chris Reslock, Larry Gold, Glenn Engelbert, Bill "Bumperino" Munley, Charlie Brahmi, Lonnie Heimowitz, Bill Blanda, Guy Tull, and Miami John Cernuto.   Also in the field was Omaha H/L, Event 9 winner Barry Levy ($13,153).

Thirty-five players survived day one and returned to continue play on Thursday.  Louis Russo (Brooklyn, NY) was the chip leader coming into day two, with Barry Levy (Brooklyn, NY) in second with 124,800.  

Russo ended up finishing in 4th place earning $3,228.  Guy Tull (Annapolis, MD) was in the middle of the pack coming into day two and at one point was down to a single blue 5,000 chip, but he held on and came back to finish 3rd ($3,833) and book his third cash during this Open series.

Lonnie Heimowitz (Monticello, NY) was also in the middle of the pack at the start of day two, but became the chip leader with 9 players remaining. He dropped down to third place three-handed but started the heads-up battle with Hi/Lo specialist Barry Levy with a 2 to 1 chip advantage.

Despite starting the day second in chips, Barry Levy was the short-stack for a while and at one point was down to only 18,000 chips.  "I knew I was going to win it. I wasn't happy with my chip count but knew I was gonna win" said Levy.  He came all the way back and beat Heimowitz heads-up to take the title, his second of this series.

Levy took home his second engraved Borgata trophy along with $12,107 for first place (the first time a single player has won two main events during one Open tournament series).  Lonnie Heimowitz finished in 2nd Place earning $6,658.

Event 13: 1st Place - Levy

$400 + $50 H.O.R.S.E

Barry Levy (Brooklyn, NY)
$12,107

Deja vu all over again. Unofficially, this is the first time someone has won two titles/trophies in the same Borgata Poker Open Series. What a run for Barry Levy who took 1st Place in Monday's Omaha and now 1st Place in H.O.R.S.E. He can use both tropies as book-ends.

Barry started the day with 124,800 which was second in the tournament. He dropped down to 16,000 after dinner but never felt like he was going to lose. "I knew I was going to win it. I wasn't happy with my chip count but knew I was gonna win" said Barry who plays best from the felt.

During heads up play against Lonnie Heimowitz Barry began a 2 to 1 chip dog. Barry was as short as 100,000 at the final table. Still, nobody counted him out. After a hidden stud full-house, he doubled up with Lonnie and took control. Barry tore up the field in Omaha and Hi-Lo which was his bread and butter.

Barry has a big fan club following his success on the Borgata Poker Blog and Ilya Dyment rooted live from the rail.

Three handed, Barry was nice enough to talk to me for a moment and the floor mucked his hand. It seemed like from that moment on Barry took off and went on a heater.

Congratulations again to Borgata's first two-time Series Champion - Barry Levy.

Omaha & H.O.R.S.E. Champion Barry Levy

Event 13: 2nd Place - Heimowitz

$400 + $50 H.O.R.S.E

Lonnie Heimowitz (Monticello, NY)
$6,658

Lonnie Himowitz started today with 37,000 and was the the chip leader with 9 players remaining. He dropped down to third place three-handed but started the heads-up battle with a 2 to 1 chip advantage.

After about an hour of heads-up play Lonnie lost his stack on stud as Barry Levy flipped over a full house. One of Borgata's bests, Qianwen dealt the final hand with nail polish that matched the 5000 light blue chips.

Great run for Lonnie who is no stranger to H.O.R.S.E. events although this is the first time he has played against Barry Levy.

Lonnie Heimowitz finished in 2nd Place earning $6,658.

Event 14: Two Tables

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

The eliminations of Melad Marji (Oneida, NY) and Bryan Leskowitz (Leominster, MA) in 20th and 19th places respectively has the final 18 players redrawing for seats at the final two tables.

Both players take home $767.

Event 15: Defending Champ Gone

$1500 + $150 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em

UnCharder Territory

There won't be a repeat performance for Christian Harder (Annapolis, MD) who loses to his good friend Denis Gnidash (Fairlawn, NJ) in the Sweet 16. Harder who was the heads up champion in September ($62,00), couldn't get anything going as Gnidash sweeps the best of three match.

Gnidash earns a min cash of $3,638 and is still alive for the $29,098 first prize.

Also in the round of 16, Michael McNeil beats DJ Mossey.

Event 14: Bustage

$350 + $50 + $100 Black Chip Bounty NLH

20 players remain and two more bust-outs before the final 18 (2 table) redraw.

The following players are out of the tournament and earn $767 for their day of poker.

Place-Name

21 Norman Rodriguez (Poinciana, FL)
22 Roman Valerstein (Newtown, PA)
23 Norman Carey (New Brunswick, NJ)
24 Joseph Cramer (Carlisle, PA)
25 Adam Kott (Livingston, NJ)
26 Dylan Schlich (Cayce, SC)
27 Joe Manganiello (Cranford, NJ)