Jesse Sylvia has done it!
On Friday night, Sept. 23, 2016, Sylvia defeated Zach Grunberg in head-uo play in the Season XV World Poker Tour® Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship to win the $821,811 first-place prize and WPT title. Sylvia finished atop a massive field of 1,179 entries to earn the first major live tournament victory of his career.
Sylvia’s victory includes an entry into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, a WPT Champions Trophy, a Hublot King Power Unico Carbon and Red watch, a pair of gold Monster 24K headphones, and his name will be inscribed on the one-and-only WPT Champions Cup, alongside every other WPT champion from all 15 seasons.
WPT Borgata Poker Open Final Table Results
1st: Jesse Sylvia – $821,811*
2nd: Zach Gruneberg – $490,617
3rd: Taha Maruf – $300,031
4th: Simon Lam – $250,970
5th: Chris Limo – $207,569
6th: Farid Jattin – $167,942
*First-prize amount includes a $15,000 entry into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.
Sylvia entered the televised final table at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa sixth in chips out of the remain six competitors. He won a big, three-way all-in hand to triple up early on at the final table, and then he later doubled through start-of-the-day chip leader Farid Jattin. That put Sylvia into the lead, and Jattin went south.
Jattin started the final table with nearly 50 percent of the chips in play, but nothing went his way. He lost big pots, he lost small pots, his bluffs failed, and more. As it turned out, Jattin busted in sixth place after his pocket eights ran into two aces.
After Jattin went out, all eyes were on Sylvia and Gruneberg, as it looked like a formality that they’d reach heads-up play facing one another. That’s exactly what happened, and it happened very early after Taha Maruf busted in third place on the 46th hand of the final table.
When heads-up play began, it was a neck-in-neck duel, with Sylvia holding a lead that was ever so slight, 17.675 million to Gruneberg’s 17.575 million.
Sylvia quickly opened up a lead and reached 20 million in chips, but then on the 91st hand of the final table, Gruneberg won a pot worth 10.6 million and took the lead. Sylvia stuck to his guns, though, and won an even bigger pot of 18.5 million on the 97th hand of the final table to take a big lead with over 26 million in chips. Gruneberg was knocked below 9 million.
From there, Sylvia whittled Gruneberg down further and further. Gruneberg did find a double, but the result didn’t even give him 25 percent of the chips Sylvia still had. Then, on the 126th hand of the final table, it was all over.
Sylvia moved all in for effectively 5.8 million with the blinds at 200,000/400,000/50,000 in Level 36. Gruneberg called to put himself at risk with the 
and was up against Sylvia’s 
. Sylvia flopped a jack on the 
flop and held from there, with the 
turn and 
river.
Congratulations to Jesse Sylvia on winning the Season XV WPT $3,500 Championship for $821,811.
Next up on Season XV of the World Poker Tour is WPT Maryland Live! at Maryland Live! Casino in Hanover, MD. The $3,500 Main Event runs Oct. 1-5 and comes with a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool. For more information on this event, click here.