With a new WPT Champion expected by the end of WPT Borgata Poker Open: Part 3 and four players still remaining, the poker action would have to be fast and the bust outs would have to come quickly to reach that goal by the end of the episode. But that’s exactly what happened when WPT Borgata Poker Open concluded on FSN last night at 8pm and 11pm local time. When the WPT Champions Cup was finally awarded, the only player left standing to accept it was 24-year-old New Jersey poker pro Bobby Oboodi, who bulldozed his way through the WPT final table on his way to the $922,441 first-place prize.
When the episode kicked off, Oboodi held a dominating chip lead over Daniel Buzgon in second place with Jin Hwang and Fred Goldberg hanging on at the bottom of the chip counts. The first player to exit the final table in this episode was also the chip leader going into final table back in Part 1, Goldberg. After a terrible run of cards that saw some truly unbelievable bad beats, Oboodi sent Goldberg to the rail in fourth when he out kicked Goldberg on a nine-high board. The third player Oboodi had busted at the final table.
The other storyline of this final table was the play of Hwang, who started a climb up the chip counts that culminated when he busted Buzgon and doubled up after turning a straight holding AK to beat Buzgon’s pocket sevens. After the money presentation, heads-up play started and Hwang continued his climb and actually took over the chip lead early on in heads-up play, threatening Oboodi for the first time at this final table.
However, in what seemed predestined from the way Oboodi had plowed his way through the 1,131-player field, the Jersey native battled back into the lead and made the tournament-ending call with a flush to beat Hwang’s two-pair and secure his place in WPT history and his name on the WPT Champions Cup.
Congratulations to Bobby Oboodi on his impressive performance at WPT Borgata Poker Open. We’re sure we’ll see plenty more of “Bob the Blade” at future WPT events, including WPT World Championship as his win included a seat into that $25,000 season-ending event.
Make sure to tune in next week as we head just up the road to Connecticut for WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods.