Earlier in January, the Season XVI WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open kicked off at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The opening event was the $2 million guaranteed, $600 buy-in Borgata Deepstack Kick-Off No-Limit Hold’em Reentry. The event had six starting flights and attracted a booming field of 4,515 entries. The prize pool generated surpassed that of the $2 million guaranteed, and $2.364 million was up for grabs.
Emerging victorious was James Roberts (pictured), and he turned a $600 buy-in into a payday of $378,391. Not only did Roberts defeat a huge field, but he topped a final table that included Vinny Pahuja (4th) and Alex Rocha (8th).
Final Table Results
1st: James Roberts – $378,391
2nd: Ryan Hohner – $245,967
3rd: Eric Eng – $166,753
4th: Vinny Pahuja – $137,168
5th: Yuebin Guo – $109,971
6th: Michael Forca – $85,138
7th: Agenor Souza – $61,489
8th: Alex Rocha – $43,742
9th: Mark Kaganovsky – $27,197
10th: David Geslak – $18,269
When the final table of 10 began, Roberts was in eighth place on the leaderboard, according to reports from Borgata’s Winter Poker Open coverage. Roberts hung tough through the first few eliminations, and then he knocked out Yuebin Guo in fifth place.
Pahuja went out in fourth place, and then Roberts knocked out Eric Eng in third to set up the heads-up match. When the final duel began, it was Roberts and his stack of 86.5 million to Ryan Hohner’s 25.5 million. With the big blind at 1.2 million, it didn’t take long for Roberts to seal the deal.
On the final hand, Hohner raised all in with the 
over the top of a button raise from Roberts. Roberts made the call with the dominating 
, and victory was pushed his way following the 
run out.
$3 Million Guaranteed Championship Event Starts Sunday, January 28
Anchoring the Season XVI WPT Borgata Winer Poker Open is the $3,500 buy-in Championship No-Limit Hold’em event with a whopping $3 million guarantee on the prize pool. Last season, this tournament attracted 1,312 entries and saw Daniel Weinman take the title to the tune of $892,433. Included in Weinman’s win was a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, which Weinman went on to win for $381,500 and a brand new Audi S5 Coupe.
The Season XVI WPT Borgata Winer Poker Open $3,500 Championship starts Sunday, January 28, for Day 1a. Day 1b takes place Monday, January 29. The event is scheduled to conclude on Friday, February 2, with the final table planned to be streamed live.
*Photo courtesy of winterpokeropen.blog.theborgata.com.
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