Four Events End in Busy Day at Borgata Fall Poker Open
Table Of Contents
An action-packed Saturday at Borgata Fall Poker Open saw four events end, including Event #3: $600 Deepstack Kick-Off, which awarded the biggest prize of the series thus far. While the event was supposed to have a first-place prize north of $155,000, a multi-way chop ended the event several hours early.
$600 Deepstack
Soukha Kachittavong (lead photo) was the chip leader when the final seven players in the $500K GTD event opted for an ICM-adjusted payout and called it a day. Kachittavong takes first place and will collect $87,443 to go with the hefty Borgata Fall Poker Open trophy, officially booking his fourth win here at Borgata.
The poker pro does most of his winning closer to his Rhode Island home in the Connecticut casinos, but Borgata is a favorite locale for him as well. He won this same event during the 2017 Borgata Spring Poker Open, topping a field twice the size of this one in that $1M GTD event, earning $127,637 in a nine-way deal. Today's score will push his total reported live earnings past $1.9 million.
Runner-up Jean Paul Norero has now cashed in back-to-back events in this series. He was the chip leader at the start of the day, but the lead changed hands several times over the course of play. He was second in chips when the deal was struck and collects $84,112 for second place. In Event #1: $560 Super Survivor NLH, he made the final 10% of players and scored $5,000 in the first event of this series.
Two World Poker Tour Champions Club members were part of this final table deal. Victor Ramdin takes third place and $79,692, bringing his lifetime earnings up to more than $4.9 million. Mike Linster improved on his 15th place finish in last September's Borgata Poker Open Kick-Off ($8,853), moving up 10 spots and finishing fifth for $50,369. That will take his career earnings over the $2 million mark.
Event #3 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soukha Kachittavong | $87,443* |
| 2 | Jean Paul Norero | $84,112* |
| 3 | Victor Ramdin | $79,692* |
| 4 | Joseph Malebranche | $58,915* |
| 5 | Mike Linster | $50,369* |
| 6 | Eric Hayes | $49,762* |
| 7 | Bin Weng | $42,203* |
| 8 | Gilberto Taveras-Garcia | $18,362 |
| 9 | Katie Stone | $13,212 |
| 10 | Yonghui Jiang | $8,733 |
*Indicates Adjusted Payouts
She was not part of the deal, but the last woman in this event was BorgataPoker.com sponsored pro Katie Stone. She was eliminated in ninth place when her pocket kings were out-flopped by Kachittavong's pocket eights and his set held up to send her to the rail ($13,212).
Eighteen players returned to the felt for Day 2 with Jean Paul Norero leading the way. The second player to be eliminated was well-known pro Jon Borenstein who has final-tabled this event before. During the 2016 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open, he finished sixth for $86,589. Today his luck ran out when all-in with ace-jack against Bin Weng's pocket jacks and he finished 17th for $3,956.
$500 Bounty
The fourth event of the FPO has come to an end after two exhilarating days of action, and it is John Lytle who emerged victorious in Event #4: $500 Black Chip Bounty for $36,166, along with a prestigious Borgata Trophy after besting a 417 player field in which he accumulated 20 bounty chips along the way.
The Rumson, NJ native has over a quarter of a million in cashes with most of them coming in this very building, including his career-best result for $114,833 in the 2017 Borgata Fall Poker Open $600 Deepstack Kick-Off. This is the third Borgata trophy that Lytle will be adding to his resume and it looks like it will definitely not be his last.
Lytle started the day third in chips and instantly started to build a stack as he steamrolled over his table. Lytle took his hot start and began to apply tremendous amounts of pressure on his opponents, showing no signs of taking his foot off the gas pedal through the day. He ran over the final table without losing the chip lead until heads-up play against Julius Heftler.
Heftler and Lytle had a back and forth battle that took well over an hour to play out, with multiple lead changes in between. Heftler had Lytle against the ropes but couldn't keep the champ down as Lytle fought back, taking the lead back through two doubles. Heftler played with heart, attempting a bluff for all of the marbles but ran into the straight held by Lytle as he was eliminated in second.
Event #4 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Lytle | Rumson, NJ | $36,166 |
| 2 | Julius Heftler | New York, NY | $20,882 |
| 3 | Efthymia Litsou | Brooklyn, NY | $12,741 |
| 4 | Ryan Herold | Staten Island, NY | $10,264 |
| 5 | Joseph Grusel | Brachville, NJ | $8,070 |
| 6 | Jason Dominici | Bowle, MD | $6,725 |
| 7 | Deonarine Itwaru | South Ozone Park, NY | $5,380 |
| 8 | Robert Marsh | Little Silver, NJ | $4,106 |
| 9 | Venkat Kumar Nagarajan | Newark, DE | $2,831 |
$400 Saturday Series
With the elimination of Thang Nguyen in fourth place, the final three players began to discuss an adjusted payout deal. The stacks were counted down and it didn't take long for them to come to an agreement.
David Jackson was holding the chip lead at the time of the deal and he will take home the lion's share of the prize pool earning $32,000 and his fourth Borgata Poker trophy.
Jackson built a big stack early and stayed near the top of the chip counts for much of the night.
He entered the final table at the top of the chip counts and never relinquished the lead on his way to victory.
Jackson's largest career score of $304,929 came here at the Borgata in April after winning the BSPO $2,700 Championship NLH event and he has now earned over $2,100,000 throughout his career.
Matt Land earns his largest career tournament score of $26,060 for his second place finish.
Jeff Black also takes home his largest career tournament earning $24,227 for his third place finish. Below is a look at the Event #6 $400 Saturday Series NLH final table results.
Event #6 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Jackson | $32,000* |
| 2 | Matt Land | $26,060* |
| 3 | Jeff Black | $24,227* |
| 4 | Thang Nguyen | $12,283 |
| 5 | Eric Siegel | $9,620 |
| 6 | Marcus Lipiner | $7,902 |
| 7 | Randy Khan | $6,270 |
| 8 | Colin Lau | $4,896 |
| 9 | Thomas Bates | $3,426 |
*reflects three-handed deal
$340 OE
The seventh event of the 2019 Borgata Fall Poker Open is now in the books after a grueling day of mixed-game action, and reigning supreme is Hal Rotholz, who bested a 67-player field to take home the $7,408 first-place prize, along with a prestigious Borgata trophy.
Rotholz recently made a final-table appearance in the Parx Big Stax 1100, finishing fourth.
Rotholz took down a star-studded final table that included the likes of JJ Liu and Roland Israelashvili. Rotholz had some stiff competition but held his own and showed why he has more than a quarter of a million in live tournament earnings.
Heads-up play saw Marc Thelheim duel with Rotholz in a heated exchange of two-bets as the pendulum swung back and forth. Thelheim almost knocked Rotholz down a few times but failed to fade the split pot cards during crucial moments. Thelheim put up a good fight but in the end, he came up just short and had to settle for a respectable second-place finish worth $4,289.
Event #7 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hal Rotholz | $7,408 |
| 2 | Marc Tholheim | $4,289 |
| 3 | Gary Kosakowski | $2,340 |
| 4 | Dennis Kratzer | $1,560 |
| 5 | JJ Liu | $1,365 |
| 6 | Jason Shapot | $1,170 |
| 7 | Stephanie Anderson | $780 |
| 8 | Roland Israelashvili | $580 |
The Borgata Fall Poker Open slows down a bit on Sunday, but the $340 Seniors and $230 Deeper Stack are still on tap. Follow the action from PokerNews' Borgata FPO landing page.
