Poker Player Ends 20-Year Wait for First Win at His Home Casino
Table Of Contents
Despite playing at Borgata Casino Resort for over twenty years, Mukul Pahuja had never won a tournament at his home casino.
Today, he achieved something that has been on his bucket list for a while. Overcoming a field of 981 entries in the $400 PokerNews PowerStack, he laid claim to the first-place prize of $55,165.
In addition to that fantastic prize, he also won his first RunGood Poker Series ring and the pretty glass Borgata trophy.
With over $6.6 million in tournament cashes according to The Hendon Mob, Pahuja is no stranger to success. "I felt good, we played a bit shallow. I felt pretty confident, like, let's do this. You know that there is going to be some gamble involved, and there was. It was a huge coin flip, and that's what it took. I have a good amount of final table experience, but heads-up, anything can happen."
PokerNews PowerStack Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mukul Pahuja | United States | $55,165 |
| 2 | Alberto Sabogali | United States | $38,105 |
| 3 | John McGuinness | United States | $26,250 |
| 4 | Rajath Tangam | United States | $17,215 |
| 5 | Anthony Cicali | United States | $11,860 |
| 6 | Alex Paredes | Ecuador | $9,205 |
| 7 | Thomas Laessig | United States | $7,300 |
| 8 | Aaron Hendi | United States | $5,825 |
| 9 | Giuseppe Lomuscio | United States | $4,635 |
The 981 entries created a total prize pool of $323,730 over five starting flights. For Day 2, 118 of them returned to the felt to compete.
The action was fast and furious at the start of the day with exactly half of the field gone by the time the first break came around. When it was time for the second break of the day, only 25 players were left.
Only ten players were sent for their dinner break with Cleiton Junior-Barbosa bubbling the final table about 15 minutes after returning to the tables.
Final Table Action
Pahuja started the final table battle third in chips. He first took out Aaron Hendi, then Anthony Cicali, before busting Rajath Tangam. His heads-up opponent, Alberto Sabogali took out the rest in the meantime.
Giuseppe Lomuscio was chip leading the tournament by the time the second break of the day came around but was eliminated in a bit pot against Sabogali where he had rivered trip tens but ran into the latter's full house. Sabogali also took out Alex Paredes with a straight flush.
A deal was shortly discussed twice but not agreed upon. "When we got heads-up, nothing was discussed till then, we said, just chop up the money and stuff, but he had a slight lead on me and he wanted the trophy and everything, so we kept playing."
In the end, he found his demise when his pocket sevens couldn't beat Pahuja's king-queen to be left with just over three big blinds. He called a shove with eight-seven but Pahuja picked up pocket rockets to seal the deal. From bursting the bubble on Day 1d to finishing as the runner-up, overall, he can look back at a great run.
Pahuja was not aware that the Borgata trophy was also part of the package and was excited to see it being rolled in. "You know, you get a piece of the building. It means a lot. I mean, the RunGood stuff is amazing, they put on a great tournament. Borgata is my home casino, I'm from New York. I've been playing here forever, never had a win, twenty years is a long time to play somewhere, and maybe, I'm finally up some money. I don't even know. It might not be, but it still feels really good."
He added: "This is the first event I've played in this tour, I think it's awesome, I am going to play more of them for sure. The ring is very cool, it's a really well run event, great staff, they put together a good series. I'm excited for the Main Event next weekend."
PokerNews will be back with live coverage of the Main Event which kicks off on Friday, March 13 with Day 1a at 11:15 a.m. local time. Make sure to return to follow along with the live updates from the tournament floor.
