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David Stefanski Makes no Mistake to Triumph Heads-Up in the Big, Big Baller
After two full days of big, big balling at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa, the 69 entries into Event 6: $10,200 Big, Big Baller have been whittled down to just one. That player is none other than David Stefanski, who has outlasted the field of high rollers to claim his first title at the Borgata Big, Big Series.
As if the trophy wasn’t sweet enough, Stefanski will also be heading home with a lovely first-placed prize of $169,220, which is the pinnacle of the $690,000 prize pool that was generated across the registration period of the event. This includes $149,260 from the three-handed chop that was made, as well as $19,960 that had to be played on for.
Michael Wang put in a stellar performance, too, falling at the very last hurdle and losing the heads-up match. He will be returning home, however, with a very solid consolation prize of $127,750.
Drew O’Connell was the other player involved in the three-way ICM deal. He took home $156,675 for his efforts. Despite being the first of the three to bust, he scored the largest piece of the pie from the chop, having been chip leader at the time.
Event 6: $10,200 Big, Big Baller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Stefanski | United States | $169,220* |
| 2 | Michael Wang | United States | $127,750* |
| 3 | Drew O'Connell | United States | $156,675* |
| 4 | Matt Glantz | United States | $62,530 |
| 5 | Clemen Deng | United States | $46,295 |
| 6 | Michael Gagliano | United States | $38,785 |
| 7 | Brock Wilson | United States | $33,380 |
| 8 | Jeremy Becker | United States | $29,325 |
*Denotes deal made
Winner’s Reaction
Stefanski could not have came any closer in Event 2: $2200 Big, Big Kick Off, having arrived at heads-up play with a near 5:1 chip lead. However, it wasn’t to be, as he ended up having to settle for a second place finish. This time around, he wasn’t letting the same thing happen.
“It was a much different heads-up experience last time. I had a huge chip lead, just nothing went my way. Today against Mike [Wang], I got very good hands. I was able to close it up.”
Stefanski completely dominated the match, as he withered his opponent’s stack all the way down, until the trophy was his. That being said, it wasn’t only down to himself vs. Wang.
“It was nice that I came in with six and a half starting stacks,” noted Stefanksi, referring to taking his seat the beginning of Day 2. He managed to put his stack to very good use, as he navigated his way past the max-late reggers and their ten big blind stacks.
Despite his incredible performance, Stefanski still gave a lot up to card distribution, and credited it for being able to come out on top of the star-studded field. “There were some incredible players,” he added, “some of the best players in the area.”
Not only did Stefanski manage to overcome those incredible players in the biggest buy-in tournament of the series, but he also added some personal accolades alongside the BetMGM and Borgata trophies he picked up for the triumph.
Stefanski has now passed the $3 million mark in Career Live Earnings, moving him into the top 1,000 of the All Time Money List, According to The Hendon Mob. Surpassing players such as Jennifer Harman and Sammy Farha, he spoke about the milestone with PokerNews.
“It’s a great accomplishment in my career. I’m happy with how my year has gone, and hope to keep it going.” The way this series has been turning out for Stefanski, it can surely be expected that we will hear more and more from him.
Final Day Action
13 players bagged up at the end of the first day of play, and they were joined by another 13 who opted to max-late reg into the very beginning of Day 2. Registrations closed with the first hand of the day, as both cards and chips began to fly.
Eliminations came thick and fast, with Joe McKeehen the day’s first casualty. Following him, Kharlin Sued, Cherish Andrews, and Darren Elias all exited early despite having chips in the bag to start the day off.
Following them came the bustouts of multiple players who had been sat for less than a level. Matthew Beinner, Salvatore Evola, David Kinane and Alex Queen all fell shy of the money, ending their dreams of a six-figure payday early.
Before reaching the bubble, a few of Day 1’s big stacks became casualties in quite a cruel manner. The first, Daniel Monosson, lost boat over boat at the hands of Stefanski, before Nicholas Verderamo’s big slick couldn’t keep him alive. The same fate awaited Edward Leonard at the tournament’s other table.
Jonathan Tamayo then fell to Michael Wang, and Stefanski scored yet another elimination, this time causing hand-for-hand play to commence as he knocked out Brandon Hamlet.
Brock Wilson, Nicholas Palma, and Daniel Escherich then went to battle on the bubble, with the latter resulting the unluckiest. Wilson hit a three-outer against Palma, Palma then doubled through Escherich, and Wilson sucked out massively on Escherich to burst the bubble.
The unofficial final table was then set, and the elimination of Palma made it official, as Stefanski found a way to knock out another opponent.
Eight-handed, play moved onto stream, and it was Jeremy Becker to fall first. Despite chip-leading to start the day, he never quite hit the heights of his first day performance, and lost out to Clemen Deng, running ace-queen into ace-king. Shortly thereafter, Wilson lost a flip to Stefanski to leave play six-handed.
To carry on the flurry of eliminations, Stefanski took yet another casualty, this time sending BETMGM ambassador Michael Gagliano home in 6th. To nobody’s surprise, he then secured the next elimination, as his triple barrel into Deng was paid off, with his top two the best of it.
Just missing out on the podium was Matt Glantz, who was left extremely short, and busted to Wang blind on blind. The remaining players then agreed to a three-way chop, playing on for $19,960.
Stefanski continued to steamroll, knocking out O’Connell in third, then Wang in second, ensuring that the biggest payout, as well as the silverware, would be headed home with him.
That’s all from PokerNews for this event, but the series is far from over, so make sure to stay tuned for more live coverage headed your way.