button in SafariOmar Taveras Goes From Short Stack to Chip Leader on Day 2 of the Borgata Fall Poker Open $600 Half-A-Milly Almighty
Omar Taveras found himself riding the short stack when nine players assembled at the final table. A few hours later, he became the man to beat as the chip leader heading into the final day of the Borgata Fall Poker Open $600 Half-A-Milly Almighty.
Taveras went from worst to first at the final table, finishing with 29,400,000 and atop the leaderboard after Day 2 with six players returning for the live-streamed final table tomorrow at noon local time. Taveras began the final table with a bang, picking up kings on the first hand to quadruple up. He then flopped trip fours to double off Chan Woo Kim, and flopped the nut straight and got paid on the river by Eric Kotsines. Taveras is already having a stellar series this week at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, making three final tables and winning the $400 Deeper Stack event a few days ago.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Omar Taveras | United States | 29,400,000 | 29 |
| 2 | MG | United States | 19,800,000 | 20 |
| 3 | Vitaly Kovyazin | United States | 18,600,000 | 19 |
| 4 | Eric Kotsines | United States | 13,600,000 | 14 |
| 5 | Matt Matros | United States | 13,400,000 | 13 |
| 6 | Carlos Lam Wu | Panama | 5,600,000 | 6 |
MG also went on a wild ride at the final table. While he couldn’t win a coin flip, he did manage to find a few well-timed big hands to earn double ups on his way to 19,800,000. Vitaly Kovyazin (18,600,000) completes the podium, while Kotsines, the beneficiary of two of those flips against MG, bagged 13,600,000. Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Matt Matros (13,400,000) and Carlos Lam Wu (5,600,000) round out the final table lineup.
Day 2 began with 127 players returning out of a starting field of 1,006 entries. Among the players to fall along the way were Sebastian Crema (119th), Andrew Porter (61st), Justin Arnwine (58th), Aaron Pinson (51st), Casey Mann (36th), and Bin Weng (34th). Kotsines spiked a king on the river to earn the double knockout of Stephen Ma (13th) and Lucas Vergara (12th), while Mukul Pahuja fell just short of the final table in 11th.
Luke Trucksess’ ace-king came up short in the three-way all in that kicked off the final table as he fell in ninth place. Kim, meanwhile, never recovered from losing the pot to Taveras and busted in eighth place shortly after. Jonathan Rudnick was the chip leader on the last break of the night, but all it took was a few coolers against MG to drop him down to just one big blind before MG picked up aces to finish him off and bring the night to an end with the clock pushing 2 a.m.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $88,315 | ||
| 2 | $60,885 | ||
| 3 | $41,915 | ||
| 4 | $27,465 | ||
| 5 | $18,890 | ||
| 6 | $14,640 | ||
| 7 | Jonathan Rudnick | United States | $11,590 |
| 8 | Chan Woo Kim | United States | $9,235 |
| 9 | Luke Trucksess | United States | $7,330 |
Day 2 ended in the closing moments of Level 34 with blinds of 500,000/1,000,000 and a 1,000,000 big blind ante. The average stack will be worth just 16 big blinds at the start of play tomorrow, so it should be a frantic race to the trophy. The remaining six players have locked up $14,640 for making it this far, while the champion will earn $88,315. The final table will be live-streamed on BetMGM’s official YouTube channel.
PokerNews will be following the action along the way, so stay tuned for live updates until a champion is crowned.