Jimmy Lillis (1st), Thomas Balla (2nd), and "Rey Mysterio Jr." (3rd) Chop Event 9 for $33,000 Each
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After a grueling day on the felt which spanned nearly 20 hours in sum, a three-way chop was arranged to end Event 9 at the Borgata Spring Poker Open.
Jimmy "Bagels" Lillis signed for first-place money and won the random hand to decide who held the trophy. Thomas Balla took down second on the official scorecard, while a player who declined to provide his name throughout the tournament was third. Each player took home $33,000 for their deep run through a huge field, a well-deserved reward after spending nearly 24 hours playing poker.
The $300 buy-in, $100,000 Guaranteed Big-Stack NLHE Reentry event proved to be a smashing success, attracting 843 entries and reentries to generate a $212,605 prize pool. Among the notable names to show up before being showing the door were Men "The Master" Nguyen, Chris Tryba, DJ MacKinnon, James Woods, Megan Milburn, and Tony Sinishtaj.
The usual hubbub surrounding the money bubble was a bit protracted, with three players going bust on the same deal of hand-for-hand play and a premature announcement from the tournament staff leading to mass confusion. After a nearly hour long wait, Gary Rosenzweig discovered that he had failed to make the money, despite hearing congratulations on over the microphone and participating in the collective cheer which always signals the bubble bursting.
Pros like Joe Kuether (56th) Anthony Maio (53rd) did manage to make the money, but each fell short far short of their perpetual goal of the final table.
.
for trip nines and Lilly's 
was crushed. The 
on the turn left Lilly drawing dead, and the river was the 
.
to find himself racing against Mazza's 
.
came in a flash, and when it did the table's ghost had indeed hit his man, spiking a set of sevens to leave Mazza drawing dead. The 
came on the turn just to give Mazza a reason to always remember the forgotten man's face, and the river came 
and found himself ahead of Jimmy "Bagels" Lillis, who held the 
- the hand he calls "George Robinson" - but the flop paired his live cards when the dealer fanned 
. The turn (
) failed to deliver Walker a tournament-saving ace, and he hit the rail with a 6th place finish.
to put the shorty at risk, and as if fate truly wanted the world to know he's playing a poker tournament here today, the flop fell 
) and river (
, leaving him with no pair... and no chips.
.
and that was all she wrote for Damico, who took home $4,039 for his deep run.
Lim stood up and offered his former tablemates a collective "good game," before heading out to collect his $2,658 prize.