Another preflop shove and call has led to the demise of Chris Walker, after a battle of the blinds just went down.
Thomas Balla shoved all in from the small blind - putting around 1.2 million in the middle - and Chris Walker quickly called off the last of his stack with .
Balla was behind with his - the hand he calls "George Robinson" - but the flop paired his live cards when the dealer fanned . The turn () and river () failed to deliver Walker a tournament-saving ace, and he hit the rail with a 6th place finish.
After getting through with a number of open-shoves and prelop three-bets, Gene Mazza tried again after the player with no name opened to 375,000 from the button.
Mazza three-bet jammed for his last 1.5 million and the unknown soldier tanked for about two minutes while talking himself through the hand.
"I don't want to call..." he said to Mazza. "But I think I have to here. Maybe I'll hit my man..."
While the mystery man was deliberating, Mazza put in his two sense, responding succinctly after hours of subdued silence.
"Don't double me up," he said. "I'm dangerous if you double me up."
"He speaks English!" said the man who dare not speak his name. "First thing I've heard you say in six hours other than all in."
Finally, seemingly motivated by Mazza's speech, the anonymous man made the call, showing down to find himself racing against Mazza's .
The flop of 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 to make things official.
Mazza finished in 4th place for $14,351, while the man without a name moved one step closer to having his preciously guarded secret identity enter the public record on the Borgata's tournament winner website.
This one-day tournament is a few hours away from living up to its name, as play has been underway for more than 19 hours.
The three remaining players appear to be punch-drunk and delirious at this point (except for Jimmy "Bagels" Lilly, who remains uncannily calm, as if influenced by some unseen force).
Every hand is played between laughs, jokes and fleeting stories, as the trio tries to stay awake while playing for the five-figure score.
Meanwhile, not a flop has been found for several hands running, with open-shoves from a short-stacked Thomas Balla, or button raises from his opponents, getting through each and every time.
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.
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.