Matt Affleck Wins Event 15 ($200,000 Guaranteed Six-Max Re-Entry) for $88,643
Matt Affleck seemed to know he would win this tournament the whole time - proudly donning his Seattle Seahawks jerseys with his team set to play in the Super Bowl - and his confidence proved to be well-founded after a rousing victory to begin his Borgata Winter Poker Open.
Affleck entered Day 2 of this event with a chip stack that was nothing to brag about, and he lingered near the bottom of our counts early in the day, but he quickly went to work in that regard.
A key hand occurred midway through the day, when Affleck brought the bullets against an outgunned opponent to score a decisive double up, but he was not through chipping up quite yet. He pushed Byron Kaverman off a big pot to keep climbing, before crippling and then busting Andy Hwang to begin his beastmode-like run through final table.
After knocking Hwang out in 5th place, Affleck sent Byron Kaverman to the rail just a few hands later, and like so many Seahawks games during this splendid season of theirs, the rout was on.
Affleck went toe-to-toe with chip leader Josh Brikis, bringing him down to size by winning a huge hand despite missing a flush draw. Soon afterward, Affleck took out his third consecutive opponent, dispatching Caufman Talley in 3rd place to enter heads-up play against Brikis with a truly massive chip advantage.
Although Brikis was able to force Affleck into a tough battle, doubling up a few times to move back up to more than 2 million, the tournament was Affleck's to lose. Affleck refused to lose, however, and eventually the title was his when 
outraced Brikis' 
on the 
board.
His seats at the Super Bowl are already secured, so the $88,643 just put in Affleck's pocket won't be spent on scalpers, but we expect he'll spend the next week celebrating this win - hoping the whole time to be celebrating another Super Sunday win seven days from now.