$3 Million Guaranteed WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship
Day 5 Started
2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open
$3 Million Guaranteed WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship
Day: 5
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open
Buy-in
$3,300
Entries
1,229
Level
39
Blinds
300,000 / 600,000
Ante
75,000
Final Table of World Poker Tour Main Event Championship Starts at 4 p.m. Local Time
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Today marks the culmination of a five-day poker marathon, after 1,229 entries were recorded over the first two starting flights to create one of the largest World Poker Tour fields in recent memory. As the premier event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open, the WPT Main Event Championship sported a $3,500 buy-in, and with many of the game's bankrolled pros firing multiple bullets in an attempt to make Day 2, a total prize pool approaching $4 million was generated.
Yesterday saw 36 hopefuls take their seat with a spot at the televised final table on the line, and after 12 hours of a grueling grind, six players emerged as the fortunate few to earn the right to play under the bright lights of the WPT final table stage. Along the way, several of the game's most recognizable names came and went, including Chad Brown (26th), Faraz Jaka (22nd), Byron Kaverman (21st), Ronit Chamani (13th) and Chris Reslock (10th).
When seven-handed play was reached yesterday night, the tension at the table was palpable, with every player left desperately trying to avoid one of the most important bubbles in poker. Unfortunately for Kunal Patel, he found aces in the hole and tried to trap, allowing Anthony Maio to make a set on the turn to burst the TV table bubble in spectacular fashion.
In the end it was a group of accomplished pros like Jared Jaffee, David Paredes making it through, along with up-and-coming players like Anthony Maio, Vladislav Mezheritsky, Farid Jattin and Robert Merulla.
Below you will find the seating assignments and chip counts for the six-handed final table - along with payout information - which will kick off today at 4 p.m. local time. Check back with PokerNews then to see who will emerge victorious, becoming the next player to have their name engraved on the glittering WPT Champions Cup.
Six-Handed Final Table
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vladislav Mezheritsky | 1,390,000 |
| 2 | Jared Jaffee | 6,620,000 |
| 3 | Anthony Maio | 9,500,000 |
| 4 | Robert Merulla | 3,445,000 |
| 5 | David Paredes | 9,650,000 |
| 6 | Farid Jattin | 6,115,000 |
Payout Information
| Place | Payout |
|---|---|
| 1 | $842,379 |
| 2 | $499,549 |
| 3 | $307,565 |
| 4 | $258,590 |
| 5 | $213,650 |
| 6 | $174,352 |
Seat 1: Vladislav Mezheritsky
Vladislav Mezheritsky calls the Borgata his home away from home.
Whenever the casino hosts one of its wildly popular Poker Open series, Mezheritsky makes his way here for the duration, playing a full slate of events in search of that one big score. After five days of action here at the 2014 WPT Main Event Championship, he just might be on the verge of accomplishing that long held goal.
Mezheritsky - who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia but calls Brooklyn, New York home - has amassed $86,505 in live earnings over the last eight years, grinding the local circuit, travelling to EPT events and playing in this year's PokerStars Carribean Adventure. For reaching the final table here today, Mezheritsky is already guaranteed to triple his lifetime earnings, but with an April wedding on the way - his fiancé Katherine jokingly told us she's already upgraded the honeymoon package - the 31-year old will be looking to take home the life-changing payday awaiting today's winner.
Mezheritsky has played the game for nearly a decade under the screen name "imjuniar," using the heyday of online poker to strengthen his skills before Black Friday, and obviously his experience grinding thousands of hands per day has translated to the live arena.
Although he enters the final table at a decided disadvantage - short-stacked and with dangerous pro Jared Jaffee to his left - but after watching him grind for hours yesterday while bigger stacks went bust all around him, we don't expect him to go down without a fight.
Seat 2: Jared Jaffee
Jared Jaffee's trying to make it two straight.
His last recorded cash coming into today's final table of the World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship was a first-place finish at WPT Jacksonville bestbet Fall Poker Scramble in November. There, he defeated a final table that included Blake Purvis and Ryan Eriquezzo. He pocketed $252,749 for the victory, just barely the biggest cash of his career over a second-place finish at the Wynn Classic in a $5,000 buy in back in 2010 when he collected $246,477.
The WPT has been Jaffee's lucky charm, as he also has fourth and fifth place finishes on his resume, but he's also had a little bit of success at the World Series of Poker. He sports final table finishes in the $2,500 8-Game Mix (Seventh - $30,319) in 2010 and $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Four-Handed (Third - $129,447) in 2013.
Jaffee's table draw is both advantageous and a little disadvantageous. On the bright side, he has Vladislav Mezheritsky, the shortest stack, on his right, so he may be able to open a little wider early on without fear of constantly being shoved on. On the downside, he's going to have Anthony Maio on his left. Maio seems to like to call a lot of raises in position, and he has a big stack to boot, so Jaffee may be put in some tough spots by Maio today. Jaffee's out-of-position game will have to be on point today.
Seat 3: Anthony Maio
Three years ago this month, Anthony Maio sat down for a $200 No-Limit Hold'em tournament here at the Borgata, playing in a side event at the Winter Poker Open. Maio cashed in that tournament, taking home $597 for a 58th place finish, and from there he never looked back.
Maio amassed nine cashes during the next nine months - each of them coming here at the Borgata - and soon enough he was playing in the $1,000+ big buy-in events against the game's best players, improving his skills the only way he knows how: grinding and then grinding some more.
Maio readily admits live poker is not his specialty, as he prefers the online arena which has been so profitable for him over the years, but after today's appearance at a televised WPT final table he might just reconsider. Maio's come full circle after his humble beginnings in 2011, earning a seat at the most prestigious event of this year's Borgata Winter Poker Open just three years after earning his first live cash under the same roof.
Along the way Maio has expanded his territory just a bit, leaving the friendly confines of the Borgata to hit the World Series of Poker Circuit, and even making a deep run in last year's inaugural "Millionaire Maker" event at the WSOP.
Maio enters today's final table essentially even with chip leader David Paredes, after busting Kunal Patel and his pocket aces to burst the TV table bubble late last night, and his aggressive style is well-suited to big stack bully poker.
Seat 4: Anthony Merulla
Go big or go home seems to be Anthony Merulla's preferred approach to tournament poker.
He has a relatively paltry (for a World Poker Tour final tablist) 13 recorded live tournament cashes, but he's made them count to the tune of $530,658. Two big chunks account for the vast majority of that total: a fourth-place finish in a $5,000 six-max event at the World Series of Poker in 2011 for $208,281 and a third-place finish at this very tournament in 2009 for $236,452.
Everyone needs a little luck to make a deep run in a huge tournament like this, and Merulla's came in the form of a three-way preflop all in on Day 3. He managed to spike a set with his queens against the aces and ace-king of his two opponents. Another key pot for Merulla occurred when he won a big flip with jacks against the ace-king of Matthew "mattemenz" Mendez to increase his stack and send a dangerous opponent to the rail.
Despite dragging those huge pots, from what we've seen, Merulla seems content to mostly play smaller pots. That approach may be tough to pull off with another post-flop wizard, David Paredes, on his left, and the aggressive Farid Jattin in the big blind when Merulla's on the button, at least while the tournament is six-handed. We'll see if Merulla decides to switch gears, or if he decides to try to impose his normal game on his opponents.
Seat 5: David Paredes
David Paredes currently sits as the 10th highest earner in terms of live tournament winnings from his native Massachusetts, with $864,661 in winnings over his seven-year career.
He can essentially double that total with a win here today, and if he does take the whole thing down, he'll climb to 4th on that list to put himself high on the list of top-notch players to emerge from the East Coast.
Paredes enters the final table as the slight chip leader over Anthony Maio, but both men are about 3 million clear of their next competitor, so we expect Paredes to ramp his usual aggressive style up a notch. Although he knows how to wield a big stack well, yesterday Paredes proved himself to be a tricky player capable of changing gears when the need arises, as he felted Bryan Choi by expertly slow-playing pocket queens and trapping the amateur for his entire stack.
Using the momentum from that massive win, Paredes cruised to the televised final table, as he looks to continue a terrific run in WPT events. Paredes finished in 12th place for $38,135 at WPT Montreal's Main Event in November of last year, and he followed that up with a 28th place run for $26,039 at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December.
Today, Paredes is already guaranteed to exceed those scores by a mile, and if he can translate his chip lead into a dominant final table performance, the first major win of his long poker career is well within his grasp. He will need to tread lightly though, with the hyper-aggressive Farid Jattin seated to his left, but a 3 million chip advantage over Jattin should allow Paredes to mitigate his foe's propensity for entering the pot light and playing post-flop poker.
Seat 6: Farid Jattin
Farid Jattin's already assured of banking the biggest cash of his poker career today at the final table of the World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship.
Jattin sports a solid $438,034 in career tournament cashes, with the biggest feathers in his cap being an outright win at the Isle Poker Classic Main Event just a few weeks ago on Jan. 16 ($147,160) and a second-place finish here at Borgata in the 2011 Summer Poker Open Main Event ($117,481). The Miami, Fl., native has notched most of his cashes on the East Coast.
Jattin burst to the forefront of the coverage in this event on Day 3. He first grabbed our attention with a bold bluff, and he rode the sizable stack he had built up early on that day to the chip lead when play ended. He pulled this off despite a table draw that included accomplished pro and fellow big stack Chad Brown for much of the night.
Jattin has been one of the most active players in the tournament, calling lots of raises and three-betting plenty more. With a short-stacked Vladislav Mezheritsky to his left, he may have to reign in those tendencies early on or risk losing some chips to shoves. How Jattin interacts with accomplished pro and chip leader David Paredes on his right, though, may ultimately decide where he finishes in this tournament.
Players are Seated...
...and the World Poker Tour TV crew just wrapped up introductions for the final six. Play is set to resume shortly.
Shuffle Up and Deal!
The cards are in the air here at the Borgata Winter Poker Open WPT Main Event Championship final table.
Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten just gave their blessing, and the race to crown the next WPT champion is underway.