WPT Online Borgata Series powered by partypoker US Network

In Level 32 with blinds of 30,000/60,000 and an ante of 7,500, James ‘Bagels’ Lillis raised to 120,000 on the button and Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman defended his big blind. The flop dropped and Haberman checked. Lillis made a continuation-bet of 128,000 and Haberman check-raised to 450,000. Lillis called.

Haberman jammed for Lillis remaining 1.2 million on the turn and Lillis called.

James ‘Bagels’ Lillis:
Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman:

The turn had put Lillis behind and he needed to hit either an ace or a trey on the river as a five would give Haberman a higher straight. The river boated up both players, leaving Lillis' hand second best to Haberma's higher full house. Lillis was eliminated from the tournament, finishing second place for a combined payout of $6,143.

Player	Chips	Progress
Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman	6,950,000 1,994,170	1,994,170
James ‘Bagels’ Lillis	Busted

Michael “IIIIIIIIIIIII” Haberman earned a five-figure score Saturday night in the WPT Online Borgata Series powered by partypoker US Network Event #8: 30K GTD Progressive Knockout Bounty, outlasting a field of 139 to earn a combined prize of $10,493 ($5,213 + $5,280 in bounties) for his efforts.

The $30,000 guaranteed prize pool was exceeded by more than one-third as $300 per entry put a total of $41,700 up for grabs. Half of the prize pool was distributed throughout a large percentage of the field due to the Progressive Knockout format, while the other half was paid out to the top 20 places.

That number was reached shortly before the fifth break of the night, and five players quickly fell to leave 15 remaining come that break. Haberman was the shortest stack in the tournament at that time, though he found a double and then secured two knockouts, the latter of which burst the final table bubble to result in him entering the final table in the middle of the pack.

Event #8 Final Table Results

The Race To the Finish Line

James "Bagels" Lillis found a double against "mooseman1710" on the final table bubble just before it burst and then avoided elimination shortly thereafte, hitting a set of sevens in a three-way all-in that sent "bighatnocattle" to the rail as the first casualty of the final table. Later that level, "Core4" ran two pair into "lenny54's" full house and finished in seventh.

Lillis continued to stay active, calling a shove with pocket sixes against Borgata Ambassador Daniel "leinad" Buzgon's king-queen. Buzgon hit a queen to double, though he proceeded to run his newly-acquired stack with ace-queen into pocket aces to be eliminaed in sixth by "lenny54".

"mooseman1710" found themselves short five handed and became the next to fall when his queens couldn't hold against the ace-king of Lillis all-in preflop, and "lenny54" entered four-handed play with the chip lead. However, they doubled Haberman, who overtook the chip lead before running two pair ino a better two pair to bust to Lillis, who took the chip lead as three remained. Moments later, the short-stacked "TraderSteve" shoved king-ten suited into Lillis' ace-ten and was eliminated in third, with Lillis having taken the momentum and a five-to-two chip lead into the heads-up match.

From there, the tides turned and it was all Haberman. He quickly took down pot after pot without showdown, unafraid to play for stacks along the way until eventually taking the chip lead. His margin increased over the next few minutes until check-raising a trey-trey-deuce and jamming on the turn after a four came. Lillis called the whole way with ace-three, which wound up being no good to Haberman's six-four as a deuce made the tournament results official with Haberman coming out on top.

PokerNews coverage of the WPT Online Borgata Series powered by partypoker US Network will continue Sunday at 5 p.m. ET for the $1,060 Main Event. See you then.