World Poker Tour Borgata – Severino, Fiorentini and Sowers Come Out on Top
The Borgata Winter Poker Open began its Main Event on Sunday, January 26, 2008. However, there's still a lot of contests to be decided. We have results from Events 7-12 at the WPT's Winter Open here for you.
In Event #8, 550 people came to play in the $300 buy-in, Modified Shootout. The name of the game was No-Limit Hold'em. 54 people made bank including AbsolutePoker's Lacey Jones and the ever-present Aleksandr Bolotin. The Brooklyn-based poker player has made it far in at least three events at the Winter Poker Open, even taking down one himself (Event #2). Lee Childs, who took seventh place at the 2008 WSOP Main Event, finished in the money as well. His seventh-place finish was good for $1,072.
However, in the end, the night belonged to Jose Severino. The resident of Panama City in Panama, who also did well at the 2008 WSOP Main Event – he earned nearly $40,000 for 345th place, took the title and $47,008.
Here are the results:
1) Jose Severino - $47,008 2) Van Tran - $24,750 3) Eliano Mesquita - $12,787 4) Byard Lilley - $11,137 5) Anthony Pasqua - $9,487 6) Joshua Teitelbaum - $7,837 7) Michael Jasman - $6,187 8) Rodney Dannivan - $4,538 9) John Matwey - $3,301
473 entrants took part in Event #9 at the Borgata. This NLHE contest featured a $500 buy-in. More than 40 made some moolah in the event including Andrew Kloc, a resident of Naugatuck, CT who is quite the fixture on the East Coast Poker Circuit. Robert Leininger, who took 8th place in the first event of this series, finished sixth here. He added an additional $11,825 to his winnings.
David Zeitlin, who hails from the Big Apple, won the event. Zeitlin's last first-place finish occurred at the Trump Classic back in 2006. This time, Zeitlin earned more than double what he did at the Trump Classic.
These are the final standings:
1) David Zeitlin - $67,686 2) Salvatore Esposito - $36,657 3) Joseph Curcio - $18,920 4) Richard Koller - $16,555 5) Eugene Castro - $14,190 6) Robert Leininger, Jr. - $11,825 7) Carmelo Maldonado - $9,460 8) Ronald Tini - $7,096 9) Gregory Buonocore - $4,731
Event #10 was a $2,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament. The big buy-in didn't slow down the entries much at all. 329 took to the felt in this fantastic tournament. Obviously, some of the big guns showed up for this tournament including Eric Froehlich. The two-time WSOP bracelet winner who hails from Washington, DC, finished in sixth place. He was two ahead of online specialist Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen. Jared Hamby, aka “TheWacoKidd”, also made a strong showing, taking down 31st place and $4,112 in the event.
The winner, Steven Fiorentini, hails from Lexington, Massachusetts about 30 minutes away from Boston. This is Fiorentini's biggest cash to date.
Here are the results:
1) Steven Fiorentini - $238,525 2) Nghi Tran - $138,180 3) Matthew Glantz - $68,267 4) Thomas Ferris - $57,575 5) Aristedes Santana - $49,350 6) Eric Froehlich - $41,125 7) Alvin Delgado - $32,900 8) Thayer Rasmussen - $24,676 9) Igor Borukhov - $16,451
The eleventh event at the 2008 Borgata Winter Open was a $500 NLHE tournament. 578 players paid to play in the tourney. More than 50 cashed including PokerStars' own Hevad “Rain” Khan. Khan made a final table earlier in the series (Event #3). He's also cashed at the WSOP, on the European Poker Tour and the APPT Macau in the last six months.
David Merrifield Jr. was the last man standing in the competition, earning more than $80,000.
These are the final standings:
1) David Merrifield Jr. - $82,336 2) Robert Ervin - $43,350 3) Michael Tarasco - $22,397 4) Mauricio DaSilva - $19,507 5) Nalynn Asavisanu - $16,617 6) Ding Lin - $13,727 7) Tam Chi Ly - $10,837 8) Robert Willington Dabolt Brind - $7,947 9) Jason Min - $5,781
Event #12 had a huge buy-in of $5,000. 266 high rollers paid to play in that event including Mark Roland, aka The Omaholic. The resident of Atlantic City obviously adores Omaha, but proved that he can hang with the big dogs in NLHE. He took 13th place and $14,630 for his efforts. Speaking of 'dogs', Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren was sitting pretty at the final table. His fifth place finish netted him more than $79k. In second position was Tom “Durrr” Dwan, one of the sickest online players ever. Dwan recently had a big Aussie Millions, finishing in the money in two events at the Crown Casino.
However, the title was given to first-timer James Sowers. The Charlotte, NC resident earned nearly $400,000 for the win.
Here are the results:
1) James Sowers - $399,000 2) Tom Dwan - $226,100 3) Michael Wax - $124,355 4) Lou Esposito - $93,100 5) Erick Lindgren - $79,800 6) Leonard Cortellino - $66,500 7) Ken Adams - $53,200 8) Francisco Hernandez - $39,900 9) Nghi Tran - $26,600