Day 1

When 51 tables are dealing no-limit Texas hold’em, anything can happen on the felt. During the early part of Day 1 at the 2008 Borgata Poker Classic the unthinkable often did happen. This winter World Poker Tour stop at the Borgata has become popular with the professional players, and with so many of them in action on Sunday the strange became strangely routine.

The first oddity took place when Nick Schulman was dealt [5h5c] on a board of [Ks5s5d4s2s]. Schulman got all of his chips into the middle against his opponent, Steven Freda, and he thought he was golden with quad fives. But, low and behold Freda flipped over [As3s], to take the pot and cripple Schulman. The odds of hitting runner-runner for a straight flush… about 1,000-to-1. After the hand Schulman put up a gallant fight to try and survive, but even after he tripled up, and then doubled up he still had only 1,000 in chips. The fight was short for Schulman after the fatal blow and he was out on the rail before the end of the first level. Schulman was joined during the early stages of the day at the rail by Bill Edler, Peter Feldman, and Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.

Another interesting hand transpired that dealt drastically different results for the professional player involved in the proceedings a little later in the day. With the board showing [10c8c7s8h4c] on the river, David Williams doubled up when he flipped over [10s8d] against his opponent's [8s7c] to make a superior full house. This doubled Williams up to 38,000, which he used to his advantage and finished the day with 89,600.

Large contingents of online players were present on Day 1, as over 30 of them were dotted amongst the field. They included Ari "BoDogAri" Engel, Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis, Thayer "Thay3r" Rasmussen, and the de facto godfather of online players, Cliff “JohhnyBax” Josephy. Even with a number of aggressive online players in play alongside the swarm of aggressive professionals, the deep-stack structure of the tournament was conducive to a slow pace of play.

This did not prevent players from climbing to the top of the pack by accumulating boat loads of chips. John Spadavecchia, who is fresh off of a final-table finish at the WPT stop in Tunica, became the second professional of the day to profit from a full house over full house cooler: Spadavecchia bet 12,200 on the river, enough to put his opponent all in, while 25,000 sat in the pot and the board read [Ah10c8cAs6s]. Spadavecchia turned over [Ad8d] and his opponent got up from the table and flipped over pocket tens on his way out of the tournament area. Spadavecchia took down the huge pot, which gave him the chip lead with 94,000. This lead only held for a while though as multiple players surpassed the 100,000 threshold as day 1 winded down. Among those who joined the century club were John “The Razor” Phan, Mike Vela, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Farzad Bonyadi, Victor Ramdin, Justin Bonomo, and Joe Sebok.

The prize pool was also announced today, and the field of 507 players helped create a first-place prize worth $1,401,109. The top 54 players will get paid but considering that 317 outlasted Day 1, a lot of poker will take place between now and then.

Notable Eliminations:

Barry Greenstein
Erick Lindgren
Phil Ivey
Gavin Smith
John D’Agostino
T.J. Cloutier
Jonathan Little

Day 1 Leader Board:

1. Lenny Cortellino — 213,000
2. John Phan — 182,825
3. Joe Sebok — 149,700
4. Justin Bonomo — 148,675
5. Vanessa Rousso — 148,350

Day 2

Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Classic started with 313 players. Despite the slow moving blind structure, 214 players were eliminated during the seven scheduled levels. Only 54 players will walk out of the Borgata event center with anything to show for their efforts, leaving the remaining 99 players far from the money.

While some players spent the day on a roller coaster ride up and down the leader board, others allowed the well-designed structure to dictate their pace, flying under the radar while they quietly amassed healthy stacks.

Noah “fourUhaters” Schwartz entered the day with a big stack of over 115,000 and over the course of a few levels chipped up huge to dwarf the rest of his table. He got a bit lucky in an early confrontation with Bill Kontaratos that doubled him up. Schwartz raised preflop with A-K and Kontaratos bumped it up. Schwartz called and both players got it all in on an A-K-Q rainbow flop. Schwartz thought his two pair was good, but Kontaratos turned over J-10 for the nuts. Luckily for the young online professional, he hit an ace on the turn to double up and take control of his table. “I had no idea that he had the nuts,” said Schwartz. “He reraised me preflop, so I can’t put him on J-10 in that spot.” Schwartz then vowed to play patient poker the rest of the day, and he kept his word, slowly chipping up and ending the day with 477,000.

Gavin Griffin used a confrontation with Ryan Young to propel his stack over 300,000. Then he flopped trip queens with A-Q to add another 100,000. Towards the end of the night, Gavin Griffin also made a push for the chip lead. He eventually took it away from Schwartz and finished the day with 563,000.

Joe Sebok started the day as he ended his night before, hitting cards and making moves to get his stack as high as 325,000. But just before dinner, a few coolers took a huge chunk out of his stack to bring him back to average. With about 30 minutes left in the day, Sebok pushed his pocket jacks into David Tran’s pocket kings and hit the rail.

Another player that jumped out early, but failed to survive the day was John Phan. The “Razor” climbed up and over the 300,000 mark just an hour into play, but took some tough beats before the start of the fifth level to put him in jeopardy. Shortly after the dinner break, Phan was all in and out, continuing a trend he has shown for building a stack early and failing to maintain it.

Other notables that did not survive the day included Victor Ramdin, Eugene Todd, Alex Jacob, J.C. Tran and Mike Matusow.

Play will continue tomorrow at 11 a.m. EDT and continue until only 27 players remain. Check back and keep up with all your favorite players, photos and chip counts from the event.

Here are the top five players and their chip counts:

1. Gavin Griffin – 563,000
2. Noah Schwartz – 477,000
3. Rep Porter – 421,500
4. David Tran – 411,600
5. Justin Bonomo – 377,400

Day 3

Day 3 of the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Classic was a great example of the drastic way that the speed of play can change in the course of a poker tournament. Ninety-nine players began the day and things started slowly amongst a groggy field that was still shaking off the cobwebs from yesterday. In the first level of play only nine players were eliminated.

When the 90 remaining players returned from break the unforeseen force that drives the speed of tournament play shifted up a gear and the collectively-accepted strategy of moving all in proved to be fatal to many players. On the inevitable march to the money bubble Cliff Josephy, Erik Cajelais, Fred Goldberg, and Isabelle Mercier were thrown to the wayside before the size of the tournament field was 56.

Although the top 54 players would leave the Borgata with some cash, a strange double bubble developed. The tournament had not even moved to hand-for-hand play when the speed of play shifted into park and pots proceeded without much action. That was until Bill Kontaratos ousted Benjamin Palmer in 56th place in the penultimate bubble hand. Pocket jacks got the job done when no aid came on the board to assist Palmer’s K-2.

Now the real money bubble set in and hand-for-hand play was instituted on the tournament floor. The bubble kept going, and going, and going...through the end of one level and into the next, while a break was put on hold and anxiety soaked the air. The bubble finally burst when one player, who chose to remain nameless, had let his chip stack dwindle to 19,500, which he used to call a 22,000 preflop raise from Justin Bonomo. Rep Porter also jumped into the fray and the board ran out [10h6h6dJh10s]. Both Porter and Bonomo checked this board down and Porter won the hand with [Ks10c]. The anonymous short stack mucked his hand and strolled from the room penniless.

The rest of the field went to a break after the hand and action began anew 15 minutes later. The slow play of the bubble hovered in the room after the money bubble and play was stuck in the mud during the hour before dinner. Only four players were sent to the rail during this time, most notably John Hennigan.

It wasn’t until the tournament field returned from dinner that things started to heat up and the unfortunate began to fall in rapid succession Here is a look at the most notable eliminations that occurred on the road to 27:

43: Jordan Rich
41: Steve Sung
40: John Juanda
39: Roy Winston
37: Vanessa Rousso
36: Brian Haveson

In one of the final elimination hands of the evening, David Tran became the first player in the tournament to reach 2 million in chips: Tran opened the eventful pot and Bill Kontaratos raised to 100,000. Tran made the call and the flop brought [10s9d9h]. Tran checked, Kontaratos bet 200,000, and Tran moved all in. Kontaratos went into the tank for several minutes with 250,000 left behind and he eventually decided to call with [AdKh]. But Tran turned over pocket aces. Kontaratos was looking for a runner-runner miracle to stay alive at that point but it wasn’t in the cards. The turn and river fell [3c9s]. Tran's pocket aces gave him the pot and pumped his stack to a robust 2.285 million, while Kontaratos was eliminated in 30th place.

Tran finished the day as the chip leader a few minutes later with 2,078,000, which is four times the average stack at this point. Had it not been for Steve Blackman’s fortuitous possession of quad kings in a large hand, which gave him a final stack of 1,622,000, no one would be even close to Tran.

The final 27 players will return tomorrow to battle for the right to sit at the final television table of six, which takes place on Thursday. Day 4 action will begin at 11 a.m. EDT in the Borgata poker room.

Day 4

While the 27 remaining players had all guaranteed themselves a profitable tournament, all had their eyes set on bigger things. For some, it was the hope that they could squeeze themselves up a few more spots and for some, it was the goal of making it to the television final table. But for the 15 or so professionals in the room, it was to put themselves in position for the $1,401,109 first place prize, even though playing to win could cost them their tournament.

The action started with a blind increase, and we proceeded to lose five players in the first level. It wasn’t long until nine players were gone and we were down to the final two tables. Here is the order of finish for those players.

27. David Inselberg
26. John Cox
25. Joe DiMartino
24. John Racener
23. Jesse Martin
22. Eric Buchman
21. Adam Lippert
20. Gordon Wilcox
19. Daniel Shiff

Once the players were settled in their new seats, Ervin Prifti went on a tear that saw him take out two players in one hand. First, his pocket kings outlasted Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby’s pocket queens to double up and cripple the young online pro. Then he took out Hamby (18th) and Vadim Trincher (17th) on the next hand when he flopped a set of nines.

Meanwhile, at the other table, Nam Le ran into some bad luck when Shane Labounty caught a three-outer on the river to cripple him. Nam was forced into a race with David Tran a few hands later and was eliminated in 16th when his A-Q failed to catch up.

Justin Bonomo then took out Eric Siegel (15th) and he was quickly followed by Onofrio Reina (14th). Gavin Griffen and Bonomo both picked up over a million in chips during a few hands when they eliminated “Action” Bob Hwang (13th) and John McEwing (12th). Both were securely in second and third, but they still had a long way to go to catch the fortress of chips sitting in front of Tran.

After short stack John Roveto busted in 11th place, the final 10 players combined with only four more players to go. Their seating assignments were as follows:

Seat 1 – Lee Watkinson – 854,000
Seat 2 – Noah Schwartz – 1,588,000
Seat 3 – Scott Blackman – 1,068,000
Seat 4 – Men Nguyen – 149,000
Seat 5 – Ervin Prifti – 947,000
Seat 6 – Gavin Griffin – 2,203,000
Seat 7 – Thomas Hare – 1,120,000
Seat 8 – Davin “Big Dragon” Tran – 3,741,000
Seat 9 – Justin Bonomo – 2,940,000
Seat 10 – Shane LaBounty – 471,000

After a quick double up by Nguyen, play went from reckless to cautious almost instantly. The players were curiously silent, and it would take nearly an hour before another player would bust. During this period of inactivity, the only notable hand was Hare’s double up through Bonomo. Hare’s pair of nines held up against Bonomo’s open-ended straight draw and the nearly 2,500,000 pot went his way.

Finally, Nguyen’s run ended when he got it all in preflop with A-K against Schwartz’s pocket jacks. A jack on the flop sent Nguyen to the rail, but not before he recorded a rare back-to-back final table feat, having finished in third place at the WPT World Poker Open last week. Nguyen earned $63,932 for his finish.

Hare continued to get his way in almost every pot he played, and the trend continued when he went up against Blackman. As he always did, Hare min-raised to open the pot and Blackman came over the top for half of his stack. Hare thought a bit before pushing all in and Blackman called showing pocket tens. Hare showed A-K and knocked out his opponent when the board brought two kings. Blackman busted in ninth, taking home $98,359.

Bonomo never fully recovered from his tangle with Hare, and got into a huge coinflip with Griffin. Bonomo got it all in with A-K against Griffin’s pocket queens and the board bricked out to end his day in a disappointing eighth place. He left with a consolation prize of $135,423.

Play finally ended when short stack LaBounty pushed all in with pocket tens, only to run into the pocket queens of Tran. LaBounty hung on to finish on the TV bubble, taking home $184,421.

The players will return tomorrow at 5 p.m EDT to the televised taping of the WPT. Here are the final six and their chip counts.

Seat 1 – Lee Watkinson - $397,000
Seat 2 – Noah Schwartz - $1,320,000
Seat 3 – Ervin Prifti - $389,000
Seat 4 – Gavin Griffin - $5,105,000
Seat 5 – Thomas Hare - $2,851,000
Seat 6 – David Tran - $5,271,000

Final Table

Gavin Griffin Wins the 2008 Borgata Poker Classic

Tonight, at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City a significant landmark in poker history was attained. Gavin Griffin, one of the brightest young stars in the game, achieved his first World Poker Tour title by winning the 2008 Borgata Poker Classic. Griffin added this title to his body of poker work, right next to his World Series of Poker gold bracelet (2004 pot-limit hold’em), and his win on the European Poker Tour (2007 Grand Final). No other player in poker can claim a title in all three major poker tours. It wasn’t easy for Griffin to win this prize; he had to fight five other players for the title, and one was a stubborn heads-up opponent who tried to stand in his way. In the end, he won the day and made poker history. Let’s take a look at his journey. Here were the chip counts at the start of play:

Seat 1: Lee Watkinson - 387,000
Seat 2: Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz - 1,313,000
Seat 3: Ervin Prifti - 289,000
Seat 4: Gavin Griffin - 5,105,000
Seat 5: Thomas Hare - 2,851,000
Seat 6: David Tran - 5,271,000

Things got rolling early at the final table when Ervin Prifti had the button and he decided to reraise all in after David Tran had made it 120,000 to go under the gun. Tran called with [AhKc], and Prifti was dominated with [KsQd]. The board came [Js7h6c9d5c]. Tran won the pot with ace-high and Prifti was eliminated just five hands into play in sixth place, earning $233,600.

A few hands later, Gavin Griffin took the chip lead for the first time in the tournament. Tran had the button and Griffin raised under the gun to 100,000. Tran reraised from the button to 475,000, and Griffin reraised to 1.5 million. Tran went into the tank for more than a minute before he mucked, and Griffin stole the pot worth more than 1 million in chips. "I'll bet they show that one on television," said Griffin after the hand. Noah Schwartz chimed in, "I'll give you 2-to-1 on that." This brief change of power at the top was brief though and Tran regained the chip lead a few hands later.

Hand 13 proved to be lucky for one player and unlucky for another when Lee Watkinson doubled up through Schwartz. Watkinson was cheered on during the hand by Ted Lawson and his wife Michelle, who were seated alongside Watkinson’s fiancée Timmi DeRosa. The three cheered on Watkinson as he doubled up his stack to 560,000 and survived. Watkinson was all in once again six hands later, and once again he squared off with Schwartz. This time a battle of pocket pairs commenced when Watkinson flipped over pocket sevens to Schwartz’s pocket eights. The board fell [AsJc10d9h] to keep things interesting. An eight would now improve either player’s hand, but give Watkinson a come from behind victory on the river. The river card ended up being the [2s] and Schwartz won the pot with a pair of eights. Watkinson was eliminated in fifth place, earning $282,779.

The tumultuous early stages of play then gave way to a slower speed of poker after the elimination of the two short stacks. Thomas Hare managed to double up through Griffin during this stretch, and in doing so, he evened out the chip stacks of the three competitors who were now trying to chase down the chip leader, Tran. Tran did not help matters when he won a 2.1 million pot off of Griffin a few hands later to really start pulling away from the field. He further increased his lead when he tangled with Schwartz on the fiftieth hand of play.

Tran raised from the small blind to 180,000 and Schwartz moved all in from the big blind. The total bet that Tran faced was 1,166,000 and he thought for a moment before making the call with [KdQs]. Schwartz showed pocket nines and the race was official. The board hit the table [KhJd2hJc8s] and Schwartz was eliminated in fourth place, earning $331,958.

Three players remained at this point, but little had changed in the fact that Tran was still way out in front and everyone else was shooting to chase him down. Tran, Griffin, and Hare traded punches for 19 hands before Griffin struck a major blow by doubling up through Hare. Hare was crippled, and left with 545,000 after the hand. While Griffin soared to 5.7 million. Hare moved all of his chips into the middle on the very next hand, when he called all in after Griffin raised 2 million preflop. Hare held [Ks3c] to Griffin’s [KcQd] and the board ran out [QsJd9h7d8d]. Hare was eliminated in third place, earning $381,137 and after it appeared for so long that Tran was going to run away with the title, Griffin made some major steps to catch him. Here were the chip stacks at the start of the heads-up match:

David Tran – 8,695000
Gavin Griffin – 6,520,000

It only took Griffin three hands to wrestle the chip lead out of the hands of Tran. He picked up a pot worth 4.2 million by inducing Tran to lay down to an all-in bet on the turn of a board that read [6d3d3h10c]. The tables were now turned, but Tran refused to go silently into the night. He chipped back up and reclaimed the chip lead, but that all changed on hand 83. Griffin raised 200,000 on the button, and Tran reraised to 875,000. Griffin reraised to 2.475 million and Tran moved all in. Griffin shrugged and called all in with [AsQh]. Tran turned up pocket nines and Griffin needed to improve to stay alive. Gavin said, "Pretty big pot, sir. You're gonna have some left if I win, though." The flop then ran out [Qd8d8h], and Griffin's friends in the crowd cheered as he took the lead. The turn and river brought [7h5c] and Griffin doubled up. He now had a commanding chip lead with over 13 million in his stack.

David Tran once again proved his reliance by doubling up through Griffin and continuing the fight. Tran used pocket aces to do his bidding and after being close to elimination, he climbed back up to 3.9 million. Twenty-one hands later Tran was at it again, and he doubled up once more to sustain his chip stack. This time Tran received a little help from the poker gods when flopped a 10 to make a pair and overtake Griffin’s A-K. Tran held 4.73 million after this second double up, and he kept creeping back into contention.
Griffin was not about to let his grip on the title fall away and it was only a matter time before he struck a fatal blow to Tran’s stack. Tran held the button on the hand, and he completed for 100,000. Griffin checked and the flop came [10d6h2d]. Griffin checked, Tran bet 150,000, and Griffin made the call. The turn card was the [7s], and both players checked. The river card was the [8h], Griffin bet 475,000, and Tran raised to 1,125,000. Griffin thought for about 20 seconds before making it 3,625,000. Tran thought for about 15 seconds before he made the call. Griffin showed down J-9 for the nuts - a jack-high straight. Tran mucked and he was below 800,000 in chips. It was only a matter of time at this point, but Tran kept things interesting by doubling up one more time before the final hand of the evening.

On the last hand Griffin and Tran got it all in preflop and Griffin was behind with [QsJc]. Tran held [Ks8s] for the lead, but the board ran out [Ac9d8dQd10d] to win the pot and the tournament for Griffin. Tran finished as the runner-up in second place, earning $737,685. Griffin won his first WPT title, earning $1,401,109, part of which is a $25,500 entry into the WPT World Championship, a Tag Heuer watch, and a customized Harley-Davidson motorcycle. But more importantly, Griffin also won the historic poker Triple Crown, a title that no one else on the planet can lay claim to.