Benson Tang Becomes a Borgata Poker Champion

The Borgata Casino in New Jersey is packed with poker players thanks to the World Poker Tour being in town. WPT Borgata Poker Open is in full swing and several players have already padded their bankrolls via the many side events leading up to the $3,500 Main Event.

Benson Tang triumphed in the first scheduled event, the $600 buy-in Deepstack Kickoff. A bumper crowd of 2,504 entries created a $1,352,160 prize pool shared among the top 200 finishers. South Africa’s Ronit Chamani added $1,128 to her $718,000 live poker tournament winnings with a 187th place finish. Canada’s Matt Marafioti finished 134th for $1,443. He now has more than $2.8 million in winnings.

Each of the finalists locked up a minimum of $13,116, the sum awarded to Emanuele Gugliuzza. Gugliuzza lost the last of his chips with pocket nines against Ilya Dyment’s higher pair of tens.

Dyment did not put those chips to good use as he busted in ninth-place. Dyment three-bet shoved with ace-four after Tang opened the betting. Tang called with ace-queen and won the hand when the board ran seven-high.

Tang Goes on a One-Man Wrecking Spree

The tournament became an all-male affair with the elimination of Brittney Barnes in eighth-place. Barnes locked up her largest live tournament score, $27,544, which is also her first five-figure prize.

Seventh-place and $40,659 went to Frank Marasco, a familiar face at Borgata. Marasco has several big cashes at the Borgata, including one worth $78,710. This seventh-place exit netted Marasco $40,659 and takes his total winnings to $183,700. He got his chips in good with ace-jack against Tang’s ten-nine. It was not meant to be as a nine landed on the flop to send Marasco to the rail.

Panja Lymswan followed Marasco to the sidelines, also busting with ace-jack. Lymswan’s ace-jack ran into the dominating ace-king of John McGuinness. Both players paired their ace, but McGuinness won the pot courtesy of his king-kicker.

David Jackson took his lifetime winnings past the $2 million mark by adding the $68,334 fifth-place prize here. Once again it was Tang who did the damage, raise-calling a shove from Jackson with pocket deuces. Jackson showed ace-ten and the board ran out safe for Tang’s lowly pair.

Keith Warren only had $2,319 in live poker tournament winnings before entering this event. He now has an additional $82,368. His prize could have been so much more had his ace0queen not ran straight into the black aces of Tang. The board did not provide Warren with a sweat, although he has more than 82 thousand reasons to be proud.

Tang Cements a Big Chip Lead

The last four-figure prize when to Mitchell Smith who also won his largest prize. Smith now has $503,709 in winnings after this $96,883 addition. Tang was again the man who claimed a tournament life. Tang held six-five and Smith pocket eights on a king-five-deuce-six board. The river was a three and heads-up was set.

That proved to be the final hand of the tournament as Tang and McGuinness struck a deal. Tang’s chip lead netted him $200,000 while McGuinness got his hands on $176,080.

Borgata Poker Open $600 buy-in Deepstack Kickoff Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Benson Tang	$200,000*
2	John McGuinness	$176,080*
3	Mitchell Smith	$96,883
4	Keith Warren	$82,368
5	David Jackson	$68,334
6	Panja Lymswan	$54,431
7	Frank Marasco	$40,659
8	Brittney Barnes	$27,544
9	Ilya Dyment	$19,674
10	Emanuele Gugliuzza	$13,116

Twenty Champions Crowned

The build up to the $3,500 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship has seen 20 champions crowned. Among those title winners are Shannon Shorr, winner of the $1,560 Purple Chips Bounty for $32,907. Aaron Massey netted $163,004 from the $400 Almighty Stack, too.

Here are the full Borgata Poker Open results so far.

Event	Champion	Prize
#1. $600 Deepstack Kick Off	Benson Tang	$200,000
#2. $340 Omaha Hi/Lo	Rolf Andersen	$8,404
#3. $500 Black Chip Bounty	Zach Gruneberg	$56,073
#4. $400 Saturday Series Deepstack	Drgan Radulov	$29,094
#5. $560 Super Survivor NLH	Alan Lipson	$5,000
#6. $350 6th Annual Mike Sica Memorial Seniors	Dave Hollenberg	$9,064
#7. $320 Deeper Stack NLH	Steve Nooralian	$7,872
#8. $340 PLO	Gabriel Berkland	$7,741
#9. $300 Deepest Stack NLH	Ory Hen	$48,551
#10. $400 Almighty Stack NLH	Aaron Massey	$163,004
#11. $350 H.O.S.E.	Roland Israelashvili	$9,288
#12. $1,090 Six-Max NLH	Kevin Javier	$62,718
#13. $560 Super Survivor		$
#14. $400 Saturday Deepstack NLH	John Jimenez	$24,562
#15. $230 Ladies NLH	Valarie Huang	$2,570
#16. $3,150 Heads-Up NLH	Michael Marder	$59,362
#17. $1,060 Purple Chip Bounty	Zach Gruneberg	$31,502
#19. $350 Double Green Chip Bounty	Jasmin Eminovk	$7,000
#20. $1,560 Purple Chip Bounty 8-Max	Shannon Shorr	$32,907

WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event

The $3,500 WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event has reached Day 3 and only 145 of the 1,156 entrants remain. Jonathan Jaffe is the overnight chip leader with 1,035,000 chips. Other big stacks include Victor Ramdin, Ami Alibay, Andy Frankenberger, and Maurice Hawkins.

Each is guaranteed $5,797 but the champion walks away with a cool $616,186. Who will that be? Stay tuned to US Poker Sites to find out.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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