2008 Borgatta Winter Open Recap

The Borgata is a favorite stop on the tour by players for a number of reasons – not the least of which is the overwhelming feeling that No-Limit Hold’em play is generally weaker in the 10k tournaments on the East Coast than in Las Vegas or Los Angeles.  Add to that fact the amazing structure at the Borgata and fabulous accommodations, and all the big names make the trek east for this stop on the WPT.  These factors drew 507 players out to the Jersey Coast to fight for a first prize of $1,401,109.

One player that didn’t have very far to travel was New York native Nick Schulman.  Fortunately, the trip home was also not very far after the day 1 he had.  Schulman managed to get his money in the middle early on in level one with quad fives … only to lose to runner-runner straight flush (for the math guys out there, it’s about 1000-1).

Some other notables had better day one’s and ended near the chip lead.  John Phan, Joe Sebok, Justin Bonomo and Vanessa Rousso all finished with close to or over 150,000 in chips, while Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, and Gavin Smith all exited on day 1.

Day 2 saw Joe Sebok continue his day one success and get his chip count up to around 325,000.  A rough run of coolers just before dinner coupled with taking a stand with J-J at the wrong time (David Tran, who had been re-raising Sebok all day, held A-A on this occasion) capped off another tournament in which Sebok had a great stack early, but did not yield desired results.

John Phan had a similar day, getting his stack up to over 300,000, but, in Sebokian fashion, was out shortly after dinner break.
David Tran used his aces against Sebok to propel him into the top 5 in chips by the end of day 2; joining him above or around 400,000 in chips were Justin Bonomo, Rep Porter, Noah ‘fourUhaters’ Schwartz, and going into day three with the chip lead was recent EPT Grand Final winner Gavin Griffin.

Play was slow towards the beginning and middle of day three as the money bubble approached.  The bubble was finally broken at 54 players getting paid, and was strange for a few reasons.  The bubble hand was contested by Justin Bonomo, Rep Porter, and (in something rarely found in these days of poker where everyone wants to be the next superstar) a player who wished to remain nameless in the reporting of the bubble hand.  Rep Porter and Justin Bonomo checked it all the way down, despite Porter hitting a third 10 on the river, and Porter took down the pot leaving us with an anonymous bubble-boy.

Play ended not long after the bubble was reached with David Tran having moved over the 2 Million chip mark and taking over the chip lead.  Gavin Griffin and Noah Schwartz continued their success and remained in the top ten, while Lee Watkinson had a big day three, moving into fifth in chips with 27 people remaining.

Day four would see the 27 players play down to the final WPT table of 6, and by the looks of the first level, we weren’t going to be here long.  Five players were eliminated in the first level and action was down to the final two tables not much longer after that.  Justin Bonomo and Gavin Griffin were both propelled to over 2 million in chips and second and third place respectively with the million chip pots in elimination hands. 

Action slowed to almost cautious as they reached ten-handed and players moved to one table.  The first big confrontation came when Bonomo and Hare played a 2.5 Million chip pot, but Hare’s 9-9 held up against Bonomo’s open-ended straight draw.  Men Nguyen waited for a good spot and found one as he got it all-in preflop with A-K against Noah Schwartz’s J-J.  Schwartz however, flopped a Jack and The Master was sent home just short of his fifth WPT final table.

Bonomo, now short-stacked, was the next elimination taking home $135,423 for 8th place, and fellow short-stack Shane Labounty followed in 7th place taking home $184,421.

David Tran held a slight chip lead over Gavin Griffin, who broke his self- professed streak of “probably 23 or 24 WPTs without cashing,” and the two basically headed into our TV day with a joint chip lead.

The final table lineup was as follows:

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

Prifti was eliminated early as he re-raised and was called by David Tran’s A-K.  Prifti’s dominated K-Q failed to suckout and he was sent home in 6th with $233,600.

Chip leaders Tran and Griffin demonstrated a willingness to tangle early as Tran re-raised Griffin’s under the gun raise, prompting Griffin to make it 1.5 million against the only player that could bust him.  Tran folded after tanking for more than a minute, prompting Griffin to say “I bet they show that one on TV.”

Short stack Lee Watkinson then played two pots for all his chips against Noah Schwartz – doubling up on the first, then finding elimination when his 7-7 failed to improve against Schwartz’s 8-8.

Play slowed after the two short stacks fell, and David Tran increased him chip lead over the remaining three other players who evened out in chips during this stage of the final table.  Tran then eliminated Schwartz after making a tough call with K-Q for over a million in chips after Schwartz moved in from the big blind. Schwartz’s 9-9 fell to ‘The Big Dragon’ when a King flopped and Noah ‘fourUhaters’ Schwartz finished his first major live final table in 4th place taking home $331,958.

Gavin Griffin then all but sent Thomas Hare packing, after some jockeying for about 20 hands, then finished Hare off shortly after.  Thomas Hare finished in third place for $381,137.  Griffin’s battles with Hare still left him over 2 million chips short of ‘The Big Dragon’. 

The chip counts going into heads up were:

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

Tran’s chip lead was short-lived as Griffin moved into first after only three hands.  He picked up a pot of over 4 million chips by moving in on Tran on the turn on a ten-high board.  Tran, however, had chipped back up to almost even out the stacks when the big hand went down.

Griffin opened for a standard raise and then made it 2.475 million after a re-raise from Tran.  Tran moved all-in and Griffin shrugged as he called with A-Q offsuit.  Tran turned up 9-9 and it was basically a race for a WPT title as the chip stacks were extremely close to even.  Griffin flopped a Queen and took his stack up to over 13 million as Tran was crippled.
Tran proved resilient, however, twice fending off elimination with double ups and getting his stack back to around 4 million.  Griffin’s chip lead proved to be too monumental as Tran lost most of his stack after making a call on the river, only to have Griffin show him J-9 for the nut straight.  That hand left Tran with only 800,000 in chips and he finished inevitably in second place after his K-8 was run down by Gavin’s Q-J.  Tran took home $737,685 for his second place finish and the cash game player proved his merit as a tournament player with his pounding aggressive play with the chip lead and refusal to let go facing the extreme chip disadvantage against Griffin heads up.

Gavin Griffin, however, was the one who really proved something on this day.  After busting on the scene in 2004 to become the youngest WSOP bracelet winner, and subsequently suffering through an extremely tough ’05 and ’06, he has now made poker history by becoming the only player to hold a WSOP bracelet, a European Poker Tour Title, and a World Poker Tour Title.  Poker could not have asked for a nicer guy or more worthy recipient of its first Triple Crown.