Event 1: Recap

$350 + 50 Deep Stack NL Hold'em (Re-Entry)

It was to be a marathon opening event at the Borgata Summer Poker Open, and when the dust settled, it would be Michael Bonney (Mays Landing, NJ) who would be the last person standing.  Khoi Ta (Greenbelt, MD) used some great spots and excellent play to give himself a heads up opportunity for the title, but would come up just short.  Bonney recently had his first child, and the $98,502 he collected along with the trophy couldn't come at a better time for him.  The table games supervisor at Harrah's said to his friends when they asked if he's taking off tomorrow, "I gotta work a double man, and I'm going."

Bonney found himself short during the final table, but managed to find himself three handed, along with Khoi Ta and Chad Power.  He won a 10,000,000 pot from Ta after making a flush and getting paid on the river, and followed that two hands later with a 14,000,000 win in a pot with Power.  He went from the shorty to the chip leader in the blink of an eye.  Power (who was out Day 1A chip leader) would finish third ($36,157), after an ill time bluff found him drawing close to dead on the flop.

This opening event would attract 1,383 entries, with a total buy-in of $484,050.  Even with the WSOP going on, we saw the guarantee of $300,000 crushed, and many of the east coast's best poker players were in attendance.  Michael Marder (Sewell, NJ) continued his solid tournament play, and followed up his Delaware Park main event third place finish with an 18th place finish in this event - good for $2,480.  Chris Farley (West Deptford), another Borgata tournament regula,r would find himself at the final table - finishing fourth for $30,363.  At one point, this tournament seemed to be Baruch Altman's (Monsey, NY) to lose, as he held of 20% of chips in play with 27 remaining.  We all know that it's never easy to ride the big stack to the win, and he would end up in fifth place, taking home $25,263.  Mark Sykes (Margate, NJ) would also reach the final table, taking home sixth place ($20,395).

Michael Bonney had only two prior cashes in his lifetime (both here at Borgata), totaling just under $5,000.  His resume now looks a little bit better as he eclipses the $100,000 lifetime earnings mark, and looks to parlay this win into a possible Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship deep run.  The opening event of each seasonal series gives both the tournament grinder and recreational player an opportunity for the huge score.  This event didn't disappoint at all, as we now have made "notables" of a handful of players we knew little of prior.\


FINAL RESULTS