Borgata Poker Open WPT Season 8

Bellagio Cup V | Legends of Poker | Borgata Poker Open | Festa Al Lago
Foxwoods World Poker Finals | Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic
Beau Rivage Championships L.A. Poker Classic Bay 101 Shootout Star Championship
Hollywood Poker Open World Poker Tour Championships

Day 1A
This tournament was split into two days with Day 1A seeing 326 players sign up to play at the tables. One factor could be the reduced buy in for this WPT tournament which is $3,300 + $200. (See Bernanke, outside of your white tower the economy is not in 'great shape'.) Back in August, tournament promoters felt the recession was taking too big of a toll on America and wanted to lower the buyin to attract more casual players, but they promise a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million dollars. The pros still came evidenced by the prescence of Jonathan Little, Michael Binger, Dwyte Pilgrim, Quinn Do, Victor Ramdin, Kenna James, J.C. Tran and Steve Dannenman.

The weeding out process began, resulting in eliminations for some who didn't see it coming. Busted were Eric Baldwin, Jeremy Joseph, Cornel Andrew Cimpan, David Baker and Alex Bolotin. Some players went out in a bad way, for instance Chino Rheem was over the 100K mark when things went bad for him. His finishing blows happened when a player made quad 2 taking most of his stack and then the next hand saw his all-in meet the pocket A's of another player. At the end of the day there were 168 players that will see a chair on Day 2. Here are the top 6 with chip counts:

1. Frank Molinari -- 169,000
2. Jeremy Brown -- 156,425
3. Sonny Waila -- 155,625
4. Soheil Shamseddin -- 145,000
5. Steve Brecher -- 139,150
6. David Filippi -- 124,850

Day 1B
A sizable 618 players came on Day 1B to play, creating a field of 1,018. What resulted is that this WPT tournament is the largest one ever in terms of the number of players. It was greatly attributed to the lower buy-in. This created a prize pool of $3,359,400 that will be divided up between the top 100 finishers.

1. $925,514
2. $453,519
3. $251,955
4. $216,681
5. $188,126
6. $156,212

1. Ofir Mor -- 185,000
2. Nick Cici -- 120,000
3. Stefan Matsson -- 116,000
4. Michael Dentale -- 105,000
5. Anthony Ruberto -- 105,000
6. Corey Bierra -- 97,000

Day 2
The field saw 8 levels of play which had big bustouts. Some of the unfortunate players were Theo Tran, Matt Matros, Bernard Lee, Chris Bell, Gavin Smith and Robert Varkonyi. A total of 169 made the cut for the next round of action. Others who will see seats on Day 3 include Chris Reslock 179,400, Kathy Liebert 260,000, Michael Binger 74,000, Bill Gazes 298,000, Danny Shiff 66,000, Soheil Shamseddin 210,000, Joe Simmons 133,000 and Jonathan Little 229,800. Here are the top 6 on Day 2:

1. Olivier Busquet -- 524,600
2. Tony Moussa -- 488,300
3. Danny Illingworth -- 480,600
4. Ofir Mor -- 452,800
5. Mike Summers -- 450,500
6. Bartholomew Mikulski -- 441,100

Day 3
The goal of the day was to pare the field down to 27 players. And that goal was achieved in grand style as players like Kathy Liebert, Michael Binger, Joe Simmons and Bill Gazes were sent to the rail. Still in the game are Steve Brecher with 847,000 chips, Chris Reslock with 896,000 and Bobby Suer having 446,000 on his stack. The remaining players will come together to compete for a seat on the televised final table of the WPT.

1. Yanick Brodeur -- 3,016,000
2. Frank Calo -- 2,146,000
3. Ray Henson -- 1,915,000
4. Maurice Hawkins -- 1,907,000
5. Jeremy Brown -- 1,750,000
6. Ivan Mamuzic -- 1,737,000

Day 4
Unfortunately not much to report here. The players had the last elimination happen with blinds at $40,000/$80,000 and a $4,000 ante. Olivier Busquet busted player Michael Brown to double up and become the chip leader going into the final table.

1. Olivier Busquet -- 10,350,000
2. Yanick Brodeur -- 5,780,000
3. Ivan Mamuzic -- 5,655,000
4. Jeremy Brown -- 5,480,000
5. Keith Crowder -- 2,750,000
6. Kenny Nguyen -- 600,000

Final Table
This battle royal lasted 153 to result in a champion. Chip leader Olivier Busquet lost a lot of chips at a bad time, falling to the 2 million chip level but scrapped it together and made a comeback. First to go in 6th place was Kenny Nguyen when his all-in move with pocket 8's failed after meeting the pocket K's of Olivier Busquet. Next was Keith Crowder in 5th when Jeremy Brown made a larger two pair (8's and 4's) than Crowder. Finishing in 4th was Yanick Brodeur when his all-in move with A K was unsuccessful once Jeremy Brown paired his Queen card. A 3rd place finish was in store for Ivan Mamuzic after Brown made a full house (6's/10's) on the river.

Then the heads up took place with Brown and Busquet. The poker angel was on Busquet's shoulder as he continued to win big hands increasing the size of his stacks. On the final hand Brown (5s 2s) pushed all-in after a flop of 4 4 3 and was called by Busquet (As 4d). The turn card was a 7 and river a 5. So with a set of 4's, Olivier Busquet became the winner of the largest WPT event in history.

1. Olivier Busquet -- $925,514
2. Jeremy Brown -- $453,519
3. Ivan Mamuzic -- $251,955
4. Yanick Brodeur -- $216,681
5. Keith Crowder -- $188,126
6. Kenny Nguyen -- $156,212