Saturday, September 24, 2011

Championship Event Recap

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Bobbi Oboodi - $922,441
WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion

A final table that featured two satellite qualifiers, a WSOP bracelet holder, and a trio of Borgata regulars comes down to the J♠ as it's Bobby's World for the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship.

Bahbak 'Bobby' Oboodi (Morris Plains, NJ) is the last man standing in a record field of 1,313 entries as he takes down the $922,441 first place prize. "I'm just numb, the excitement hasn't hit me yet," said the 24 year old poker pro moments after winning the title.

"I feel like everyone else is more excited than I am, but I'm sure it's going to hit me later tonight when I realize I just won this tournament and nearly a million dollars."

Oboodi beat Jin Hwang (Gambrills, MD), a man who seriously doubted that he would make the final table and checked out of his hotel room on Day 4 before play resumed with 27 players.

"I'm so proud of myself, I think I did my best," said Hwang, who had no major cashes on his tournament resume, but pocketed $554,303 as runner-up. "I'm completely satisfied and happy with my play and ready to go on to the next tournament."

Heads up play began with each player holding at least 40 big blinds, but lasted only 18 hands. The J♠ was the key card that propelled Oboodi to victory on the final two hands.

On the penultimate hand, Oboodi hit a pair of jacks on the turn as his AJ bested Hwang's AQ to win a 10 million chip pot and extended his lead. The final blow comes when the one eyed jack hit the turn again giving Oboodi a flush and Hwang two pairs.

Oboodi had to sweat the river, but when Hwang missed his outs for a full house, the Borgata regular wins the championship with a queen high flush.

"My strategy for heads up was to small ball it. I didn't want to get into any big hands where I'm going to be put in marginal situations," he said while being congratulated from his rowdy rooting section, the Morris County Crew (MCC). "I was fortunate enough to make the flush against top pair on the last hand and it held up and here we are, champion."

Hwang, who didn't have any regrets on how he played the final two hands said, "I didn't think there was anyway he had a flush there," and that he expected Oboodi would have raised Hwang's flop bet with a flush draw. "He played it perfectly."

Hwang, the 56 year old self-employed financial agent, was happy to still be playing for a six figure cash as he was 27th out of 27 returning players on the final three tables with just 12 big blinds. But after surviving multiple all-in pots, he got a huge lift with quad jacks after his pocket hooks were dominated by the pocket queens of Will "The Thrill" Failla.

"That was the biggest turning point," said Hwang, who entered this tournament on a $400 satellite, "and that's when I thought I could do it. I was feeling comfortable and it was like someone was leading me to the final table."

When the final table of six resumed under the glare of the tv lights on Day 5, Hwang was once again the short stack with still only one dozen big blinds. But one by one, he moved up the pay scale.

The first to go was Ricky Hale (Cornwall, England), the other short stack, who turned a $100 satellite into $186,585 for his 6th place finish.

Darren Elias (Montclair, NJ), one of the three New Jersey players at the table, was 5th ($230,610) when his pocket jacks ran into Oboodi's pocket kings. The hand took Oboodi's stack to nearly 19 million and caused problems for Fred Goldberg (Hollywood, FL).

"I was sitting on Fred's left and he was put in a difficult spot being on my right because we were both chip leaders heading into the day," said Oboodi. "You really don't want to play too big of a hand out of position against the second chip leader. He was really unlucky with his seat because if he was on my left I'm sure I would have had just as difficult of a time."

Goldberg, a WSOP bracelet holder and the 10th place finisher in the 2006 Main Event, was frustrated throughout the day and finished 4th ($280,925) when he was out kicked by Oboodi on Goldberg's final hand.

Oboodi had more than half the chips in play while three-handed, as Hwang was second in chips and Daniel Buzgon (Marlton, NJ), the third local player, was third.

Hwang eventually knocked out Buzgon in third place ($335,433), setting up heads-up play, as the final two outlasted a world class field.

The tournament featured big names, bracelet holders and WPT champions. In addition to Failla (11th/$50,315), who was bidding to be the first back-to-back winner on tour and calls Borgata his "home" casino, notables who cashed in the $4,332,900 total buy-in included:

Jeff Madsen (60th/$11,740) 2x bracelet winner
John Racener (35th/$16,352) WSOP 2010 Main Event runner-up
David Williams (31st/16,352) WSOP bracelet
Vanessa Selbst (23rd/$18,868) - WSOP bracelet
"Miami" John Cernuto (14th/$35,640) 3x bracelet winner
Matt Glantz (12th/$50,315) who added to his nearly $4 million in career tournament earnings

In the end, Borgata is Bobby's World and with his new found wealth his goals are to play more poker and to start a business. "Poker is great, but I want to have some steady income that's not related to poker," he said while trying to figure out where he'll display the championship trophy.

Oboodi Celebrates with MCC

2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship
Notable Participants


WSOP Bracelet Winners:

Robert Varkonyi (2002 Main Event Champion)
Allen Cunningham (5 bracelets)
"Miami" John Cernuto* (3 bracelets)
Jeff Madsen* (2 bracelets)
Matt Matros (2 bracelets)
Vanessa Selbst*
David Williams* (and WPT title)
Michael Mizrachi (and WPT title)
Gavin Smith (and WPT title)
Andy Frankenberger (and WPT title)
Fred Goldberg*
Kathy Liebert
Robert Mizrachi
Jason Young
Freddy Rouhani
Brian Lemke
Brock Parker
Ken Aldridge
Allen Bari
Mike "Little Man" Sica
Chris Bell
David Diaz
Hasan Habib

WPT Title Holders

Jonathan Little (two-time champion)
Cornell Cimpan (two-time champion)
Tuan Lee (two-time champion)
Will "The Thrill" Failla*
Yevgeniy Timoshinko*
Victor Ramdin
Lee Markholt

Recent Deep Runs in the WSOP Main Event:

John Racener* (2010 runner-up)
Chino Rheem (2008 Final Table/Inaugural EPL Champion)
Matt Affleck
Josh Brikis
Jerry Payne

* Cashed in this Championship

Final Table Results


Place-Name-Amount

1 Bahbak "Bobby" Oboodi (Morris Plains, NJ) $922,441
2 Jin Hwang (Gambrills, MD) $554,303
3 Daniel Buzgon (Marlton, NJ) $335,433
4 Fred Goldberg (Hollywood, FL) $280,925
5 Darren Elias (Montclair, NJ) $230,610
6 Ricky Hale (Cornwall, England) $186,585

Leaderboard Update (Final)

Borgata Poker Open Leaderboard Final Results

By participating in any Borgata Poker Open event (September 7-23, 2011), players will earn points based upon the Borgata Poker Tournament Leaderboard Formula:

Winners for the following prizes are announced below:
  • 1st Place: $3,500 Entry for Borgata Fall Poker Open (November 9-23, 2011) 
  • 2nd - 4th Place: Sony Web TV 
  • 5th - 7th Place: Apple iPod Touch 
  • 8th - 10th Place: Nikon digital camera
The top ten scores for the Borgata Poker Open Leaderboard contest through all Borgata Poker Open events:

1. JAMES BOYLE (HAVRE DE GRACE, MD): 532.675 PTS
2. JAMES ENGLISH (TAMARAC, FL): 518.913 PTS
3. DANIEL DIZENZO (SUSSEX, NJ): 485.450 PTS
4. JOSEPH LIBERTA (BERLIN, NJ): 474.975 PTS
5. RYAN ERIQUEZZO (DANBURY, CT): 463.938 PTS
6. TOMASZ GLINIECKI (JACKSON, NJ): 460.275 PTS
7. BYUNG YOO (NORWOOD, NJ): 459.288 PTS
8. DAVID LAUFER (BROOKLYN, NY): 451.125 PTS
9. MICHAEL HOLM (WOODRIDGE, IL): 450.383 PTS
10. BAHBAK OBOODI (MORRIS PLAINS, NJ): 436.700 PTS

PPI Wrap Up

Guest Post:

The WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship Event went on to break its own attendance record from the previous year. An astounding 1,313 players participated in the Championship event - including many of those who used the new Double Play option to take another shot on Day 1B after busting Day 1A.

Several PPI players made deep runs in the Championship, which featured a 1st place prize of more than $900k, including the WPT Legends of Poker Champion Will "The Thrill " Failla who pulled off an astounding 11th place finish to follow up his previous victory. Other PPI notable finishes in the Championship were: Jack Schanbacher (16th place), Ryan Eriquezzo (22nd place), and John Racener (35th place).

The PPI Leaderboard Champion was James Boyle for a 2nd year in a row. The staff and players of Poker Players International (www.ppipoker.com) would like to congratulate Borgata for a wonderful series of events, and we would also like to thank the Borgata for its continued support of PPI.

See everyone at the Borgata Fall Open (November 9-23)!
Eric Siegel - Co-Founder PPI, Director of Marketing

PPI LEADERBOARD - BORGATA POKER OPEN

FINAL RESULTS

532.675 PTS: JAMES BOYLE (HAVRE DE GRACE, MD) - Champion

463.938 PTS: RYAN ERIQUEZZO (DANBURY, CT)
363.380 PTS: MATTHEW MAZZEO (EAST WILLISTON, NY)
333.560 PTS: MICHAEL SICA JR (N BRUNSWICK, NJ)
300.050 PTS: MICHAEL DENTALE (BROOKLYN, NY)
261.585 PTS: VINEET PAHUJA (HICKSVILLE, NY)
234.263 PTS: ROSLYN QUARTO (EDISON, NJ)
200.688 PTS: DAVID INSELBERG (LONG BEACH, NY)
188.875 PTS: JONATHAN SORSCHER (LYNBROOK, NY)
187.510 PTS: JOSHUA BRIKIS (MURRYSVILLE, PA)
172.488 PTS: JAMES SALTERS (W HEMPSTEAD, NY)
171.363 PTS: KENNY NGUYEN (ORLANDO, FL)
166.713 PTS: ADAM LIPPERT (BROOKLYN, NY)
159.088 PTS: JAMES SANSONE (FAYETTEVILLE, NY)
156.700 PTS: ROBERT HWANG (BARNEGAT, NJ)
155.983 PTS: IAN PALOMO (NEW YORK, NY)
141.325 PTS: ALBERT RICCOBONO (OSSINING, NY)
133.350 PTS: EUGENE TODD (BROOKLYN, NY)
126.050 PTS: KELLY ARMENTROUT (ALEXANDRIA, VA)
124.000 PTS: MICAH RASKIN (OLD WESTBURY, NY)
120.463 PTS: GORDON ENG (CLIFFSIDE PARK, NJ)
117.838 PTS: SHEREE BYKOFSKY (ATLANTIC CITY, NJ)
96.363 PTS: MICHAEL CASTALDO (PALISADES, NY)
94.163 PTS: LAURENCE GOLDSTEIN (MEDFORD, NY)
91.375 PTS: JACK SCHANBACHER (PITTSBURGH, PA)
87.725 PTS: DAVID ZEITLIN (BROOKLYN, NY)
86.963 PTS: MARGUERITE SPAGNUOLO (STATEN ISLAND, NY)
86.550 PTS: ANTHONY CAMPAGNA (MANORVILLE, NY)
86.363 PTS: STEVEN DANNENMANN (SEVERN, MD)
85.375 PTS: JASON YOUNG (SUFFERN, NY)
78.500 PTS: MICHAEL BORCHETTA (LAGRANGEVILLE, NY)
77.200 PTS: RALPH PECORALE (HEAD OF HARBOR, NY)
66.113 PTS: JAMIE KERSTETTER (MONROE TWP., NJ)
64.563 PTS: ALEXANDER CUKAR (POUGHKEEPSIE, NY)
61.563 PTS: LISA PICKELL (BRICK, NJ)
57.600 PTS: CHRIS RESLOCK (ATLANTIC CITY, NJ)
44.675 PTS: CONCETTA RINALDI (LYNBROOK, NY)
41.600 PTS: WILL "THE THRILL" FAILLA (COMMACK, NY)
40.000 PTS: ALLEN KESSLER (LAS VEGAS, NV)
38.450 PTS: ANTHONY CASAGRANDE (CORAM, NY)
36.000 PTS: FELIX MOK (BROOKLYN, NY)
33.588 PTS: GEORGE MEDRANO (REGO PARK, NY)
31.600 PTS: ADAM GERBER (MOORESTOWN, NJ)
30.400 PTS: JEFFREY VANCHIRO (BROOKLYN, NY)
30.050 PTS: JAMES STENELLA (PIPERSVILLE, PA)
29.900 PTS: DUANE HUNTON (LUTHERVILLE TIMON, MD)
29.550 PTS: ANDREW KLOC (NAUGATUCK, CT)
26.863 PTS: KAREN PEREZ (CHALFONT, PA)
20.800 PTS: ADAM ADLER (Aventura, FL)
20.200 PTS: JONATHAN WERZ (MELVILLE, NY)
17.825 PTS: FRANK CIERI (YONKERS, NY)
16.800 PTS: CHARLES MARCHESE (SHOREHAM, NY)
9.600 PTS: MATTHEW CHANG (ROCKVILLE, MD)
8.400 PTS: BRENT KELLER (HORSHAM, PA)
7.638 PTS: CARL RESTIFO (WARETOWN, NJ)

Event 24 Recap

$200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

While the Championship was going on in The Event Center, Event 24 was running in Borgata Poker Room. After 15 hours of play, Dan Dizenzo (Vernon, NJ) takes down the deep stack and takes home a whopping $20,875.

Dan outlasted 421 other players all vying for a piece of the $96,830 Total Buy-In. Keep in mind this was a re-entry so many players took advantage. Top 45 made the money.

After dinner, James Sansone (Las Vegas, NV) was the chip leader with over 300,000. Borgata regular Leanne Rosenblatt was among the chip leaders all day. She finished in 9th place for $1,633.

Your last woman standing was Josephine Finelli who finished in 6th place for $3,880.

The final table was fast and furious with what seemed like an all-in every hand.

Brian Kruyd (Parsippany, NJ) found himself stuck between two monster stacks 3-handed and finally fell in third place for $7,351.

Heads up took close to an hour as both players were very familiar with each other. Unbelievably, they had been playing since the tournament began.

Glenn Cole won four races in a row against Dan early on at the FT but lost the one monster hand when everything was on the line. Cole's QQ was cracked by Dan's 55 after he turned a set of fives.

Cole collected $12,047 for his 2nd place finish.

But once again the winner of the last main event of the 2011 Borgata Poker Open is Dan Dizenzo who made three final tables during this series and ends on the best note possible - 1st Place.

Congratulations on your $20,875 victory today you played outstanding poker and deserve it.

Event 24: 1st Place - Dizenzo

$200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Dan Dizenzo - 1st Place - $20,875

Dan Dizenzo (Vernon, NJ) takes down the last main event of the 2011 Borgata Poker Open. This is Dan's third final table of the open. Tonight he wins the Borgata trophy, the blue shark optics sunglasses, and $20,875.

The key hand for Dan's tournament was when 9th place finisher Leanne Rosenblatt flopped a king with A-K then Dan hit the case six on the river for a set of sixes and a huge double-up.

At the final table his 5-5 cracked Q-Q after turning a five and completely crippling his heads up challenger.

A couple hands later it was over.

After 9th in Event 2, and 8th in the $100,000 guarantee, Dan strikes gold and captures a first place title along with a huge payday of $20,875 to add to his Borgata bankroll.

Winner!

Event 24: 2nd Place - Cole

$200 + $30 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Glenn Cole - 2nd Place - $12,047

Glenn Cole (Centreville, MD) started the day at the same table (T-4) as Dan Dizenzo. Seemed only fitting these two big stack grinders would end up going against each other heads up.

Both players were evenly stacked heads-up and played for 30 minutes without too much drama.

Finally a monster hand presented itself but Cole was on the losing end.

Glenn raised with pocket queens and Dan jammed with pocket fives. Glenn called and said he had a bad feeling after seeing the fives.

Sure enough a five on the turn proved disastrous for Glenn.

Board: 7-2-4-5-A.

After a count, Glenn realized he was still in the tournament but barely. He was left with two big blinds and was all in every hand.

The final hand that ended his day was his K-10 vs. Dan's K-J. Board ran clean and the J kicker played.

The construction worker build some great stacks all day but in the end couldn't survive his queens getting cracked. He would have played many more events but was summoned to jury duty all week. Today he was able to play poker and the verdict came in at $12,047.

Event 24: 3rd Place - Kruyd

$200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Brian Kruyd - 3rd - $7,351

Brian Kruyd (Parsippany, NJ) thought the tournament started at 12:00 but it really started at 11:00. So Brian showed up at 12:30 and got off to a late start.

Right out of the gate he caught fire. When he made a move with 9-10 he'd flop trip nines. Before dinner he won three huge hands that awarded him 2nd chip leader in the tournament.

1) A-Q vs. A-K and he'd spike a queen.
2) His A-K vs. A-J and it held.
3) His K-K vs. A-K and it held.

So he ran good all the way to third place where he found himself between two monster stacks.

Brian shipped his short stack in with K-Q and Dan Dizenzo called with A-2.

Board ran: 9-5-2-7-4.

Brian Kruyd pockets $7,351 for his third place finish in Event 24.

Way to go!

Event: 24: 4th Place - Shasta

$200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Bobby Shasta - 4th Place - $5,921

Bobby Shasta (Wantagh, NY) shipped all in holding Q-3 of hearts and ran into A-A of Dan Dizenzo.

Bobby picked up two hope-filled hearts on the flop but bricked out on the turn and river.

Board ran: 7-J-5-4-8.

Shasta scores $5,921 for his fourth place finish.



Event 24: 5th Place - Ellitott

$200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Dave Elliott - 5th Place - $4,655

Dave Elliott goes all in for his remaining 350,000 with K♠7♣ and big blind Dan Dizenzo calls holding 8♣10♣.

Three clubs hit the board flushing Elliott out in 5th place.

Board: J♣ 95♣ A♣ 2

Elliott phones home $4,655 for his fifth place finish.

Event 24: 6th place - Finelli

$200 + $30 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Josephine Finelli (West Caldwell, NJ)
$3,880


Josephine Finelli is the last woman standing and after surviving a couple of all-ins is finally out in 6th place.

Finelli's 10-J loses to the A-3 of Dan Dizenzo.

The board runs out K-6-4-5-4 and Dizenzo's ace high is good enough to win the hand.

Finelli is sent packing with $3,880.

Event 24: 7th place - Frantz

$200 + $30 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

John Frantz - 7th Place - $3,104

John Frantz (Mendham, NJ) is the short stack and all in against Bobby Shasta.

Frantz: Q 5
Shasta: J 10

Flop: K 3 6

Turn: 10 (Shasta pair of 10s)

River: 3

Shata's pair of 10's knock Frantz out in 7th place for $3,104

Event 24: 8th Place - Brodsky

$200 + $30 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Mike Brodsky (Wayne, NJ)
$2,369

Mike Brodsky is out in eighth place after his 5-5 fell to A-J of Brian Kruyd who calls the preflop shove. The board runs out 3 J 7 9 Q and Kruyd wins the hand with a pair of jacks.

Brodsky's out in 8th place for $2,369.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Event 24: 9th Place - Rosenblatt

$200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Leanne Rosenblatt (Brigantine, NJ)
$1,633


Blinds 40k/80k/5k ante

Dan Dizenzo moves all-in from early position with 1.4 million chips, Rosenblatt makes the call from the small blind with 1.2 million and is at risk.

Dizenzo: 66
Rosenblatt: AK

Flop: A 2 3 (Rosenblatt leads with pair of aces)

Turn: 7

River: 6

Dizenzo hits a set on the river, and is told by another player that he folded a 6. The case 6 sends Rosenblatt to the rail as she cashes for $1,633.

"It's so gross," says Rosenblatt, "I played my (butt) off today."

1st Place - Bobby Oboodi

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Bob "The Blade" Wins "The Bling"

Bahbak "Bobby" Oboodi (Morris Plains, NJ) has just won the 2011 Borgata Poker Open Championship and $922,441. The 24 year old is now a millionaire.

In two consecutive hands the tournament is over. In both hands a jack of spades on the turn spells victory for Bobby Oboodi and defeat for Jin Hwang.

After hitting a three-outter with A-J in the second to last hand of the tournament, Oboodi comes right back to finish Jin Hwang off.

Oboodi limped in with Q♠2♠ and Hwang raised 1,250,000 with K♣ J.

Both players check a flop of 6♣ 6♠ 7♠.

Jack of spade on the turn gives Oboodi the flush and at the same time gives Hwang two pair, jacks & sixes.

Jin Hwang perhaps steaming from the last hand, perhaps just wanting to gamble, jams all in. Oboodi quickly calls.

Jin is at risk, and behind in the hand, but still not dead. Only a jack or a six for a full house can save Jin from second place.

River 3♠ falls and Bobby's fan club goes crazy.

Immediately after winning, he was presented the WPT trophy. He hoisted the trophy with his friends behind him and the Royal Flush Girls beside him. Whoo-hoo!

At first, when interviewed by Mike Sexton, Bobby had no words. Then he said, "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. It's about time I won this!" His crew laughed. They also laughed at the following exchange:

Sexton - "Your name will be engraved on the WPT cup with all those legends."
Bobby - "I'm probably better than all of them."

In this Championship, Bobby was better than all 1,313 players winning $922,441 and the 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open title.

"I'm just numb, the excitement hasn't hit me yet. I feel pretty calm right now, it's pretty crazy. I feel like everyone else is more excited than I am, but I'm sure it's going to hit later tonight when I realize I just won this tournament and nearly a million dollars.
"

Oboodi with Runner-up Jin Hwang