Event 12
The 2018 Borgata Poker Open came to a close in the early morning hours of Saturday morning when the 21st BPO trophy found a new home.
Erkut ‘Eric’ Yilmaz
About eight hours earlier, Erkut Yilmaz took 1st place in the Championship event, along with $575,112 and both BPO and WPT Champions Cup trophies. Yilmaz took a huge lead into the final day of the Championship and held that lead until heads-up with poker pro Timothy ‘TK’ Miles. They proceeded to battle for more than two hours, with the lead changing several times, before Yilmaz finally collected all the chips and the title. Miles added another $383,399 to his career earnings, pushing the total past $3.2 million.
This series saw a lot of firsts. For the first time, the BPO was not held in the Event Center, but in a temporary Tournament Area between the Poker Room and Signature Room. This was a one-time occurence and this area will now he turned into the new Borgata Sports Book. The Winter Poker Open in January will be back in the Event Center as usual.
Another first was buy-in guarantees on the non-No Limit Hold’em events. The Omaha/Stud High/Low, HORSE, and PLO tournaments all had guarantees for the first time ever. There was also an “Old School” Freeze-out NLH tournament with no re-entries, and a Double Black Chip Bounty tournament added to this year’s schedule.
Justin Leeds (seated) took 1st in Event 1 in a 4-way adjusted payout.
Justin Leeds claimed the top spot in the $1 Million GTD Kick-Off event, which saw 3,106 entrants. The final four players all took home more than $170,000 for their efforts in the three-day event.
Altogether, the series had $7.6 million in guarantees and paid out more than $8.3 million in prize money in Main Events alone, not including secondary and satellite events. A complete list of Main Event winners and their winnings is below.
*Indicates Adjusted Payout
The next major tournament series is the Fall Poker Open, which runs November 6th through the 21st, so start making plans now. The tournament schedule has not yet been released. Follow @BorgataPoker on Twitter to catch the announcement when it is. Until then, Borgata’s regular schedule of Daily Tournaments will resume. For those of you in New Jersey, there’s alway another tournament coming up on BorgataPoker.com. October 14th – 21st, the Garden State Super Series (GSSS) will be running with more than $450,000 in guarantees.
For now, it’s farewell from the Borgata Blogging team of Tim Kelliher, Chris Murray, Al Rash, Brittany Paige, and myself. Hope to see you in November during the Fall Poker Open!
@Kaelaine
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 16: Blinds 3,000/6,000
Total Entries: 62
Players Remaining: 5
Hyo Joo
Before a single hand was dealt on Day 2, the final five agreed on an adjusted ICM adjusted payout agreement. As the chip leader, Hyo Joo takes 1st place, $7,003, and the Borgata Poker Open trophy. This is his first reported tournament win.
Here’s how they divvied up the dough:
| Place | First | Last | Chip Count | Payout |
| 1 | Hyo | Joo | 876,000 | $7,003 |
| 2 | Reed | Orem | 97,000 | $3,300 |
| 3 | Jason | Min | 97,000 | $3,300 |
| 4 | Dawn | Wilensky | 86,000 | $3,157 |
| 5 | Rinat | Bogdanov | 84,000 | $3,130 |
Standing (l to r): Jason Min, Rinat Bogdanov; Seated (l to r): Reed Orem. Hyo Joo, Dawn Wilensky
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 16: Blinds 3,000/6,000
Total Entries: 62
Players Remaining: 5
Average Stack: 248,000
Day 2 of the PLo event is underway in the front of the Poker Room. There’s a huge disparity (more than 700,000 chips) between the chip leader, Hyo Joo, and the other four players, none of whom have more than 100,000.
Here are the remaining payouts up for grabs:
| Place | Payout |
| 1 | $8,489 |
| 2 | $4,609 |
| 3 | $2,911 |
| 4 | $2,183 |
| 5 | $1,698 |
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Returning to Level 16: Blinds 3,000/6,000
Total Entries: 62
Players Remaining: 5
Average Stack: 248,000
This year’s PLO event drew the exact same number of entries as last year’s, which is quite a coincidence. The 62 entrants were pared down to only 5 when they halted play shortly before 2am. Here are the final five, who will return at 12 noon to resume play.
| Seat | First | Last | City | ST | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason | Min | Flushing | NY | 97,000 |
| 2 | Reed | Orem | Collingswood | NJ | 97,000 |
| 3 | Hyo | Joo | Palisades Park | NJ | 876,000 |
| 4 | Dawn | Wilensky | Melville | NY | 86,000 |
| 5 | Rinat | Bogdanov | Engles City | 84,000 |
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 15: Blinds 2500/5000
Entrants: 62
Players remaining: 5
Average stack: 248,000
We pick up action in PLO right after Baruch Krieger took a brutal beat, getting it in pre as a big favorite over chip leader Hyo Joo with good aces over a weak 
.
Joo continues to run well and hits two pair with his undominated cards to lengthen his lead.
The tournament players agree to end the day with five left.
Hyo Joo, nursing a broken leg and a big stack. He leads by far with 876,000.
Reed Orem is hanging on with 97,000.
Jason Min also has 97,000.
Dawn Wilensky and Rinat Bogdanov have 86,000 and 84,000 respectfully.
It looks like an even fight – just not for first place!
Players should gather at noon later today.
Good luck!
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 12: Blinds 500/1000
Entrants: 62
Players remaining: 18
Average stack: 70,000
We’re down to the final two tables in PLO. Nine places pay.
- $8,489
- 4,609
- 2,911
- 2,183
- 1,698
- 1,455
- 1,213
- 970
- 728
This bullet seems favorable to Gary K., who is in a much better mood since being felted by Dawn W. He’s over 160,000 now, all gathered since the registration break. (Notice how the poker player even stacks his drinks in columns.)
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 9: Blinds 500/1000
Entrants: 62
Players remaining: 36
Average stack: 34,444
Joe Villella on 3 is over 100,000, despite taking a small hit from Krieger in the last hand before break.
Dawn Wilensky grabbed two big pots in level 8 to hit a new peak of 97,000.
Wilensky knocked out Gary Kosakowski and Alex B. en route to the big stack.
Gary has since rebought and is back at her table, ready for vengeance.
No more re-entries, time to make this stack count.
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 7: Blinds 300/600
Entrants: 54
It was Alex Benyayev who was painfully felted by Orem’s backdoor flush early on. He’s since rebought, and doing well on table 2.
Alex, foreground, shoves river into the middle rundown board. Dawn Wilensky, getting short and this bullet on the line, finds a fold, claiming a now devalued set.
Dawn gets some back in the next pot, using the button to her advantage in a bet/check/bet line.
Back on Orem’s table three, Baruch Krieger gathers in a pot.
Registration ends after the level 8 break – still plenty of time to get into the 4 card action.
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
End of Level 4: Blinds 100/200
It’s early on the PLO streets here in the Signature Room, but 4-card always brings the action.
Reed Orem, left gets there with backdoor diamonds for stacks. His opponent, standing, pleads for a different outcome, but the dealer reaches over to the muck the losing hand – only the Registration desk is listening now.
Orem is the early big stack, with about 92,000.
Interesting spot: aggression into the PFR by McLaughlin, foreground, against Whittington.
Meanwhile on 4 Blake Whittington, who jumped into PLO after the Freeze Out didn’t work out, open raises in position and gets a call from Tom McLaughlin in the BB.
Tom decides to check raise the Ace-high board. Whittington quickly calls, but gives up on the turn.
We’re on a short break.
$350+$50 Pot Limit Omaha
$25,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 1: Blinds 25/50
Our third non-Hold’em tournament of the Borgata Poker Open series is getting underway. First it was OE, then HORSE, and now it’s time for Pot Limit Omaha. Don’t let the ‘Pot Limit’ fool you — this is more of an action game than No Limit Hold’em.
Starting stacks are 20,000 chips and levels 1-10 are 30 minutes. Levels 11 and beyond are 40 minutes long. Registration closes at the start of level 9 (at least 8:30pm). Unlimited re-entries are possible until registration closes. This is a two-day event, so they’ll play until about 2am, then bag up the chips and return at 12 noon Wednesday for Day 2.
Last September the PLO event drew 62 entrants and 1st place went to Matt Zimmerman, along with $6,500 (adjusted payout) and the BPO trophy.
Matt Zimmerman – 1st Place – 2017 BPO Pot Limit Omaha