Event 21
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
Jonathan Hilton
Jonathan Hilton started heads up play with a hefty chip lead but the anonymous player managed to double up in back to back hands. With the stacks nearly even the players agreed to split the remaining prize pool evenly.
Hilton who held a slight lead at the time of the deal will take the Event 21 trophy along with $31,928. He now adds his first Borgata Poker title to his impressive list of accomplishments as has earned more than $1,400,000 throughout his career.
Below is a full look at the Event 21 final table results.
1. Jonathan Hilton- $31,928
2. Anonymous- $31,928
3. She Lok Wong- $14,470
4. Robert Pellegrino- $11,746
5. Kevin Tran- $9,363
6. Adam Hendrix- $7,746
7. Justin Carey- $6,214
8. Danielle Elks- $4,681
9. Vittorio Abbate- $3,234
10. Eric Hernandez- $2,213
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 32: 100,000/200,000/200,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 2
She Lok Wong
She Lok Wong moved all in for just over 1,000,000 and Jonathan Hilton called. Wong showed 
and Hilton tabled 
.
The board ran out 
and Hilton improved to a straight to send Wong to the rail. Wong is our 3rd place Event 21 finisher and will take home $14,470 for his efforts.
Jonathan Hilton- 13,000,000
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 31: 80,000/160,000/160,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 3
Rob Pellegrino
Jonathan Hilton raised to 350,000 and Robert Pellegrino moved all in for 1,200,000 from the big blind. Hilton called turning over 
and would need to improve against the 
of Pellegrino.
The board ran out 
and Hilton improved to two pair to earn the elimination.
Pellegrino is our 4th place finisher and will take home $11,746 for his efforts.
Jonathan Hilton- 11,200,000
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 30: 60,000/120,000/120,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 4
Kevin Tran
Kevin Tran moved all in for 2,250,000 and Jonathan Hilton called from the big blind. Tran tabled 
but was dominated by the 
of Hilton.
The board ran out clean for Hilton 
and Tran was eliminated in 5th earning $9,363.
Hilton extends his chip lead with over 10,000,000 of the 16,675,000 in play and just four players remaining.
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 30: 60,000/120,000/120,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 5
Adam Hendrix
Adam Hendrix moved all in for about 1,800,000 and Jonathan Hilton called. Hendrix showed 
but was dominated by the 
of Hilton.
Hendrix failed to improve on the 
runout and is our 6th place finisher earning $7,746.
Jonathan Hilton- 7,300,000
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 30: 60,000/120,000/120,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 6
Justin Carey
Justin Carey moved all in for 615,000 and Kevin Tran called from the small blind. Carey turned over 
and would need to improve against the 
of Tran.
The board ran out 
and Tran paired his ten to score the knockout. Carey is our 7th place Event 21 finisher and will take home $6,214 for his efforts.
Kevin Tran- 2,600,000
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 28: 40,000/80,000/80,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 7
Danielle Elks
Danielle Elks got her last 180,000 all in pre-flop holding . She was outflopped by Jonathan Hilton’s 
on the 
runout.
Elks is our 8th place finisher earning $4,681 and Hilton extends his chip lead with 7 players remaining.
Jonathan Hilton- 5,700,000
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 28: 40,000/80,000/80,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 8
Vittorio Abbate
Vittorio Abatte got his stack of 700,000 all in pre-flop holding 
. Once again Adam Hendrix was holding .
Abatte failed to improve on the 
runout and is our 9th place Event 21 finisher earning $3,234.
Adam Hendrix- 3,200,000
$260+$40 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 27: 30,000/60,000/60,000
Total Entries: 675
Players Remaining: 9
Eric Hernandez
Eric Hernandez got his last 800,000 all in pre-flop holding but ran into the of Adam Hendrix.
The board ran out 
and Hernandez was eliminated in 10th place earning $2,213 for his efforts.
Adam Hendrix- 1,750,000