$300 + $50 No Limit Hold'em
301 Players faced the felt at high noon with 10,000 chips and a dream to take down the Borgata trophy along with $23,649.
Matthew Damon (Los Angeles, CA) came close finishing in third place for $13,138. Joseph Nichols (Nutley, NJ) came even closer finishing in second place for $13,138. But our big winner tonight is Thomas Pomponio (Manahawkin, NJ) who outlasted 300 other players to take home the hardware and the $23,649 first place prize.
Players competing for the $90,300 prize pool included Roy "The Oracle" Winston’s uncle Larry Greenberg who was chip leader during a lower level.
Also in the field: Smiley Chin, Henry Doiban, Mickey Woll, Mirsad Kovaci, Eric Siegel, Jinhing ‘Smiley’ Chin, Jay Johnson, Abe Kolari, Joanne Monteavarro, Ian Palomo, and Vincent Basilicata - who won Event 7.
Vicki Renfrow was the Last Women Standing after cracking Queens twice; once with Aces and once with a K-10 lucky river while her tournament life was at risk.
After Matt Damon burst the bubble (hitting a set of sixes on the river), the final four tables of 36 players celebrated as they all made the money. Joe Cutler from Long Island had the chip lead with 196,000 at this point in the tourney.
Then there was Mirsad Kovaci who busted out, then immediately won $2500 playing FLOP poker by hitting a straight flush off a $5 investment.
The final table kicked off with chip leader Thomas Calvo with 679,000 and short stack Robert Rudovic with 86,000. Other final table participants included: Steven Freifeld, Tom Pomponio, Laurence Wolf, Joe Nichols, Matt Mazzeo, Andrew Interdonato, Matt Damon and Vin Pizaro.
After hours of play into the wee hours of the morning, Joe Nichols and Tom Pomponio went heads-up and got all the chips in with 7-7 against A-A. The irony was Nichols had A-A ten times today and they held up every time. Now it was Pomponio's turn, as his Aces would go on to win.
Both Tom and Joe play in Beefs Poker Tournaments in Union Beach, NJ and had met each other prior to today's match. Sounded like Joe edged out Tom at Beefs, but not today.
Tom's aggressive image worked like a charm and nailing down quad 8's during the day didn't hurt either.
Tom plays on-line everyday, just won at PCA, and played in WSOP main event last summer, the day he turned 21.
Once again congrats to our champion Tom Pomponio the bus boy turned poker pro who cleaned up good today at 2011 Borgata Winter Poker Open.
