Event 2 Recap

$300 + $50 NL (1 Re-entry)

Borgata regular and WSOP Main Event second place finisher Steve Dannenmann (Severn, MD) took a big stack into the final day of Event 2 ($350 NL) to win the tournament and $37,679. Dannenmann outlasted the final five which included Jesse Pulido (Pembroke Pines, FL) who began Day 2 with the chip lead before finishing 4th ($10,819).

"Better than the World Series," said Dannenmann who finished runner-up to Joe Hachem in 2005. "It's different because it's only two days and you do a lot more maneuvering to get to the final table."

21 players returned to compete for the $156,000 total buy-in put up by the field of 521. Pulido joined Benchino Chan (New York, NY) as former chip leaders unable to close the deal. Chan was the chip leader for a good portion of Day 1, but when he hemorrhaged chips to Pulido it sealed his fate with a 12th place finish.

"I'll be back," said Chan, "it was a good run, but not good enough."

Players in the field with notable Borgata and national accomplishments included Josh Brikis, James Boyd, Dave Inselberg and Gordon Eng, but none cashed. Dannenmann, who now has 9 major Borgata cashes since he was heads-up with Hachem.

"This is much better than the World Series because it's a faster moving structure," said Dannenmann. "Poker is like life in that you have to make adjustments and here you have to know when you can take advantage of your opponent."

Finishing second was David Meagher (Monkton, MD) who took home $21,185. Rounding out the top 5 were Alexander Shteyman (Edison, NJ - 3rd/$13,619) and Jim Lillis (Robinsville, NJ - 4th/$8,474).