Event 23 Recap

Event 23: $300 + $50 No Limit Hold'em is in the books and wow was it exciting. I've never seen so many multiple all-in's with two tables to go.

First cards were dealt at high noon which allowed a couple bust-outs from the Championship Event to jump in, including Blake Purvis and WSOP bracelet holder John Spadavecchia.

Also in the field was Borgata tournament regular Marguerite Spagnuolo (Staten Island, NY).

Great turnout with 172 players battling for the $50, 052 total prize pool of which the top 18 got paid.

Tom "Shamrock" Gilligan (NYC via Sligo, Ireland) was the first player to reach 100k.

Other leaders included, Dwyte Pilgrim (Brooklyn, NY) 80k, Dan Eichhorn (Las Vegas, NV) 78k,
Frank Lomanno (Medina, OH) 75k, Greg Weber (Howell, NJ) 70k, and Michael DiMolfetto (Staten Island, NY) 62k.

Also in the field was Bill Childs (Pinehurst, NC) who finished 9th in Event 22 and the runner up, Angelo Modica. Both gentlemen did not cash.

One of the big three-way-action hands involved Richard Logue's K-10, Mark Gordon's A-K of diamonds, and Doug Adkins K-K. River Ace gave Logue broadway and Gordon the side pot.

A trend developed where the worst hand-in kept winning and destroying big hole card pairs.

Vincent Carbone was the bubble and now all his friends are telling him "he got Carbone-d" as he didn't make any money at all.

With so much action, this tournament didn't last too long - around 1am.
People were flying out and the final table flew by too.

When the dust settled, third place of $4,755 went to Pawel Kulpa, second place went to Tony Tran, and first place prize of $15,015 went to our youngest ever poker tournament winner, Greg Weber.

In one of the greatest stories of the entire 2011 Borgata Winter Poker Open, today was Greg's 21st birthday.

You never saw someone so excited to win. "Nice birthday present" said Greg Weber (Howell, NJ) who has been playing on-line poker since he was 18 under the name Patty Weber.

Greg studies Sports Management at Rutgers University and had the day off today so figured he'd celebrate his 21st birthday at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

His big hand of the tournament had his Opponent turning a flush while Greg flopped a set then rivered a full house.

Greg won $15,015 worth of cake to dig into.

Tonight Greg Weber blew out the candles and his wish came true.