At 11:00 am the (6-handed) No limit hold’em $1000 + $90 kicked off with 291 players trying to win their share of the $282,270 prize money. Over 22 hours later we crowned a champion - Ryan Eriquezzo (Danbury, CT) and award him $71,978 1st place prize.
Dan Spirer won the Six-max last September and tried to defend his title today but busted out early.
At Level 3, Andy Santiago (Ben Salem, PA) proclaimed and predicted, "I'm going to win this tournament". He didn’t win but did finish
A star studded cast of players joined the six-max, including several well knowns such as:
Todd Terry, Gene Castro, Mickey Woll, Mike Leah, Adam Lippert, Michael Kessler, Matt Matros, Charles Furey, Beth Shak, Feming Chan, Roland Israelashvilli, Chris Bell, Sirous Jamshidi, Vinny Scavo, Ryan Eriquezzo, Mike Beasley,
Sherwin Agard, Ed Abendschein, Sheree Bykofsky, Romie Montano, Matt Brady, Abe Kolari, Mike Dentale, Vinny Pahuja, Jeremy McLaughlin, Tim Tuveson, Roy Winston,
Gavin Smith, Matt Mazzeo, Steve Dannenmann, Amnon Filippi, Eugene Todd, Jason Young, Matt Affleck, Eugene Fouksman, and Bart Seemen.
Gavin landed at table 23 with Roy Winston.
There was a PPI battle for the leaderboard and Borgata Championship seat between Matt “Muffins” Mazzeo and James Boyle as each were tied with 105 points.
The 6 max tournament creates a slightly different pay structure. Normally a field of 291 players would pay 27 spots, but this tournament paid out 30 with first place in the amount of $71,978.
Some big stacks before dinner included Farid Jattin 160k, Andy Santiago 140k,
Adam Hui 120k, Larry Lackatosh 115k, Ryan Eriquezzo 110k, and Jamie Kerstetter 100k.
Roy Winston busts when he misses a flush draw against pocket kings then Chip Leader Tony Antonious knocked out Jaimie Hersetter.
Sick Cooler Hand of the tournament was when Al Grimes turned broadway and Jacek Markowski flopped a boat.
After close to an hour of hand by hand action, Will "The Thrill" Failla was the bubble and Jessica Wuerz was the Last Women Standing.
The very next hand after the bubble burst, Amir Genzel lost got his chips in with A-10 up against 8-9. Amir will take home $1,694 for his 30th place min-cash finish.
Once short stack James Boyle survived the bubble which made him unofficially the PPI leader/winner of the Championship Seat. Boyle then flopped quad Aces and four flushed.
Final table included, Tony Antonious (4th), Marcus Seitz (5th), Andy Santiago (6th), and Andrew Buechner (7th).
Third place for $32,461 went to Billy Pilossoph while 2nd place prize of $42,763 went to John Lakatosh.
But the big winner was who outlasted 290 other 6-handed Opponents to secure the $71,978 1st place prize was Ryan Eriquezzo.
The final three traded chips back and forth until Ryan knocked out Billy. Both players had three threes but Ryan had the Ace kicker.
He went heads up against John with a 4 to 1 lead and in short fashion finished the job.
His crew celebrated with him (enjoying the breakfast of champions) and Ryan earned his largest cash poker prize ($71,978) to date.
Look for him in the main event!
