Home / Poker News September 2012 / WPT Borgata Poker Open – Ben Hamnett Wins
WPT Borgata Poker Open – Ben Hamnett Wins
Posted by: Jo Martin - Mon, 2012-09-24 12:14
Friday was the last day of the WPT’s Borgata Poker Open. Six players returned to the table, set on playing down to a winner. The one who started the day with the largest stack was Matthew Burnitz. The others still in contention were Ben Hamnett – the eventual winner – Ofir Mor, Tyler Patterson, Steve Brecher and David Diaz.
The action was expected to be hot from the starting whistle and it was indeed all that plus a bag of chips: on the third hand of the day, the chip leader had shoved all-in against Ben Hamnett. The money went into the middle on the river of a board of Jc,8d,4d,8d,7c after a little bit of tanking on Burnitz’s part. It turned out Burnitz was right to be suspicious of the hand: his opponent held A,Qo for the top pair, and he had A,9o for the same pair with a worse kicker though. That hand left Burnitz the short-stack of the final table. Beaten but not defeated, Burnitz rebounded a few hands later, taking most of his chips right back from Hamnett.
Despite the alert nature of the early action, players were able to stave off elimination until the 48th hand. Brecher was the one who drew first blood by eliminating Diaz. After Diaz, Brecher himself found the rail in 5th place, sent there courtesy of Hamnett. Brecher’s 5th place was worth $206.8k.
Ofir Mor was the next player to be pushed close to the edge after he dropped a massive pot to Patterson. A few hands later, he too was sent to the rail.
3-handed action lasted until Patterson bit the dust at Hamnett’s hands. Patterson’s 3rd place was worth nearly $300k.
Hamnett reached the final stage of the
poker tournament with a pretty hefty chip advantage. Burnitz mounted a comeback attempt at the beginning of the heads-up action, but Hamnett managed to quell his rally and finished the deal on the first and only hand of the 38th level. His K,Q got the better of his opponent’s Jh, 10h in the final hand of the event.
