The WPT Borgata Online Series organized in cooperation with partypoker New Jersey was completed on September 21. The series featured 10 events, including the $1060 Main Event, and awarded a total of $917,300 in prize money to NJ online poker players.
In the end, the series turned out to be a great success, drawing in just shy of 2500 entries in total. There was just one tournament with a slight overlay, which could be in part due to the somewhat conservative guarantees set by the organizers.
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Borgata Online Main Event Breaks Record for partypoker US Network
The Main Event was the pinnacle of the Borgata Online Series and it took place on September 21. Despite a fairly steep buy-in of $1060 and no guarantee, the tournament ended up drawing in 440 entries, generating a more than respectable prize pool of $432,700.
In the end, it was Tony ‘ToNiSiNzz’ Sinishtaj who took home the title and the first place prize worth $77,349. The final table play took over three and a half hours and culminated in the heads up match between Sinishtaj and Kenny “chaposticks” Huynh who was looking for the second major win of the year after claiming a gold bracelet in one of the WSOP Online events.
However, Huynh was denied his second big title and had to be satisfied with a runner up finish that was good for $56,900. Mukul Pahuja, another well-known pro who made it to the final table, finished in the 4th place, good for $33,101.
This was the largest prize pool for a single tournament in partypoker US history. It is an interesting fact that almost half of the players (44 percent, to be exact) earned their seat in the Main Event through satellites.
Almost All Events Exceeding Guarantees
Borgata Poker US and partypoker NJ seem to have taken a somewhat cautious approach to the series, likely because they may not have been sure what to expect in terms of the turnout. When it was all said and done, however, almost all tournaments ended up meeting and exceeding their guarantees.
The very first event of the WPT Borgata Online Series, which was also the one with the biggest guarantee, fell short by just $1000. Featuring a buy-in of $215 and a guarantee of $100,000, it ended up with 495 entries. So, partypoker had to give up some of the rake to meet the guarantee. The eventual winner, playing under the alias ‘treetrap’, took home $18,080.
The rest of the series went down as planned. Even the $535 PLO event managed to attract enough entrants to meet and well exceed its $25,000 guarantee. The total number of entries by the end of the registration period climbed to 97, bringing the prize pool to $48,500. The winner, Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken, earned a total of $14,255.
In terms of field size, the Kickoff tournament and the Main Event were the biggest ones with 495 and 440 entries, respectively. The $215 $20k PKO event was the third-biggest of the series, attracting a total of 303 entries and generating a prize pool of $60,600. It was Daniel “leinad” Buzgon who took home the win in this one, good for a total of $13,550.
