Borgata Main Event 2011 Won By Vadim Shlez

Vadim Shlez has won the Borgata Winter Open 2011, after defeating a field of 718 players over five days to take down the title, and collect the $533,210 first place prize.
The Ukranian born US pro had previously earned $218,767 from live tournaments before hitting the jackpot last Friday in Atlantic City. Commenting on his victory at the $3,500 Championship Event, the obviously ecstatic 37 year-old said:
“I don’t know how I’m talking right now, I’m kind of speechless. It means a lot, but I don’t know what it means yet because it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
By the end of Day 1 of the tournament the 718 player field had been reduced to 539 players, which then became 167 by the end of Day 2. Day 3 saw just 37 players making it through to Day 4 which then determined who would be seated at the final table of ten the following day.
As the finalists began to fall, start of the day chip leader Vadim Shlez found himself at one stage down to 11 big blinds with just four players remaining. However, doubling up holding pocket kings against Trevor Savage kept his tournament hopes alive but soon after Savage managed to regain some chips at the expense of Bobby Suer who finished in 4th place for $156,286.
Savage’s jubilation was short-lived, though, after Shlez eliminated him in 3rd place ($189,611) holding pocket jacks to his opponent’s eights, thus setting up the heads-up battle against LJ Sande.
Now with an enormous 17 million stack to Sande’s 4.5 million it wasn’t long before Sande was battling for his tournament survival holding Ks-7s to Shlez’s As-8h. However, a A-5-4-10-2 board sealed his fate, and LJ Sande collected $310,273 for his runner-up finish, while Vadim Shlez was crowned the 2011 Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Winner.
Congratulating his opponent, runner-up Sande said: “He’s an amazing player. He made excellent reads and all the right plays. The chip deficit was just too hard to overcome.”