Jonathan Evans Wins Borgata Poker Open Event For $337,801
September 11, 2014 11:56 amDespite never having played in a live tournament before, Jonathan Evans has successfully managed to navigate himself past a 4,158 player field at the Borgata Poker Open $560 event to capture the title, and collect the whopping $337,801 first-place prize.
The five day tournament attracted enough players to create a prize pool worth $2,079,500, and amongst the notable pros finishing in one of the 400 paid cash spots was Vineet Pahuja in 249th ($1,341), Matt Salsberg in 154th ($1,855), Greg Himmelbrand in 136th ($2,218), and Scott Baumstein in 67th ($3,832).
By the time the final table of ten had been reached, HPT and WSOPC winner Aaron Massey was the chip leader (21.67m) with a second placed Jonathan Evans a good way back on a 12.515m stack. Also competing for the title was Alex Smith (8.46m), Kane Kalas (8.30m), Kevin Grabel (7.98m), Pablo Alvarez (7.41m), Gaurav Raina (4.73m), Patti Haggerty (4.61m), Joseph Felice (4.35m), and Andrew Klein (1.61m).
As players began to hit the rail, Aaron Massey managed to maintain his chip lead all the way until four-handed play when Jonathan Evans, who had still to eliminate anyone from the final table, moved into a slight lead. Jonathan Evans (10-9) then proceeded to dispatch a short-stacked Patti Haggerty (10-2) to the rail in 4th ($118,981), before being dealt pocket sixes and doing likewise to Gaurav Raina (A-J) in 3rd ($144,794) to herald in the heads-up phase of the competition.
As the final battle commenced, both Evans and Massey were fairly even in chips with around forty big blinds apiece. However, Evans eventually won a 66 v 22 pot to reduce his opponent to just 12bb, and in the final hand of the tournament Massey moved all-in preflop with 10-10 only to be called by Evans with K-Q. The dealer subsequently laid out a 5-Q-8-5-A board to consign Aaron Massey to a runner-up finish worth $219,208, while Jonathan Evans was declared the champion.
Final Table Results:
1 Jon Evans $337,801
2 Aaron Massey $219,208
3 Gaurav Raina $144,794
4 P. Haggerty $118,981
5 Pablo Alvarez $95,790
6 Alex Smith $73,607
7 Kevin Grabel $52,432
8 Kane Kalas $37,792
9 Joseph Felice $24,200
10 Andrew Klein $15,629