WSOP Bracelet Winner Steve Wolansky Wins 2014 Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship
Steve Wolansky's year got a little bit better. At the end of last week, the 2014 World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner, who hails from Cooper City, Florida, captured first place in the 2014 Borgata Fall Poker Open $1 Million Guaranteed Championship. Along with the title, Wolansky scored the largest scored of his live poker career worth $330,887.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Wolansky | Cooper City, FL | $330,887 |
| 2 | Taylor von Kriegenbergh | Stoneham, MA | $186,046 |
| 3 | Larry Abrams | Mahwah, NJ | $119,601 |
| 4 | Paul Volpe | West Chester, PA | $95,016 |
| 5 | Brian Altman | Longmeadow, MA | $74,418 |
| 6 | Josh Spiegelman | Mullica Hill, NJ | $61,129 |
| 7 | Daniel Buzgon | Margate, NJ | $48,505 |
| 8 | Daniel Chan | New York, NY | $37,874 |
| 9 | Jack Duong | South Plainfield, NJ | $26,578 |
| 10 | Mark Sykes | Worcester, MA | $17,276 |
On Day 4 of the $2,500 buy-in event, which was on Thursday, the final 10 players returned to action from a starting field of 548 entries. Larry Abrams began as the chip leader, but Paul Volpe wasn't too far behind.
Shortly after play began, Mark Sykes, the player who started as the shortest stack left, found himself on the rail after Daniel Buzgon finished him off. Jack Duong and Daniel Chan followed Sykes out the door, and then it was Buzgon's turn to make an appearance at the payout task.
According to reports from the event, Buzgon's final hand came up during Level 27 with the blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000. He had the A♦10♦, and was up against the A♥Q♦ for Abrams. The board ran out K♦J♣7♦3♥8♠, and Buzgon was gone.
Josh Spiegelman, Brian Altman, and Paul Volpe were the next three players to bust, and then it was Abrams who fell in third place to leave Wolansky heads up with Taylor von Kriegenbergh. When the heads-up match began, Wolansky was in front.
Although von Kriegenbergh narrowed the gap a little bit, he just didn't have enough fight in him to pull into the lead. Without doing so, von Kriegenbergh was the player at risk when all of the money finally went in.
On the final hand, which occurred in Level 32 with the blinds at 100,000/200,000/30,000, the two players saw a flop of 9♠7♣5♣ and fireworks went off. With 2 million chips already in the middle from preflop action, von Kriegenbergh checked, and Wolansky bet 1.125 million. Von Kriegenbergh check-raised to 2.3 million, but Wolansky had other things in mind and shoved all in. Von Kriegenbergh quickly called with the A♣4♣ for a flush draw, and he was up against the 10♠8♠ for Wolansky who had a straight draw. In this draw-versus-draw battle, Wolansky finished on top, but it wasn't without an exciting turn and river. First, the A♠ landed on the turn to give von Kriegenbergh a pair of aces. That card also gave Wolansky additional outs to a flush, and he made it when the K♠ hit the river.
With that, von Kriegenbergh was eliminated in second place and finished $186,046 richer. Wolansky was awarded the win, the trophy, and the first-place prize of $330,887.
After pocketing just under $300,000 in live tournament earnings in 2013, Wolansky moved well past that in 2014 earnings after this win. Coming into this event, Wolansky had just under $140,000 in winnings this year, and he's now just shy of $470,000. This has proven to be his best year ever on the felt, and it's not over yet.
Data courtesy of Borgata's Fall Poker Open blog.
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