Greg Himmelbrand Wins 2013 Borgata Fall Poker Open $1 Million Guaranteed Opening Event
The first event of the 2013 Borgata Fall Poker Open concluded on Saturday. The kickoff event featured four starting days, a buy-in of $560, and a massive $1 million guarantee. The event allowed entrants to play as many Day 1s as they would like, no matter whether or not they advanced to Day 2. Then, the advancing players would take their best stack into the second day of the event.
When registration was all said and done, the field had amassed 2,899 entries. That generated a prize pool of $1,449,500 and top prize was worth $243,630. While the top 250 finishers received a payday, it was Greg Himmelbrand from Queens, NY walking away with the title and nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greg Himmelbrand | Queens, NY | $243,630 |
| 2 | Luis Diaz | Hazelton, PA | $157,983 |
| 3 | Simon Lam | Brooklyn, NY | $103,457 |
| 4 | Edward Jacobs | Smithtown, NY | $87,952 |
| 5 | Frank Nelson | Marlton, NJ | $72,966 |
| 6 | Brian Rosengarten | Plainview, NY | $58,120 |
| 7 | George Alberto | Clifton, NJ | $43,413 |
| 8 | Patrick Chan | Brooklyn, NY | $29,406 |
| 9 | Chad Jackson | Walton, NY | $21,009 |
| 10 | Lorenzo Desmond | Brooklyn, NY | $14,006 |
Entering the final table, George Alberto had the chip lead with 13.635 million in chips. It was Luis Diaz who was bringing up the rear with just 1.8 million in chips as the short stack, but things would turn around quite nicely for him. Himmelbrand began the final table seventh in chips.
First to go was Lorenzo Desmond, who began the final table third in chips. Desmond's demise came after he clashed in two big pots in a row with Frank Nelson. On the first, Desmond ran AxQx into Nelson's AxKx and couldn't come from behind. On the second, which was also the hand that eliminated Desmond, he ran AxJx into Nelson's AxQx.
After that, Chad Jackson fell in ninth place, Patrick Chan hit the rail in eighth place, Alberto was eliminated in seventh place, and Brian Rosengarten exited in sixth place.
Rosengarten was crippled to less than one big blind after Edward Jacobs doubled through him with the AxKx versus Rosengarten's Ax9x, and he was eliminated on the next hand as he was forced all in from the big blind. Rosengarten had 8x4x up against Diaz's 9x7x, who had called from the small blind. The board ran out 7x3x2x6xJx to bust Rosengarten.
Nelson was then eliminated in fifth place and Jacobs fell in fourth place, leaving Simon Lam three handed with Diaz and Himmelbrand. With the way his day began as the short stack, Diaz had done extremely well to make it to three-handed play. Even still, his day would get better and his pockets a little bit larger after Lam fell in third place.
While the final hand of the tournament was not reported, Diaz earned himself $157,983 for his second-place finish. Himmelbrand claimed the $243,630 first-place prize and the title. With the win, Himmelbrand notched the largest payday of his live career. Previously, Himmelbrand's largest single score came back in July when he finished runner-up to Neville Darrell in the 2013 Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series Championship Event for $241,060.
For complete information on the 2013 Borgata Fall Poker Open, click here to visit the event's webpage.
Data and photo courtesy of the 2013 Borgata Fall Poker Open blog.
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