Borgata Winter Poker Open Day 11: Brian Hewitt and Dan Corrar Earning Victories
On Friday, the 2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open continued with two events coming to a close. Both Event #14: $1,650 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em and Event #16: $500 Deep Stack Pot-Limit Omaha crowned champions. All of the while, Event #15: $200,000 Guarantee Six-Max NLHE Re-Entry moved through its first day of play.
It was a truly exciting day in the tournament room as both Brian Hewitt and Dan "Elmo" Corrar were awarded with the latest first-place prize money cashes and trophies. The larger buy-in and high guarantee in Event 15 attracted a flurry of professional poker players, many of whom were participating in their first event of the series. in lead up to the $3,500 Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship that will begin on Sunday.
Here, we'll take a look at the highlights from Day 11 and dive a bit deeper into the aforementioned players' quests to victory:
Event #14: $1,650 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em
At the end of the day, Brian Hewitt took down the victory in the 64-player bracket to win both the title and the $37,248 in first-place prize money. Hewitt was able to best a field that saw notable names like Christian Harder, Adam Friedman, Aaron Massey, David Einhorn, Matt Matros, John Racener, and many more.
The final day of play began with eight players returning and vying for the title. The matches to start the day looked like this:
| Brian Hewitt | vs. | James Routos |
| Matt Stout | vs. | Steve Sarmiento |
| Adam Shulman | vs. | Ernie Lewis |
| Torrey Korsog | vs. | Joseph Stiers |
Eventual champion Hewitt was the first to find victory after he quickly defeated James Routos. Soon after, Joe Stiers bested Torrey Korsog to also find a spot in the final four. Steve Sarmiento bested Matt Stout, and the final four was sealed when Ernie Lewis closed the door on Adam Shulman.
The final four began with Stiers taking a quick 1-0 match lead on Lewis. Their second match did not last much longer, as on the final hand Stiers flopped top set with pocket queens on a Q♠7♠3♠ board. Lewis raised all in against him holding the J♥3♥ and Stiers quickly called, making quads on the river to secure his spot in the finals.
Over in the other match, Hewitt took down Sarmiento on his path to glory. On the final hand, the money went in on a board of 5♣10♠5♦3♦ with Sarmiento at risk. Hewitt tabled A♦5♥ and was in a dominating position against Sarmiento's J♣10♦. Sarmiento failed to improve and fell just short of a spot in the finals.
Hewitt took an early 1-0 lead in the finals and sealed the deal for the title with the following hand. Stiers shipped all in for his tournament life from the button and Hewitt quickly called.
Hewitt: 9♣9♥
Stiers: 6♦6♠
Hewit was in a dominating position and clinched the victory after a run out of 9♠7♦3♠4♠Q♦.
Event #15: $200,000 Guarantee Six-Max NLHE Re-Entry
As mentioned earlier, the larger guarantee in this event allowed the field to grow with the names of many notable professional players. The event saw a grand total of 373 entries, and at the end of Day 1 just 43 remained. Andrew Kelsall bagged up the biggest chip stack with 400,900 in chips. Right on Kelsall's heels was James Caroll, who finished the day with 388,700.
Among the notable faces who sat down for play but were ultimately eliminated were Erik Cajelais, Robert "Uncle Krunk" Panitch, Keven Stammen, Chris Tryba, Matt Stout, Phil Collins, Ravi Raghavan, and Steve Dannenmann.
While those players fell, the field is still packed with familiar faces, all of whom are eying up the title and the $88,643 in first-place prize money. Players returning for Day 2 include Natale Kuey (337,000), Ronit Chamani (209,000), Josh Brikis (187,800), Matt Affleck (153,800), and Andy Hwang (108,900). Also returning and riding quite a hot streak is Amanda Musumeci, who will come back with a stack of 164,500. Musumeci recently finished runner-up in Event #13: $350+50 Deep Stack Black Chip Bounty No-Limit Hold'em for a payday of $17,214.
The final 43 players will return at 12 p.m. local time where they will play down to a champion. Play will be tense to start the day as well, as bubble play will loom with only 36 players making the money.
Event #16: $500 Deep Stack Pot-Limit Omaha High Re-Entry
The one-day $500 Deep Stack Pot-Limit Omaha High Re-Entry tournament kicked off and played all of the way down to its champion. In the end, Dan Corrar bested the 98-player field to claim the title. That being said, the final four players, which included Matt Forrest, Brad Altman, and Joe Altomonte, all made a four-handed deal in order to pocket the most for their money.
At the final table, Dave Marmor was the first to fall and pocketed $1,283 for his efforts. Following him out the door in eighth place was Will McMahon. McMahon was eliminated by Yuebin Guo's diamond flush and was forced to settle for a $1,711 payday.
Boris Zivotov fell in seventh place and collected $2,139. On Zivotov's final hand, he shipped his short stack of less than one big blind in before the flop. Three opponents called and they checked it down to reveal a completed board of 5♠6♥5♦J♦Q♥. Forrest rolled over K♣K♥8♠3♥ for kings up and dragged in the pot, eliminating Zivotov in the process.
Guo was next to go, as he also fell at the hands of Forrest. Guo was unable to best Forrest's turned straight and was left with a sixth place finish and $2,567.
Jim Newton was the last player to find elimination after a confrontation with Corrar. Newton pocketed $2,994 in tournament earnings and left the final four to make a deal.
The remaining $32,083 in prize money was distributed amongst the final four players in unknown amounts after the deal, but it was Corrar who will officially go down as the event's winner in the record books.
The Borgata Winter Poker Open continues Saturday with the conclusion of Event #15: $1,090 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry (200,000 Guaranteed). Also kicking off is Event #17: $100,000 Guarantee Big Stack NLHE Re-Entry. Be sure to check out the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog for all of the latest from the tournament floor!
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