It was a huge weekend for online poker players in New Jersey as the prize pool in every major tournament smashed their posted guarantees by a significant margin.
As is almost always the case, the partypoker NJ/BorgataPoker.com $50,000 Guarantee was once again the biggest tournament of the weekend. The tournament generated a huge $73,200 prize pool from the 366 entrants (including reentries) to pony-up the $200 buy-in.
New Jersey's "judiallin" banked $13,191 after beating "Bathsalts" in heads-up play, who collected $9,348 for his efforts. Other notable players to appear on the final table in the tournament included partypoker ambassador Jamie "JamieKerstetter" Kerstetter (3rd - $6,588), Michael "Mazz10" Azzaro (4th - $5,417), and Benjamin "Beahmer" Beahm (8th - $2,452).
Meanwhile CardRunners instructor and poker coach Michael "itWasThatOr0" Gagliano was easily the star of the weekend on WSOP.com NJ and 888poker NJ. First, on Saturday, he took advantage of WSOP.com/888poker NJ Nightly $10,000 Guarantee generating a $25,089 prize pool - which was about twice as large as it usually is on Saturdays - by outlasting the 318-player field to bank $6,398.
Gagliano's weekend was far from over. The following day he outdid himself by finishing on top of the 201-player field in the WSOP.com/888poker NJ Sunday $30,000 Guarantee to win $9,854. The runner-up in that tournament was Steven "stevenmadara" Madara, who also managed a big payday with a haul of $5,764.
If you play regulated online poker tournaments in New Jersey and would like your real name appearing in future articles, please contact this editor at [email protected].
*Special thanks to PocketFives.com for some of the data in this article.
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