Almedin Imsirovic Wins 2018 Borgata Spring Open After Heads-Up Chop
The 2018 edition of the Borgata Spring Poker Open (BSPO) $2,700 Championship NLH Re-entry drew 519 entries, bringing the total prize pool well over the $1 million guarantee to $1,297,500. The final six returned on Thursday to battle down to a winner and Almedin Imsirovic walked away with the official win after a near-even heads-up deal with runner-up Farid Jattin.
Neither of these players is a slouch in the tournament poker realm and amazingly, both players skipped Day 1 and bought directly into Day 2 for 40,000 chips at 500/1,000 blinds before grinding all the way to heads-up and chopping it up, according to the live updates.
Imsirovic, who has reportedly been playing professionally for just the past year and a half, had accumulated just over $450K before this score. His previous biggest score came just a few months ago when he beat out a talent-packed final table in a PCA $10K event, defeating Ryan Riess heads up to lock up $160,000.
Jattin came into this final table already with $2.5 million in live earnings, according to Hendon Mob, and like Imsirovic, was also coming off of a recent significant win. Jattin took down the $1,650 Winter Poker Open Main Event at Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa, Florida back in December for $241,651 — strikingly similar to the payout that he would go on to receive for his finish at Borgata.
Jattin has done well historically at the venue, and interestingly this was not Jattin's first second-place Borgata Poker Open finish. In 2011, he took second in the Summer edition of the event for $117,000 and went on to two sixth-place finishes in the 2014 and 2016 $3,500 buy-in WPT Borgata Poker Open for scores of $174,000 and $168,000, respectively.
Official Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Almedin Imsirovic | $246,066* |
| 2nd | Farid Jattin | $243,521* |
| 3rd | Nick Salimbene | $113,272 |
| 4th | Richard Pachoca | $89,988 |
| 5th | David Mock | $70,480 |
| 6th | Nick Palma | $57,894 |
Final Table Action
Jattin and Imsirovic came into the final six number one and two in chips with deep stacks of 118 and 89 big blinds. David Mock started the final table as the shortie with 25 big blinds with the others falling in between. Jattin went to work extending his lead early and Nick Palma took a big hit in the second blind level of play when he ran ace-king in the small blind into short stack Nick Salimbene's pocket kings in the big blind. All the chips went in pre and Salimbene came away with the double, leaving Palma with around 32 big blinds.
Palma's stack dwindled until he got the rest in with queen-jack against Jattin's ace-nine suited. Despite flopping an open-ender, Palma couldn't find help from the turn or river and Jattin got the KO with ace-high, putting him out in front of the remaining pack even further.
Jattin was then poised to eliminate Richard Pachoca when Pachoca got his remaining stack in with queen-jack on a J♠8♠3♦ flop, only to be dominated by Jattin's king-jack. Pachoca found the favorable 10♥ 9♦ runout though to double through, putting a mere dent in Jattin's tower.
Imsirovic Takes the Lead
The next hit would be a big one though, and Jattin suffered it at the hands of Imsirovic. The latter raised it up and got calls from Jattin in the small and Salimbene in the big. Jattin led out on the 10♠4♦2♣ flop only to be raised by Imsirovic after Salimbene got out of the way.
Jattin called and check-shoved the 8♠ turn, which was met with a snap-call by Imsirovic who held pocket kings. Jattin was in need of help with A♣3♣ for a gutshot and an overcard, but the 6♠ river meant a huge double for Imsirovic that gave him the chip lead, and Jattin was down to short-stack territory.
Start of day short stack David Mock got his last crumbs in with queen-ten and completely whiffed, sending the last of his chips to Pachoca and his pocket eights that held up. Despite the double, Pachoca would be next to go in fourth place after doubling up Jattin with A♣10♥ against A♦K♥, both four-flushing with a heart but Jattin's best. The rest went to chip leader Imsirovic, who flopped aces up with A♣7♣ and Pachoca committed the rest on the turn with A♦5♣ for just a pair of aces.
Down to three, Salimbene mixed it up with Imsirovic and despite flopping the world with 6♥5♥ on 6x3♥2♥, Salimbene could only muster a pair of sixes after a runout of 2♠ A♠, and it was an easy river call for Imsirovic holding 4♦2x for turned trips. Salimbene took third and the heads-up was set, Imsirovic with a nearly 6-to-1 chip lead over Jattin and his 31 big blinds.
Heads-Up
Jattin, down but not out, found an early double check-shoving the turn and getting called with top pair versus second pair. Imsirovic got some back and had Jattin on the ropes again, this time with the best of it on a board of Q♦6♣3♦5♥. Imsirovic bet and called a shove with Q♥9♦ for top pair, but Jattin had outs with 8♦2♦. He found the A♦ on the river to stay alive and even out the stacks.
At this point, it appears from the coverage that the two took an unscheduled break to work out a deal, Imsirovic with a marginal chip lead over Jattin. Upon their return, the two got in stacks and Imsirovic's 8♦5♣ became trip fives on the river to best Jattin's K♦10♥ flopped pair of tens. Imsirovic got the victory and $246,066 while Jattin had to settle for another second place to go with yet another six-figure score at the Borgata, this time $243,521.
Photos courtesy of Borgata live updates
