The poker tables, chips, and cards are stored away. Special event staff are taking a well-deserved rest. Players are doing the same…or they’re in the cash games in the Poker Room at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. The fall edition of the Borgata Poker Open powered by BetMGM Poker is officially a wrap!

To put a pin in it and close out the coverage, here are the final highlights. 

Donovan Dean Dominated

The Borgata Poker Open Championship was an all-out success. It was the main event of the entire fall series at the Borgata in Atlantic City, a $3,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament with a massive $1,500,000 guarantee on the prize pool. 

• Total entries:  758
• Total prize pool:  $2,349,800
• Total players paid:  95
• Minimum payout:  $8,057
• Winner payout:  $408,836

Final Table Tidbits

The final table of this event set up a showdown of crushers. While it may have only seemed so to East Coast poker players and fans, there was a lot at stake for each player in the mix. That is one of the benefits of a livestreamed final table, as the commentators are able to provide this insight. For this one:

• Frank Funaro is an East Coast regular, currently having the second-best year of his live poker career and coming from winning a bracelet (his second) this summer in Las Vegas.
• Josh Kay is a Florida player, well known for final tables in major events and no stranger to the Borgata.
• Kharlin Sued is another staple at Florida tables but most recognizable here for finishing third in the BPO Almighty Million (for $96,354) just days before this Main Event final table.
• Donovan Dean is an Alabama native and two-time Circuit Main Event ring winner, one of which he just won in August.
• Ryan Dodd is a New Jersey player and Borgata regular with a handful of Circuit rings and numerous tournament wins and final tables.
• Andrew Ostapchenko is a California native with more than $3,000,000 in live tournament earnings to that point.
• And Luis Ortiz is a relative newcomer to the live scene but just took second place in the BPO Heads-Up Championship days before.

Dean Did It

Though Dean was the second-shortest stack going to the final day of action, his confidence took him through. He also hit double-ups when necessary, doing so at the start of the final table and climbing into second place on the leaderboard. He eventually busted Ostapchenko to become the chip leader, but he took the good and bad of double-ups throughout the next levels. 

Dean was short-stacked going into three-handed play but doubled and played aggressively, ultimately eliminating Sued in third place. At the start of heads-up play, Ortiz held nearly three times the number of Dean’s chips, but Dean doubled and took over to win the Borgata Poker Open.

High Hopes for High Roller

One of the unique events of this Borgata Poker Open was the High Roller Experience. It was the second-last event on the BPO schedule but the highest buy-in of the series.

The $10,000 buy-in is sometimes seen as a standard amount for many high-stakes players these days, where $25,000 and $50,000 buy-ins have become regular events as well. But the Borgata Poker Open powered by BetMGM wanted this $10,000 event to be special.

While attendance was a little on the lower side, the tournament played out in fine fashion. The top three players received payouts, with Ketan Pandya busting in third place for $40,000. Alex Queen and Brian Yoon then agreed to a payout deal, with prize money based on chip stacks and an extra $10,000 set aside for the winner. From there, Queen busted Yoon, the latter of whom walked away with $70,200. Queen collected $89,800 to go with a Borgata trophy.

Livestreams Live On

The BetMGM YouTube channel was busy with almost daily poker action from the Borgata Poker Open. There are now 12 livestreams in the channel’s library, all filled with interesting commentary to go with the cash game and tournament play. Viewers can even watch the events back and perhaps pick up some tips for their own play.

Click the “live” tab of the BetMGM YouTube channel for the streams in date order (most recent first) or check out two of them here. First, this was the $10,000 High Roller cash game action:

And second, the Borgata Poker Open Championship final table was a particularly good one to watch:

Creative Poker Content Turns to Gratitude

Speaking of content, Pokerface Ash is sometimes known for her poker vlogs, but recently, she’s been doing more playing and commentating. And players and fans are loving her commentary.

Abby Merk, aka @abbypoker, had been all over the Borgata in the past week, after jetting over from Barcelona and leaping right into the BPO and BetMGM action. And instead of exhaustion and burnout, she found gratitude and joy.

Caitlin Comeskey put up one of the most original mini-vlogs of the series, without a doubt.

Borgata Director of Operations Kellie deCelis gave a nod to so many people who helped make the most recent Borgata Poker Open a success, though she deserved a lot of that credit as well.

A little birdie told us that this is just the start of a great fall season at BetMGM Poker. What we already know is that the Fall Spin the Wheel BetMGM Poker promotion is underway and runs through October 7. It’s a great way to spin a prize wheel every day – just for earning BetMGM Rewards Points – to win tournament and SPINS tickets. 

Whether you’re looking for a good cash game, micro-stakes poker, or tournaments with sizable guarantees, BetMGM Poker has it all going on around the clock. Sign up to play online poker at BetMGM now.