Just like that, the 2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open powered by BetMGM Poker is done. The results are in the books. And the Championship found its new title holder as Carlos Chadha earned it and the $242,385 that went with it, while James Tedrow finished fourth, turning his $25 online poker satellite into a $77,345 payday.
We already wrote about how it kicked off. Now let’s take a look at how it played out.
2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship
The highlight of the BSPO was the Championship, which required a $2,700 buy-in and guaranteed a prize pool of $1,000,000. There were three starting flights, and when all the registrations were tallied, these numbers emerged:
- Total entries: 565
- Total prize pool: $1,356,000
- Total players paid: 71
- Minimum payout: $6,445
Day 2 brought back 164 survivors from the initial flights and added a few late registrants. They played through the money bubble, and the final 71 players continued as many of them hit the cashier desk to collect their payouts. Only 24 players made it through that night with chips.
To watch the final table, check out the livestream of it here… or read on for the journeys of two of the players.
Chadha Plays Through to Championship Victory
Carlos Chadha Villamarin was among the top ten on Day 1C, finishing ninth, and he stayed near the top of the leaderboard on Day 2 but finished in the middle of the pack – 12th out of the final 24.
He quietly built his stack during the first part of Day 3, making a few well-timed moves but staying out of the highlight reels. But he soon appeared in the top three on the leaderboard behind Bin Weng and Nicholas Verderamo. By the dinner break with 12 players remaining, Chadha was back to the middle of the pack as Verderamo and Weng stayed at the top.
After the Day 3 dinner break, Chadha moved up, taking some from Verderamo and eventually taking the chip lead from him, too. When he ultimately eliminated Weng in 11th place, Chadha had the momentum that he carried on to eliminate Sean Ruane in tenth. While Andrew Porter did double through Chadha and Maxwell Young took the overall lead, Chadha did take it back and ended Day 3 as the far-and-away chip leader.
The final table began on Friday, August 31, and Chadha only climbed higher. He eliminated Russ Dunlevy in sixth, while Young ousted the seventh and fifth place finishers. James Tedrow doubled through Chadha but hardly made a dent in the latter’s stack, but Young chipped away and finally took over the lead. Young eliminated Tedrow in fourth, but Chadha sent Verderamo away in third, taking 15,525,000 chips into heads-up play against the 7,000,000 of Young.
It didn’t take long from there to claim the title, two trophies, and $242,385.
Tedrow Turns BetMGM Satellite into Five-Figure Score
When James Tedrow won his seat into the $2,700 buy-in Championship, he headed to Borgata and played Day 1B. When he bagged chips that night, he was 13th on the day, but he lost ground on Day 2 and finished 19th of 24 players.
Tedrow turned that around with a double-up through Verderamo and worked his way to the middle of the leaderboard by the first break. However, Ricky Landais doubled through Tedrow, and then a while later, Tedrow lost more chips to Landais. He did double through Verderamo again but went into the dinner break on the shortest stack.
Refreshed after dinner, Tedrow doubled through Weng twice and quietly chipped up slightly as the evening turned to night. Ultimately, he was able to eliminate Ricky Guan in eighth place to go to the final table fifth in chips of the seven players.
It was tough going for Tedrow at the start of the final table until he was able to double through Chadha. When he tried it again during four-handed play, Young called and made a straight to bust Tedrow. But that fourth-place finish was good for $77,345…all from a $25 satellite online at BetMGM Poker.
Final Table Results
The final table payouts were all impressive.
- 1st place: Carlos Chadha Villamarin $242,385
- 2nd place: Maxwell Young $167,985
- 3rd place: NIcholas Verderamo $116,525
- 4th place: James Tedrow $77,345
- 5th place: Michael Renna $54,100
- 6th place: Russ Dunlevy $42,975
- 7th place: Andrew Porter $34,620
Congratulations to all of the players!
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