Event 1 Recap

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Yevgeni Rapoport (Brooklyn, NY) is speechless after winning the inaugural event of the Borgata Summer Poker Open.  "I'm not good at this stuff, I don't know what to say," he said, "It feels surreal."

Rapoport was busy taking phone calls and celebrated with his rail birds after defeating Joe Wertz (Montoursville, PA) heads up to take the title, the trophy and the $79,069 first prize. Rapoport overcame a 3 to 1 chip deficit heads-up and won the tournament when he outflopped Wertz on the final hand while holding A♠ 4♦ against A♣ 9♥.

For Wertz it's a disappointing end to a long two day tournament that had him close to winning his first Borgata tournament.

"Second, second, second," said Wertz with a smile after earning $44,458  "It was fun, but I definitely wanted to win one at Borgata."

This is Wertz's fourth runner-up finish at a Borgata series dating back to 2010. His four second place finishes have earned the professional player, who now resides in Brigantine, $204,000 in those events alone.

The final table featured a strong lineup of Borgata regulars and included trophy winners Eric Siegel (3rd), Taemee Feuer (9th), and three-time trophy winner Howard Wolper (7th). It also included Russ Dykshteyn, who finished 3rd in April's Spring Open Championship Event.

Dykshteyn finished 10th after he was involved with one of the tournament's biggest hands. He was battling Wertz for the chip lead, but shipped 3 million to Wertz who flopped a set of 5s and used the chips to get heads up.

For Rapoport it was a slow and steady as he won the title over 679 entries.  The field put a total buy-in of $339,500 and featured other notable players that included Jeremy Brown, Jose Montes, Cathy Dever, Frank Ingardia, Mike Linster and Gordon Eng, who all cashed.

The final table also featured Seth Zimmerman (4th), Sal Esposito (5th), John Short (6th) and  Morteza Shirazi (8th) who began the day as the chip leader.

Hopefully we will see more of Rapoport, who likes to play the daily Wednesday tournament series at Borgata, during the 2012 Borgata Summer Poker Open. While Wertz will keep grinding towards that elusive Borgata win.

Final Table Results

Place-Name-Amount 

1 Yevgeni Rapoport (Brooklyn, NY) $79,069
2 Joe Wertz (Montoursville, PA) $44,458
3 Eric Siegel (Melville, NJ) $27,992
4 Seth Zimmerman (New York, NY) $22,723
5 Sal Esposito (Blue Point, NY) $18,112
6 John Short (Franklinville, NJ) $14,984
7 Howard Wolper (Atlantic City, NJ) $12,020
8 Morteza Shirazi (Clifton, NJ) $9,056
9 Taemee Feuer (Westbury, NY) $6,257
10 Russ Dykshteyn (Brooklyn, NY)$4,281