Event 5 Recap

$600 + $60 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

It was the real world versus a pipe dream and when the final hand was played it was Chris Csik (Martinsville, NJ) whose dreams are now a reality.  The 25 year-old, who plays poker full time, defeated Mike Melkersen (New Market, VA) heads up at the Borgata Summer Poker Open to take down the $38,627 first prize and trophy.

"I can now prove to my parents and my girlfriend that this is no longer a pipe dream," said Csik, who added that he's primarily a cash player in this just his 10th career tournament.

"He played great and deserves it," said Melkersen, who is a lawyer and added, "back to the real world," after winning $22,759, the second largest Borgata cash of his career.

When heads up play began it looked like Melkersen would cruise to the title after building a 6 to 1 chip lead by steam rolling the tables early on Day 2 play.  But Csik bunkered down and used Melkersen's aggression against him.

"I knew if I could survive the first ten hands I'd be alright," said Csik who only had 500k to Melkerson's 3 million chips to start heads up play.  Csik chipped away and turned the tables without being all in and at risk.

"He's very trappy," said Melkersen, "and I'm very aggressive. Those two usually don't work well together.  I should've changed my game and put things on lock down."

Melkersen, who finished 4th in the 2010 Borgata Spring Poker Open ($44,000), was a machine early in the day as he chipped up from the middle of the pack to take the chip lead. He proceeded to knock out four more players, including two on one hand to eventually grab 85% of the chips in play.

He battled David Jones, who began Day 2 with the chip lead, for the big stack at the final table.  Jones got the first two final table knockouts when he sent Tom McDonald (10th) and Mitchell Mantin (9th) to the rail and was back on top with close to one million chips.

Stephanie Hubbard, the last woman standing after she knocked out Cindy Albert in 15th place, took care of Sam Blankenship in eighth place to set up a pivotal hand of the tournament.

Hubbard and Neel Kalani were both all in against Melkersen who cracked aces (Hubbard) and kings (Kalani) on the same hand when he flopped a set of 9s.  Kalani (6th) finished just ahead of Hubbard (7th) because his all-in bet was just 2k more than Hubbard's.

While that went on, Csik sat back and was content to be third in chips.  In fact, other than beating Melkersen heads up, Csik didn't have any other final table knockouts.

Melkerson knocked out Bob Miller in 5th, while Jones took care of Bob Baesch in 4th, before Melkerson ended Jones' day in third place.

The tournament began Saturday with 237 entries which generated a total buy-in of $142,200.  Twenty-seven players cashed as the field played down to the final 18 to end Day 1.

Notables who made the money included Ted Geier (22nd), John Hinds (18th) and Event 1 runner-up Joe Wertz, who missed the final table with a 12th place finish, but has earned more than $46,000 with his two cashes.

"This is number one," says Csik when he ranked this, his highest career cash, among his poker achievements.

"It seems like I can do it," Csik added about making the shift from cash games to tournament poker. Csik noted that he just missed the money in the other three NL tournaments of the series.

"It looks like I'll be playing the main [Summer Championship Event]," he said, something that he was only dreaming about last week.

 Final Table Results


Position-Name-Amount


1 Chris Csik (Martinsville, NJ) $38,627
2 Mike Melkersen (New Market, VA) $22,759
3 David Jones (York, PA) $13,104
4 Bob Baesch (Berlin, MD) $10,621
5 Bob Miller (Nanuet, NY) $8,276
6 Neel Kalani (Philadelphia, PA) $6,897
7 Stephanie Hubbard (Hazlet, NJ) $5,517
8 Sam Blankenship (Bristol, TN) $4,138
9 Mitchell Mantin (Atlantic City, NJ) $2,759
10 Tom McDonald (Clearwater, FL) $1,793