Event 12 Recap

$500 + $60 H.O.R.S.E.

The final table featured four players with Borgata titles, three of them looking for their second trophy.  But it was Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, who cut down the field to get his third win, joining a short list of three-time winners.

Kessler beat Scott Blackman (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ) heads up after the two started nearly dead even in chips.

"I was run over by the deck heads up. It was ridiculous," said Kessler who earned $15,107 for the win.  The final hand came playing stud and Kessler won it with two pair, kings and queens.

"I've made some final tables," said Blackman who won $8,201 as runner-up. "but don't have a win yet."

Blackman was the big stack most of the day and finished ahead of the three other Borgata trophy holders; the list included Brandon Guss (Holland, PA) who came in 3rd, Danny Hofer (Ossining, NY), 6th and Mickael Morgousky (Brooklyn, NY) 7th.

Day 2 of this tournament had 11 returning players out of 89 who put in the $44,500 total buy-in.  But with only 9 players making the money, Justin Finberg (11th) and Steve Prosack (10th) left empty handed as the bubble boys.

First to go at the final table was Bo Toft (Yardley, PA) who finished 9th, followed by Jermaine Reid (Bronx, NY) in 8th. Toft is no Borgata slouch as he has final tabled this event three times in the last year and has $500,000 in career tournament earnings.

And the 4th and 5th place finishers have distinguished resumes as well.

Brian Nichols (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ), who finished 4th, earned his second cash of the series after finishing 17th (out of 3,871) in Event 1 for $8,500. While 5th place finisher, Michael Drabot (Riverside, NJ), made his 4th Borgata final table in the last 14 months.

But in the end it was Kessler who took advantage of the hot deck and his passion for the game.

"I wanted to win the the trophy," Kessler said after he earned his 11th career win. "I like the victory. I don't care about the money, I have enough money," he said with his career tournament earnings at nearly $2.6 million.

Kessler joins Will Failla, Yuebin Guo, Howard Wolper, Bill Blanda and Chris Reslock as the only three-time Borgata winners

Final Table Results

1st Allen Kessler (Las Vegas, NV) $15,107
2nd Scott Blackman (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ) $8,201
3rd Brandon Guss (Holland, PA) $5,180
4th Brian Nichols (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ) $3,885
5th Michael Drabot (Riverside, NJ) $3,022
6th Danny Hofer (Ossining, NY) $2,590
7th Mickael Morgousky (Brooklyn, NY) $2,158
8th Jermaine Reid (Bronx, NY) $1,727
9th Bo Toft (Yardley, PA) $1,29

FINAL RESULTS