Cong Pham, Vanessa Selbst Head Final Six At WPT Borgata Poker Open

After battling through one of the largest tournaments in the history of the organization, the final six players were determined at the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City early on Friday morning.

36 players came to the felt on Thursday afternoon with the task of working down to the WPT six handed final table. At the start of the day, Cong Pham (Day 1A chip leader) had managed to work his way back to the top of the table, but there were a host of notable names looking to unseat him from that position. Vanessa Selbst, Raj Vohra, Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy, Richard Tatalovich and Matt Glantz were just a few of those contending and, as the cards hit the air, the players wasted little time getting down to business.

Selbst was the first to make a big move on the day, getting Jake Schwartz to call her on every street of a K-K-J-2-5 board. Once Schwartz had called a 500K bet on the river from Selbst, she unveiled a powerful A-K and, after mucking his hand, Selbst would rocket into the chip lead with 2.6 million chips and Schwartz would plummet to 1.08 million.

That lead would prove to be short lived as Zak Kottler decided to put his name into the mix. On a Q-5-2-8 flop and turn, Kottler would get David Johnston to push all in and was met with a welcomed call from Kottler. His stunning 8-5 had found two pair on the turn to catch up to Johnston’s K-Q and, when the river blanked with a seven, Kottler captured the remainder of Johnston’s chips to move over 3.8 million in chips and eliminate Johnston in 33rd place.

Pham now decided to get in on the action, dumping Joshua Gibson in 31st after a unique hand. On a Q-J-6 flop, Gibson pushed his chips to the center with only an open ended straight draw (K-10); Pham had a strong hold on the edge in the matchup, having flopped a set with his pocket Queens and maintained that edge when Kings came runner-runner on the turn and river. Although he hadn’t worked back to the lead, Pham was sitting nicely in second with 3.65 million in chips following the hand.

Pham would keep his foot on the gas, knocking out Edwin Torres in 30th place to crack the four million mark in chips and move back into the top slot. That chip stack would increase to nearly five million after a three way battle between Pham, Kottler and Dan Heimiller that resulted in Pham four-betting Kottler out of the pot on the flop. After he eliminated Schwartz in 21st place, Pham was sitting on a 6.1 million chip stack to once again hold the top slot on a leaderboard that had 14 players remaining as the contenders went to dinner.

It would take nearly seven hours for the tables to work their way from those 14 survivors to the unofficial nine handed final table. Tyler Gaston knocked off Heimiller (looking for his second consecutive WPT final table) in 13th place, but Pham was the one checking out from the field. He sat on 9.2 million chips after taking down a hand against Jeremy Kottler (the brother of Zak).

Selbst got a bit lucky against Gaston when, on a J♣ 8♣ 6♣ flop, she pushed all in. Gaston quickly made the call, turning up his K♣ K♦ for top pair with King high flush draw, and Selbst was drawing thin with her A♣ Q♥. An Ace came on the turn, however, to push Selbst into the lead and, after a blank river, found herself the new owner of 7.1 million in chips to hold second place.

Pham would eliminate Alex Rocha in 11th place after he hit a runner-runner diamond flush against Rocha’s flopped set of Kings and take a 10 million chip stack to the unofficial final table ahead of Selbst. It would take over two hours (and almost sixty hands) before Gaston would be the first to depart in tenth place. Josephy, who fought off the short stack for much of the day, would finally succumb in ninth place to Eric Fields. Once Tatalovich was knocked off in eighth by Selbst, there was only one more elimination left to go as the clock passed 2AM.

Another seven hands of play was what it took to set up today’s final table. After Kottler raised under the gun, Dan Howe decided to make his stand in moving his 1.7 million chips forward. Kottler nearly beat him into the pot, turning up a leading pair of Kings against Howe’s A-K. The board would run out ten high, ensuring Kottler’s pocket Kings were still good and sending Howe to the exit of the Borgata as the unfortunate television table “bubble boy.”

Seat 1: Eric Fields, 3.15 million
Seat 2: Anthony Zinno, 6.935 million
Seat 3: Vanessa Selbst, 7.91 million
Seat 4: David Randall, 3.52 million
Seat 5: Jeremy Kottler, 3.925 million
Seat 6: Cong Pham, 10.19 million

Pham has been an unstoppable force throughout this tournament and there are only two players, Zinno and Selbst (sitting beside each other might provide some fireworks), who might mount a charge against him. Don’t count out Kottler in the mix, however; if he can find some fortuitous cards early on, he might make a run up the ladder to contention.

The final table of the WPT Borgata Poker Open will take place at 3PM this afternoon and, by this evening, the latest champion on the World Poker Tour will be crowned. That winner will walk away with an $825,099 payday and the honor of joining the list of legends on the WPT Champions’ Cup.