Cong Almost King in Borgata
Friday, 20 September 2013
The penultimate day of this season's WPT Borgata Poker Open came to a conclusion late last night and after the betting had finished it was Cong Pham who was left standing in the spotlight. As the lights went down across the tournament floor, Pham's stack stood the proudest amongst the day's seven survivors.
Having started the session with the chip lead it didn't take long for Pham to dominate proceedings and as field dropped from 36 to six he was able to bag 10,190,000 chips. That haul was more than enough to top the daily leaderboard, but when the final table kicks off later today Pham won't have things all his own way.
Indeed, following hot on the heels of Pham when things get underway will be Vanessa Selbst (7,910,000), Anthony Zinno (6,935,000) and David Randall (3,520,000). Of the surviving six it will be Jeremy Kottler who starts the finale with the most confidence after securing the defining elimination of Day 4.
After raising from under-the-gun with pocket kings, Kottler was more than happy to call Dan Howe's desperate all-in. With Howe at risk he flipped over Ah Kd and despite having a glimmer of hope pre-flop, it was Kottler's kings that swerved any bad luck as the board ran out: Ts 5d 2s 5s 9s.
With Howe heading for the rail to collect his $132,615 consolation prize, Kottler was able to bag 3,925,000 chips as the session was brought to a close.
Today's final battle will be filmed for TV and when the action stops one jut one player will be left posing for the cameras with the WPT Borgata Poker Open trophy and a cheque for $825,099.
$3,500 WPT Borgata Poker Open Final Table Chip Counts:
1 Cong Pham 10,190,000
2 Vanessa Selbst 7,910,000
3 Anthony Zinno 6,935,000
4 Jeremy Kottler 3,925,000
5 David Randall 3,520,000
6 Eric Fields 3,150,000