Gavin Griffin Wins the 2008 Borgata Poker Classic
Friday, 1 February 2008
Gavin Griffin has made a little piece of poker history in winning
the WPT Borgata Poker Classic. Recognised by many in the poker
industry as one of the game’s rising stars, Griffin is the first
player to have now won titles on the World Poker Tour an
Gavin Griffin has made a little piece of poker history in winning
the WPT Borgata Poker Classic. Recognised by many in the poker
industry as one of the game’s rising stars, Griffin is the first
player to have now won titles on the World Poker Tour and European
Tour, as well as at the World Series of Poker. He also managed to
break the Bluff Europe voodoo of our tips to win finishing second.
Good work that man!
The chip counts at the start of play looked like this:
Seat 1: Lee Watkinson - 387,000
Seat 2: Noah “fourUhaters” Schwartz - 1,313,000
Seat 3: Ervin Prifti - 289,000
Seat 4: Gavin Griffin - 5,105,000
Seat 5: Thomas Hare - 2,851,000
Seat 6: David Tran - 5,271,000
The action got started early when short-stacked Ervin Prifti
reraised all in after David Tran opened the pot for 120,000 from
under the gun. Tran called the bet with Ah-Kc which had Prifti’s
Ks-Qd dominated. The board bricked out to knock Prifti out in sixth
place.
Lee Watkinson was the one player which no-one wanted to double
up. Starting the day as one of the short-stacks meant that the
FullTilt pro would be looking for the soonest chance to do just
that. On Hand 13 he got his wish when he doubled up through Noah
Schwartz. Schwartz was to get his revenge six hands later though
after he knocked Watkinson out. Watkinson found pocket sevens and
it was a battle of the pocket pairs after he was called by
Schwartz. Sadly for Watkinson, he had given Schwartz’s pocket
eights a 4-to-1 headstart, and Watkinson wasn’t able to improve,
heading to the rail in fifth.
The next phase of the tournament saw Thomas Hare make his move
towards the title. He managed to double up through Griffin, evening
out stacks between the three players who were chasing Tran’s chip
lead. Tran managed to pull away further still after he won a 2.1
million pot from Griffin, before he then sent Schwartz packing.
Raising out of the small blind with KQo, Schwartz moved all in
from the big blind with pocket nines. Tran eventually called, and
he won the race when the doorcard was a King. Schwartz was
eliminated in fourth place, earning $331,958.
Down to the last three, and the tournament was all about how
anyone would catch Tran, who had lead from wire to wire. It was
Gavin Griffin who landed the haymaker, crippling Thomas Hare after
nineteen hands of three-handed play. Griffin doubled through Hare,
which in turn left Thomas with just over half a million chips. The
next hand Griffin snuffed out any hopes of a come back when Hare
moved in with K-3o to be called by Griffin’s dominating K-Qo. Hare
couldn’t catch a three, and ended up cashing $381,137 for his third
place finish.
Going into the heads-up battle, Tran still had the chip
lead:
David Tran – 8,695,000
Gavin Griffin – 6,520,000
Griffin managed to seize the chip lead from Tran for the first
time in the tournament after only three hands. The EPT Grand Final
winner put some serious heat on Tran, moving all in on the turn
when the board read 6d-3d-3h-Tc. After Tran was forced to lay down
his hand, Griffin took in a 4.2 million pot and with it inherited
the chip lead.
After a few more hands, Tran was proving to be incredibly
resilient, and regained the chip lead. Then a massive pot of 13
million brewed after the two went racing with Griffin’s A-Q versus
Tran’s 9-9. The queen peeled off on the flop, and Tran was
crippled. This didn’t stop him though, and after doubling up twice,
he begane to lurch back into contention with 4.7 million or so in
the stack.
Eventually Griffin got his man. After a big hand shortly before
where Griffin left Tran with only 800,000 those chips ended up in
the middle with Tran holding Ks-8s to Griffin’s Qs-Jc. The flop
gave Griffin a gutshot as well as being able to win with any queen
or any jack, but when the queen came on the turn it left Tran
drawing to one of the three kings. The harmless Td fell on the
river, giving Griffin the trifecta of titles and a first place
prize of $1,401,109.
Congratulations to Griffin for surviving the dreaded vote of
confidence from those here at Bluff Europe as well!