Atlantic City Weekly

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The Borgata Summer Poker Open is in the books and has a new champion.

And most of the things we usually say about the event have proven true again.

The Summer Open is still the “slowest” of the Borgata events, primarily because it’s held at the same time as The World Series of Poker in Vegas, which attracts not only the biggest names in poker, but a lot of players looking to make a name for themselves.

Still, while the Summer Open is the slowest of the five different Borgata opens, it’s not really all that slow in general.

The $2,500 + $200 tournament brought out 305 players, which is about average for the annual event. Of course that number includes some satellite winners and re-buys, but still, for that kind of buy-in, that’s a pretty decent turnout. The total buy-in was $762,500, easily outdistancing the event’s $500,000 guarantee.

The new champ, Melad Marji of Brigantine, also fits the bill for a Summer Open champ. He’s local, he’s an up-and-comer and he’s broken through with his first major win. 

The 23-year-old Marji added $198,078 to his previous about $40K in winnings and, as you might expect, said he was off to Vegas to play in the WSOP.

Michael Marder (Sewell, N.J.) came up short, finishing second for $110,044 after Marji flopped a pair of queens against his pocket sevens.

As for the rest of the open, several tournaments brought out the players. Here’s a look at the highlights with some help from the Borgata Poker Blog.

The first event of the Borgata Summer Poker Open was a $500 + $60 No Limit tournament with a little larger buy-in than usual for an opener. But the tournament attracted a big field of 769 and a total buy-in of $339,500. The winner was Yevgeni Rapoport of Brooklyn, who takes his first major cash.

Event 7, a $350 + $50 Deepstack, was a sleeper tournament, bringing out 749 entries and a $260,000 total buy-in. Jordan Ludwick (Cherry Hill, N.J.) got his first big Borgata payday with $58,443. Rapoport, the Event 1 winner was second for $34,000.

Event 12 shows the popularity of the Deepstack event. The $260 + $40 Deepstack tournament brought out 757 entries and a total buy-in of $197,000. Allen Mock (Manheim, Pa.) wins and claimed $44,295. Again, it’s the first major cash for Mock, showing that Borgata opens give all players a shot at the big time.

Event 19, another Deepstack, netted another big turnout. The $200 + $30 event attracted 746 entries and a total buy-in of $149,200. The winner was Cuong Phung, of Atlantic City, bringing his total winnings to over $290,000.

It may not be the WSOP, but the Borgata Summer Poker Open was pretty successful.

In some other news, we have yet another winner of the $1 Million jackpot at Caesars Three Card Poker 6 Card Bonus. This win came on Father’s Day, June 14, as Kathy Wayda (Southgate, Mich.) turned a $20 bet into $1 million. What’s more amazing is that an anonymous player hit the same jackpot three days earlier for $1 million. Four people have now hit this jackpot.

The way it works, with a slight extra bet, you win the million if your three cards and the dealer’s three cards create a Super Diamond Straight Flush to the nine (other suits pay $100,000).

This initially seemed like a longer shot than the lottery, but it just keeps hitting.

“There were three other people sitting down at my table and everybody wanted to see what was going on,” said Wayda. “When I saw all six cards, I thought, ‘I cannot believe this, this is impossible.’ It was just a great feeling.”

Apparently, it’s not as impossible as you might have thought.