"ClarkWesterfeld" has become the newest champion in the Borgata Spring Poker Open Online Series, topping a field of 162 entries in the $215 buy-in Event #7: $20,000 GTD NLH. The tournament generated a prize pool of $32,400, well surpassing the guarantee and paying out a first-place prize of $8,424 after just shy of six hours of play.

The action started slow due to the deep-stacked nature of the event, but the registration period remained open for three hours and the entries, eliminations, and re-entries all piled up as that time went by. Forty players remained during the penultimate level of late registration, but that number dropped to 30 by the time registration closed despite the field gaining just six entries over that timeframe.

Eighteen players would make it into the money, and it took a half-hour before the bubble was reached. Hand-for-hand play began with 20 remaining, and Ari “spinach_kale” Engel found himself bowing out in 20th before "IIIIIIIIIIII" was eliminated on the direct bubble by "smoothustler."

In the Money

Eliminations came steadily at first once play reached the money, with an elimination every five to seven minutes over a 20-minute span before the field went from 14 to 10 in the blink of an eye. as "JinYang" (14th place) and "thehebrewhammer" (13th place) were knocked out almost simultaneously with "odo23" (12th place) and "SugarJ" (11th place) following suit immediately thereafter in the same fashion.

The final table bubble then lasted more than a full level, with "ClarkWesterfeld" atop the counts at that time. "golden13" wound up being the odd person out after running pocket eights into the pocket jacks eventual eighth-place finisher "sri50k", and the final table was set.

Final Table Action

"IReadYrSoul" was the first to go at the final table after getting all in with king-queen and being unable to hold to the king-seven suited of eventual second-place finisher "rumpthumper." Not long after, "sri50k" found themselves short after doubling "Djp120388" (3rd place), and ran queen-jack into the pocket aces of "PompYouUp" (6th place) to finish in eighth place.

Seven players quickly became four as "smoothustler" (7th place), "PompYouUp" (6th place), and "MattEMenz" (5th place) all hit the rail within an orbit's time, all being eliminated via a different type of cooler.

"ClarkWesterfeld" quickly pulled away when four-handed play began, amassing over half the chips in play within a level's time. The deck stayed in their favor as they scored all three remaining eliminations in the tournament: they knocked out "Djp120388" with king-nine to ace-king and then had pocket jacks hold versus the king-ten of "Turkeyleg" to take the tournament heads up.

The heads-up match lasted for about two-thirds of a level before stacks found their way in on the turn after "ClarkWesterfeld" turned the nut straight, topping "rumpthumper's" turned two pair to put an exclamation mark on the victory in dramatic fashion.

Event #7 Final Table Results

In Level 32 with blinds of 40,000/80,000 and an ante of 10,000, "ClarkWesterfeld" completed the small blind and "rumpthumper" checked their option from the big blind.

The flop was and "rumpthumper" check-called a bet of 110,000 from "ClarkWesterfeld."

The turn came and "rumpthumper" checked a second time. "ClarkWesterfeld" kept on the attack with another bet, this time for 350,000. "rumpthumper" took a few moments to think and then check-raised all in for around 2.1 million. "ClarkWesterfeld" immediately called.

"rumpthumper":
"ClarkWesterfeld":

Both players improved on the turn, with "rumpthumper' turning two pair that left them needing to hit a four outer to stay alive as "ClarkWesterfeld" had improved to the nuts after hitting a straight. The river paired the board, but it was not one of the two pairs that "rumpthumper" needed to stay alive and they were eliminated in second place, taking home a prize of $5,832 for their efforts.

Meanwhile, "ClarkWesterfeld" has taken down the tournament and earned the first-place prize of $8,424 to go along with it. A recap of the tournament will be posted shortly.

As the last seconds expired in Level 31 with blinds at 35,000/70,000 and an ante of 8,750, "Turkeyleg" ripped in their last 875,000 or so on the button. "ClarkWesterfeld" then reraised all in out of the small blind to prompt a fold from "rumpthumper," who was in the big blind.

"Turkeyleg":
"ClarkWesterfeld":

"Turkeyleg" picked up a ten on the flop but that's all they would find as the board ran out to leave "ClarkWesterfeld's" jacks best and take the tournament heads up as "Turkeyleg" finished in third place for a payday of $3,888.

Player	Chips	Progress
ClarkWesterfeld	6,396,289 6,396,289	6,396,289
rumpthumper	1,703,711 -262,500	-262,500
Turkeyleg	Busted

Blinds were 35,000/70,000 with an ante of 8,750 in Level 31 and "ClarkWesterfeld" opened to 175,000 in the cutoff. "Djp120388" three-bet jammed for around 750,000 and "ClarkWesterfeld" called.

"Djp120388":
"ClarkWesterfeld":

Although "Djp120388" was ahead to begin, things would not stay that way for long as the flop fell to put "ClarkWesterfeld" out in front with a pair of nines. Nothing changed from there as the turn and river left "ClarkWesterfeld's" nines good over the ace-king high of "Djp120388," and they were eliminated from the tournament in fourth place.

Player	Chips	Progress
ClarkWesterfeld	5,234,233 5,234,233	5,234,233
Djp120388	Busted

Play was in Level 29 with blinds at 25,000/50,000 and an ante of 6,250 when "MattEMenz" found himself all in preflop for his tournament life from the big blind against "ClarkWesterfeld," who was in the hijack.

"MattEMenz":
"ClarkWesterfeld":

"MattEMenz" was unable to find help on the runout and became the fifth-place finisher.

Stacks then fluctuated a bit over the last few minutes leading to a five-minute break, and current stacks have been provided with play resuming in a moment.

Player	Chips	Progress
Turkeyleg	2,609,556 1,088,744	1,088,744
ClarkWesterfeld	2,312,908 2,312,908	2,312,908
rumpthumper	2,194,336 593,750	593,750
Djp120388	983,200 -1,040,556	-1,040,556
MattEMenz	Busted