The WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event was completed last night after the original field of 1,132 entries was reduced to just a single person. That lucky player was Guo Liang Chen. He earned $789,058 for his efforts and saw his name engraved on the WPT Champions Cup.
Chen emerged victorious after a tough final day of play. However, in the end it was all worth it. The player told WPT interviewers shortly after he took down the prestigious event that he had faith in himself and that helped him much. Yet, Chen admitted that cards and luck also went his way at key moments throughout the event.
Prior to last night’s triumph, the player had a little over $40,000 in live tournament earnings. Most of the money had come from tournaments he had played namely at the Borgata, the emblematic Atlantic City casino that hosted the Borgata Poker Open festival.
Final Day Action and Chen’s Performance
The Main Event’s final table was set to be played on Friday at the host venue, which meant that play resumed with the six finalists. Chen was fifth in chips at the time cards were thrown in the air. The player was forced into the uncomfortable position of the short stack only several hands after six-handed play kicked off.
He managed to double up and recover quickly. However, the player found himself to be the short stack on one more occasion. Once again, Chen maneuvered through the hands to save himself from elimination.
The player made it to heads-up, which he entered at disadvantage. Chen had 12.45 million in chips at that point against Gregory Weber’s (his last opponent) 21.425 million. That did not deter Chen from his goal to eventually lift the trophy and scoop the first-place prize. The final two-handed match was a difficult one for both players. Chips went back and forth for some time.
Chen eventually gained great momentum by picking up a big bluff by his opponent and depriving him of a big chunk of his stack. There were twelve more hands played within the two-handed battle after that and the eventual champion won most of them.
Hand #182 turned out to be the final one dealt. Weber entered it by shoving for his last 5.05 million. Chen gave it a moment of thought and then called, tabling [Ah][Kd] to his opponent’s [Kh][9s]. A blank [7s][5h][4s][3c][Qh] board locked the victory for Chen. As for Weber, he hit the rail in second place for a consolation prize of $471,059.
As mentioned above, Chen added $789,058 to his poker bankroll. He also secured a seat into the season-ending Tournament of Champions, a WPT Champions and Borgata Poker Open trophies, and a Hublot watch.
Jia Liu, who finished third for $288,071, Matt Parry, who took home $240,965 for his fourth place, Cliff Jopsephy, who took fifth place for $199,294, and Thomas Paul, who finished sixth for $161,247, were the other four players to round out the final table of the 2017 WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event.
