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WHEN: September 19th-24th
WHERE: Borgata Hotel and Casino, Atlantic City
BUY-IN: $3,500
Entrants: 1,018
1st PRIZE: $925,514
Whether it is was Kenna James’ rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at the opening ceremony or the arctic style air-conditioning we’ll never know but something had definitely riled a few players at this year’s Borgata Poker Open.
Threats of violence and aggressive betting characterised the early stages of an event which saw over 1,000 players battle it out for over $3 million in prize money. Many of the game’s famous faces were in attendance, including Gavin Smith, J.C. Tran and Kathy Liebert, but it was an internet whiz kid who made one of the greatest comebacks in WPT history to take it down.
Olivier Busquet, who is probably best known as online sit-and-go shark “livb112”, overturned a 10-1 chip deficit to claim his first WPT title and over $900,000 in prize money. His heads-up battle with Jeremy Brown produced some breathtaking poker and a hand that easily rivals the now infamous Monte Carlo Millions ‘Phil Ivey vs. Paul Jackson’ hand (see KEY HAND).
The Battle of Busquet and Brown
After Kenny Nguyen and Keith Crowder had exited in 5th and 6th place respectively the final table quickly became the Brown and Busquet show. Busquet in particular began to boss the action and demonstrated why he is one of the most feared high stakes sit-and-go players in the world. Yanick Brodeur and Ivan Mamuzic offered some resistance but a final heads-up showdown between Brown and Busquet looked inevitable from the start.
Olivier Busquet was sure to make his Sit&Go prowess tell, so Jeremy Brown was going to need all of the 10-1 chip advantage to claim a victory. A little bit of Dutch courage certainly took away any feelings of nerves that Brown might have had and between a few shots of Patron he managed to bully Busquet down to just 1.8 million chips. Many players would have chucked in the towel at that point but when you’re a heads-up god and the player sitting across from you is getting more and more inebriated the chances are that you can turn things around.
Sure enough the mighty “livb112” managed to double his stack when he moved all-in on a 6s, 5d, 3c, 3d board holding pocket queens and was called by Brown holding the 9d-7d. The river was a brick and Busquet’s comeback was on. The final hand came soon after when Brown’s open-ended straight draw couldn’t catch Busquet’s flopped trips. Busquet had done the unthinkable and overcome a 10-1 chip deficit to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and become a WPT champion.
Final Table Action
Coming in, or, more accurately, going out, in 10th was Full Tilt-sponsored pro Steve Brecher. After a blind versus blind confrontation he exited the tournament $40,000 richer.
He may have came out of the blocks like a bullet but Ray Henson couldn’t find enough steam to make it to the final table and eventually burnt out in 9th place. The young American had been riding the crest of a wave throughout his four days of play but his race was eventually over when his Big Slick couldn’t catch up with Olivier Busquet’s pocket queens.
Crashing out in eighth place was Eric Blair. Following a raise and re-raise in front of him, Blair put in his chips with pocket aces and found Olivier with A-K. Predictably the worst happened and Blair was left crying all the way to the cage to pick up his $87,000 compensation.
Pulling a “seventhbok” and leaving the tournament as the TV table bubble boy was Michael Brown. He won $117,500 for his efforts but lost the chance to show off his poker skills to friends and family on the tube.
Making up the final six and gunning for a WPT title were the poker powerhouses that were: Ivan Mamuzic, Kenny “Super Tuan” Nguyen, Olivier “livb112” Busquet, Jeremy Brown, Keith Crowder and online pro Yanick “Brody_Boy” Brodeur.
Final Table Payouts
1st Olivier Busquet - $925,514
2nd Jeremy Brown - $435,519
3rd Ivan Mamuzic - $251,955
4th Yanick Brodeur - $216,681
5th Keith Crowder - $188,126
6th Kenny Nguyen - $156,212 |
