Event 14 (Day 1)
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round of 8
Steven Cohen spent 12 hours playing through three rounds of the FPO Heads Up Championship. He’ll return tomorrow at 12 PM to play for the title.
While the Event 13 Final Table is playing down to completion and on a quick 10 minute break, the final Round of 16 matchup of the Heads Up Championship finally came to an end.
Steven Cohen and Joseph Stiers were battling against each other since even before this Final Table even came together, and it looked to be over as Cohen held a 1-0 advantage and then a sizable chip lead in Game 2.
But Stiers would claw back to even and then win Game 2, before Cohen locked up the Event 14 cash by winning the third and deciding game.
Cohen has had a long day, nearly 12 hours of straight heads up play, as all three of his match ups went the full three games.
A long day, but worth it, as mentioned earlier, Cohen and the other seven players coming back tomorrow, will all be in the money with a $1,552 score locked up.
There is $12,416 prize up top, plus the bragging rights of being the FPO Heads Up Champion.
The defending Heads Up Champion and runner up are both alive, as is Sean Wallace, who is notching his first Borgata score over the last few Borgata Poker Opens.
The Elite 8 match ups are as follows:
Steven Sarmiento vs. Sean Wallace
Chinmay Patel vs. Steven Cohen
Justin Adams vs. Joe McKeehen
Daniel Jordan vs. Travis Greenawalt
Play will resume at 12 PM, and be held in the Signature Room.
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 32
While the Shahade v. Beirer match (well marathon) continues on, we can bring you the rest of the Round of 32 matches, all of which are already in progress:
Joe Lapinta v. Brian O’Donoghue
Raj Patel v. Steven Sarmiento
Sean Wallace v. Cathy Dever
Jonathan Borenstein v. She Lok Wong
Paul Cassano v. Joseph Stiers
Chinmay Patel v. Ching To Poon
Kevin Buro v. Joseph Stiers
Steven Cohen v. Eugene Zaslavsky
Stephen Jones v. Justin Adams
Michael Haberman v. Scott Blackman
Alex Queen v. Jaime Kerstetter
Aditya Prasetyo v. Joseph McKeehen
Maksim Serebrinskiy v. Daniel Jordan
Michael Cannon v. Howie Jackowitz
Travis Greenawalt v. Michael Melkersen
Shahade/Beirer v. Nicholas Kefaliakos
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
Jonathan Borenstein already has some return on his Event 14 entry fee, after winning a “last longer” bet against Trevor Deeter.
There is no purer form of “competition” than one-on-one anything.
The same can be said about poker, as while the Event 14 Heads Up Championship might be full of players that are friendly with one another, they are all here for one reason, to prove that they are the best in what some people call, “the purest form of poker”.
In heads up play, you’re playing the man maybe more so than the cards, and for Jonathan Borenstein (Teaneck, NJ) he came into the day looking to take down his first opponent, which he did, but also take down Trevor Deeter.
“Borenstein and Deeter are on opposite sides of the bracket, what are you talking about?” you may ask…
What I’m talking about is the ever popular “last longer” bet that we assume many players have waged against other players for this exact tournament.
While Borenstein was a little more public, due to a “couple” adult beverages, than most players would be about their “last longer” bet during last night’s Event 11 Final Table, as they were both there sweating their friends, he had one with Deeter none the less and managed to win it when Trevor could not make it past Michael Cannon in the first round.
Borenstein did nothing to actually “win” the bet, that was all Cannon, he is getting a small return on his investment already, even before the money round kick in.
After getting through the first round unharmed, he is now onto his second round match-up, and up 1-0 on She Lok Wong.
With the “last longer” in the rearview, he’ll now have his eyes set on the real prize, the Event 14 Heads Up Championship trophy.
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
Michael Haberman’s pocket Queens send Jeff Coon to the rail and onto his Round of 32 matchup with Steve Blackman.
We walked over just in time to see Jeffery Coon calling the all-in three bet of Mike Haberman (Brick, NJ), with Haberman having Coon at risk and dominated, as he held {Qs}{Qd} to Coon’s {Ah}{2h}.
Coon flopped his low pair and turned a straight draw, but was unable to find any help on the river and knocked out in the first round of this Heads-Up Championship.
Haberman barely had time to congratulate himself, as Scott Blackman his Round of 32 opponent was waiting at the table, and their matchup is already underway.
Haberman, who has been playing for over four hours now, will have to hit the reset button and prepare for another grueling heads up matchup against the talented Blackman.
With the elimination of Koon, there is only one first round match-up that has yet to be decided, that being the Shahade v. Beier Round of 64 encounter.
We will now pick that pairing up in the 3rd and final game of this best-of-three match up.
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
Jennifer Shahade (Philadelphia, PA)
Only a few moments after posting an update in regards to the Wertz v. Adams match, Adams was able to turn around a game three deficit to win the match. The end of that game would leave the first round with two matchups without a winner, including the Coon v. Haberman tilt and the Shahade v. Beier battle. Both of those matchups are tied at 1-1, now pushing four hours since the cards first got in the air. Here are the updated first round results since last posted:
Justin Adams def. Joseph Wertz
She Lok Wong def. Gregory Whiting
Eugene Zaslavsky def. Gary Konvelski
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
Joseph Wertz (Absecon, NJ)
There are five matches still active from the first round, one of which is the Wertz v. Adams matchup. The two are tied 1-1 in games, with Wertz just doubling up Adams to even up the playing field once again in game three. Wertz was in good shape to close the match with {10c} {10d} against the {jd} {9s} of Adams, but a jack on the river would give Justin new life and continue the battle. Here are the results from matches finished since we last updated:
Chinmay Patel def. William Pappas
Michael Cannon def. Trevor Deeter
Aditya Prasetyo def. David Henry
Alex Queen def. Aaron Mermelstein
Stephen Jones def. Michael Somma
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
In what became one of the more popular matches of the first round, Jaime Kerstetter has just defeated Greg Himmelbrand, as a small rail watched on. With the match 1-1 in a matter of (20) minutes, the third game was going on close to two hours before a winner was determined. After being chipped down below 8,000, Himmelbrand got his stack in pre-flop, hoping to win what would be a critical flip:
Kerstetter: {ah} {8h}
Himmelbrand: {3d} {3c}
Flop: {9d} {jc} {8c}
Turn: {6d}
River: {10c}
“You don’t race very well,” someone on the rail said to Himmelbrand, who replied with just a smile. Jaime awaits the winner of the Queen v. Mermelstein match, which is still 1-1 in the third game. Here are the other results that have been recorded from the first round:
Howie Jackowitz def. Michael Marder
Steven Sarmiento def. Lucas Picking
Travis Greenawalt def. Daniel Dizenzo
Sean Wallace def. Scott Blumstein
Steven Cohen def. Henry Pagliuca
Joe Lapinta def. Joseph Galazzo
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
Sean Wallace (Horsham, PA)
There are some notables matches that are tied 1-1, making for dramatic final games between Himmelbrand v. Kerstetter, Queen v. Mermelstein, Lok Wong v. Whiting, and Wallace v. Blumstein. Here are the other results from the first round that finished since we last updated:
Brian O’Donoghue def. John Delio
Scott Blackman def. Mikhail Volfson
Joseph Stiers def. Sergio Vigano
Michael Melksersen def. Philip Nieman
Jonathan Borenstein def. Satish Gorrela
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
Sergio Vigano (Brigantine, NJ)
Our Event 10 champion from the Borgata Poker Open has found himself in a 1-0 deficit against Joseph Stiers, and will need to win the next two games in order to advance. It’s an interesting matchup of two players whose lives were changed in the matter of one poker tournament. Vigano was victorious in Event 10 ($350 NLH $1,000,000 Guaranteed) during September’s BPO ($168,875), while Stiers won the opening event of the 2013 Borgata Winter Poker Open ($318,104).
Our most recent results are as followed, including what has to be the tournament’s first upset, as a relatively unknown name takes down Ari Engel:
Joseph McKeehen def. Thomas Savitsky
Kevin Buro def. Russell Clayton
Tai Yuen def. Matthew Kerewski
Nicholas Kefaliakos def. Ari Engel
Event 14 – $500 Heads-Up
Round Of 64
We saw Daniel Jordan standing up and shaking hands with Anthony Garofalo, which didn’t give us much insight to the winner or loser of the match, but it was clear that things were done between the two. Jordan came through with a strong performance to eliminate Garofalo in the first round, sweeping 2-0 to move on to the Round of 32.
Daniel Jordan is the only player to already know his second round opponent, as Maksim Serebrinsky gets past Michael Renzulli in 2-0 fashion as well. The first game of the Jackowitz v. Marder tilt finished moments ago, with Jackowitz grabbing a 1-0. Both players have exited the Signature Room for a quick break before returning to game number two. The three other matches to have finished include:
Raj Patel def. Tom Dobrilovic
Cathy Dever def. William Hart
Ching To Poon def. Drew Johnson
We were able to grab a Tweet from Anthony Garofalo, who was very classy in defeat:
Lost 2-0 to @DanJordanMTG good luck in the rest of your matches
— Anthony Garofalo (@thegoonch219) November 13, 2014