WPT Borgata - Final Day

With the day off and nothing better to do (and, frankly, because I'm something of a poker-watching junkie), I bounced over to Atlantic City to see some World Poker Tour action.

The Borgata, you should know, isn't on the Atlantic City boardwalk. It's down in the Marina district just before the bridge that takes you into Brigantine. You walk in and it looks like every other casino in A.C., but it doesn't feel like every other casino in A.C.

The regular poker room is downstairs in the basement, but the new one when they finish the expansion next year will be more than two times the size of the original. The first day of the main event started down there, then moved up to the ballroom on the second floor for the final two days. Finding it was an adventure in itself -- I think I did two laps around the casino floor before spotting the escalators with the big WPT electronic banner above them.

I got upstairs to the ballroom and they were giving out numbered poker chips to get seats in the main theater at the final table. There was all sorts of WPT swag for sale, and I played a little bit of the new WPT video game from 2K Sports. The state Gambling Commission wasn't allowing them to run a live feed in the outer room, so they were putting it on delay.

Last year's winner, Daniel Negreanu, didn't make it past the first day this time around. Unlike, well, everyone else, the WPT plays all the way down to six players before going full-on with the cameras. Here were the final six with chip counts:

Seat 1: Robert "Action Bob" Hwang (Clark, NJ) $1,795,000 - Won the $1500 NLHE tourney in this event
Seat 2: David Singer (Mamoreck, NY) $3,200,000 - 9th place in the 2003 WSOP
Seat 3: Al Ardebili (Jersey City, NJ) $1,425,000 - 2 WSOP cashes in 2005
Seat 4: Kathy Liebert (Las Vegas, NV) $1,045,000 - Won WSOP bracelet in 2004; 2 WPT final tables
Seat 5: John D'Agostino (Egg Harbor, NJ) $2,295,000 - 6th place, 2004 U.S. Poker Championship; runner-up to Phil Ivey at Turning Stone in 2004 (the tourney Fox Sports Net showed live)
Seat 6: Ricardo Festejo (Margate, NJ) $540,000 - I... don't have anything.
(chip counts cribbed from pokerwire.com; other info courtesy The Hendon Mob Poker Database (it's amazing what you can find on the Net by accident)

They almost ended up with only five after the last hand on Wednesday night, but John, who was in position to knock two players out, lost the hand and only one man was eliminated.

The staging area took up more space than the USPC at the Taj Mahal did, but I think the actual table area was smaller. It was inside almost like a tent with weird and disorienting lighting everywhere. I was sitting in front of this one swinging mini-spotlight that kept crossing my field of vision and got annoying after a while.

I was surprised to see the commentary desk set up with Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten actually in it. They mostly just sit there and I'm not even sure if they were actually talking about the game or if they were just pretending to talk. They might have been rehashing their round of golf from the afternoon and no one would be the wiser. Most of their stuff is added in post-production anyway. Remembering the length of the session at the USPC last year, and knowing this year's WSOP final table took about 14 hours, I started feeling kind of bad for Mike and Vince. At least we can get up and leave.

The new hostess, Courtney Friel? Hot. I'll even go as far as to say UPGRADE. Some would disagree. Some did. But they're not here.

Something else to look for in the next season: they've added two black dome-like objects in the middle of the table that are actually cameras, to get close-in shots of the players' faces and reactions.

MAD SPOILERS AHEAD, DOG

Want a real writeup? Especially considering I showed up late? Click here. Otherwise...

7:25 p.m. - The first player I saw go all-in was Kathy. The entire audience jumped to its feet, which eliminated everybody's ability to see the floor monitors, so nobody could actually see the cards. John called, drawing an "Ooooooh!" from the crowd. Kathy had AQ against John's J-J, but flopped an ace to double up.

John raised a few hands later, and Robert went all in. John called. Both players turned up 9-9. They split the pot.

7:45 - Vince is already resorting to props. This could be a while.

7:55 - The blinds increase to $60k/$120k with $15,000 antes. Ricardo has made some big moves from the short stack and is over 2 million in chips now.

Al went all-in with A-J of clubs. Ricardo called with... A-J of diamonds. They ended up splitting the pot.

They took a TV break at 8:05. Kathy had some family and friends here and tried to get one of them to go down to the poker room's cafe and get her a sandwich. She seemed to be the most relaxed player at the table, chatting with her people between hands and showing her cards when she went in unchallenged.

8:20 - Al, with under a million chips, went all in with pocket 3s. David called and turned over J-9. Al hit a set on the flop and David paired his 9. The turn was a 10, giving David a straight draw, but the river was the fourth 3 and Al made quads. David went out in sixth place a few hands later when he couldn't improve from A-8 against Robert's 6s. The next three all-ins went uncalled.

8:55 - Kathy hurt John again when she went all-in with A8, flopped an ace, and turned two pair to beat his K-Q.

9:05 - Robert was taken down on two consecutive hands. First, Ricardo went all in with 5-5 on a board with 8s-4c-4s. Robert called with QJs but got no help. Then John raised all in with 10's and Bob called with 10-9. Flop was 9-8-J/8/4 and Robert was out in fifth.

Ricardo had nearly $5 million in chips at that point. Everyone else had around $2 million. Blinds moved to $100K/$200K with $20,000 antes.

9:19 - We may not have that long a night after all. John was eliminated in fourth when his flopped pair of queens got outkicked.

Another big hand came a few minutes later when Al's Q-Q held up against Ricardo's A-J after a 10 hit the flop and the turn brought a king. Kathy had deliberated over her cards in this hand for some time before folding what she later said was A-J.

9:35 - Kathy went out in third place (the highest finish ever for a woman in a WPT event, Sexton said afterwards) when AL paired the 10 in his Q-Ts on the flop and also picked up a flush draw to beat her A-7.

They took another break before going to heads-up where they "colored up" (restacked) the chips and got ready for the money presentation. They didn't reposition the players at opposite ends of the table or anything, which was a mild surprise. Sexton was out mingling with the commoners. We were suprised to find out that Al actually had a narrow chip lead at this point, since Ricardo was over $7 million when he busted John.

For the presentation, they had four "Borgata Babes" come dancing in and waving the (fake) money in the players' faces and tossing it around before a golf cart drove in with the pile o' bills. We were joking in the audience beforehand that they might not actually get to do it because it was conceivable that Ricardo could knock out both Kathy and Al on the same hand, that's how big his stack was. Would've been a shame, too... they had to have been practicing for, I'm sure, at least half an hour.

It's Mike Sexton's birthday! Happy birthday, Mike!

The first hand of heads-up, Ricardo took the chip lead back when he reraised all-in pre-flop after Al raised to 600,000.

10:11 p.m. - Whoa. I'm still stunned by what happened here. The board was 2-7-K with two spades and Al checked. Ricardo bet $1 million. Al moved all-in, and Ricardo thought about it for several minutes and called with A-2. Al turned over 2-3 (the guy next to me was convinced he'd checked a king) and found himself dominated.

Until a 3 came on the turn. Truly, it was the magic number. There was a major debate going on in my section of the audience as to whether it was a great read or a terrible call on Ricardo's part. I doubt they made a deal only because they wouldn't have had time... I don't even remember Ricardo leaving the table area during the color-up break.

The river was no help and Al took a huge lead. He'd win it all two hands later with Ace high and get nearly $1.5 million and a seat at the WPT Championship. Both Al and Ricardo won $300 satellites to get into the event, and when you consider Ricardo was basically two cards away from winning, that's damn impressive.

Everyone toasted afterwards with Budweiser Select, which comes in oversized bottles. Then they took some pictures of Al with the money and the bracelet and the commentators and his wife.

I'll tell you, at the beginning it looked like we were gonna be in for a long night. But the blinds jumping at the intervals that they did seemed to force the action a bit, and it was over in about five hours.