$500 + $60 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)
The final nine players elected to turn a two-day tournament into a one-day marathon and in the end its Kevin McColgan (Douglassville, PA) who outlasted the field at the Borgata Fall Poker Open.
On the final hand
, McColgan beat Aaron Massey (Elmwood Park, IL) with 10
♥ 10♠ against A♠ K♣ to take the title, the trophy and the $25,462 top prize.
"This is great," said McColgan, who has a lot of respect for Massey. "He's really good," says McColgan. "We stayed out of each other's way most of the day until we got down to three."
And the feeling is mutual.
"He's a well deserving champion," said Massey. "He played really well. I'm happy with how I played, I made very few mistakes."
The only fly in the ointment for Massey and McColgan was Jay Jaffe (Morganville, NJ). He got multiple double-ups before McColgan knocked him out to set up the winning coin flip.
It looked like the tournament would bag and tag as planned at 2am, but a blitz of eliminations gave the players the option to conclude on Day 1.
One of the biggest hands came when chip leaders Al Wasserberger (Chicago, IL) and Elliott Zaydman (Glen Rock, NJ) collided in a 700k chip pot just after the final 18 made the money. Wasserberger cracked pocket kings with two pairs which left Zaydman with 1,500 chips and eventually an 18th place finish.
Wasserberger road the big stack to a fourth place finish, but gave way to McColgan who was the first player to crack the one million chip mark and he stayed there the rest of the way.
The day began with 175 entries for a total buy-in of $87,500.
Those making the money included WSOP bracelet holders Greg Ostrander (15th) and Shawn Busse (13th), along with Paul Vacchio (8th) who made his third final table of the series.
The decision to finish in one day was something that played to McColgan's strength.
"I can play for a long time," he said after 20 hours of poker, "The stacks are deep, I like to play a lot of small pots so that was good for my game."
Both Massey and McColgan will take some time off before gearing up for the Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship event which starts this weekend.
Final Table Results
1 Kevin McColgan (Douglassville, PA) $25,462
2 Aaron Massey (Elmwood Park, IL) $14,004
3 Jay Jaffe (Morganville, NJ) $8,063
4 Al Wasserberger (Chicago, IL) $6,790
5 Sam Akiki (Allendale, NJ) $5,093
6 James Tedrow (Youngwood, PA) $4,244
7 David Fried (Marlboro, NY) $3,395
8 Paul Vacchio (Inwood, NY) $2,546
9 Ari Engel (Las Vegas, NV) $1,910
10 Kori Hunter (Ellicott City, MD) $1,698
FINAL RESULTS