The Borgata Winter Poker Open is finally coming to an end after 16 days, 30 trophy events, and a wild Main Event. Though Day 2 of the Monster Mirror Mystery Bounty is still on the cards today, the premier event of the series, the Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event, came to an end last night. NJ is home to some of the best online poker in the world and the east coast showcase did not disappoint.
In unusual fashion, the event crowned co-champions as Nguyen Le and Joseph Neiman each took home over $400,000 in a deal that followed two hours of heads-up play. This is generally not how poker tournaments work.
Le had the slightly larger stack and pocketed $425,000 while Neiman, 1982 Champion of the World Amateur Backgammon Championship, will add $406,791 to his Hendon Mob, about 150% of his previous earnings combined.
Neiman will officially be labeled the tournament champion after some blind all-ins. Each player will receive a trophy and even took winner’s photos together to mark the unusual occasion.
While Neiman considers this to be the second-coolest moment of his gaming career, Le, who many saw playing the PokerGo Last Chance series, was thrilled to cash for such a career-high prize. In a brief interview with Poker.Org, he said he plans to “play more poker, probably go to Florida to play, and then Vegas.”
The $3,500 Borgata Winter Poker Open brought out a wide array of players, from seasoned pros to whales with a lot of money who happen to know how to play Texas Hold’em. In the end, the $2,000,000 guarantee was smashed, with 932 entries over two flights creating a massive $2,884,540 prize pool, which was shared by the top 119 finishers.
There were plenty of big names in the field that enjoyed deep runs but none bigger than Ryan Depaulo and Kitty Kuo. The online bracelet winner, who famously won his bracelet in a parking lot, recorded the fourth-largest score of his career, finishing in 9th place for $41,315.
Kuo, who had a massive stack for a majority of the time late in the tournament, finished 8th for $51,919, her largest score since her career-best 4th place finish in the $5,300 No Limit Hold’em SHRPO Championship in August 2023, which netted her a whopping $480,763.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Joseph Neiman | $406,791* |
| 2nd | Nguyen Le | $425,000* |
| 3rd | Clemen Deng | $233,882 |
| 4th | Philip Saracino | $153,430 |
| 5th | Dorian Rios | $105,691 |
| 6th | Sal Evola | $82,033 |
| 7th | Thomas McNicholas | $65,053 |
| 8th | Kitty Kuo | $51,919 |
| 9th | Ryan DePaulo | $41,315 |