Joseph McKeehen was 18th in chips out of 27 returning players when Day 2 began at noon Wednesday. In the first hour of play, he took his 366,000 chips up to over 1.2 million. By the time they got to the final three, McKeehen had 7 million of the 14.25 million chips in play. In the end, he had all the chips, his first Borgata Open trophy, and the top prize of $30,963. Chris DeQuatro had to settle for second and $18,246.
The three-handed battle went on for three hours (not including the one hour dinner break they took). Despite starting with a significant lead, it was not an easy win for Joe McKeehen. Cornel Cimpan battled back from the short stack repeatedly. On his final hand, his chips went in with the best of it, A5 to K9. McKeehen made a straight on the river, however, to send Cimpan to the rail with third place and $10,505.
Cornel Cimpan has won two WPT Championships and has over $3.2 million in reported tournament earnings. When asked why he plays at Borgata, he replied "Best in the world...Good structures, a lot of people. The value is tremendous. Normally in smaller buy-in tournaments you don't have good structures. I'd only play these here."
McKeehen started heads-up play with a small lead, 7.8 to 6.4 million. The heads-up battle saw the lead go back and forth as the shorter stack kept doubling up. At one point Chris DeQuatro had a 12.8 million to 1.4 million chip lead, but McKeehen got three straight double-ups to prolong the match.
In the end, the blinds were 200k/400k, and it was an all-in shove-fest. On the final hand, McKeehen's pocket 8s held up against 54 suited to take the title. "I played pretty well," says runner-up DeQuatro, who recently left the Navy. "There were lots of flips at the end that determined it. I'm fine with the results."
Luis De La Cruz was the chip leader coming into Day 2, but he ran pocket pairs into AK twice and lost the flip both times. He finished 16th for $1,106.
The Deepest Stack event brought out 285 entries for total buy-ins of $114,000. The final 27 players earned a piece of the pie. The last woman in this event was Monica Dorenkamp, who finished 6th for $5,529. This is her second final table table here at Borgata.
Despite the belief that deep pockets rule in re-entry events, none of the top three finishers in this event entered more than once. In fact, Cornel Cimpan almost didn't make it at all. He was playing in day two of event 6 on Tuesday when this event began. He busted out in 56th place and barely made it to registration before it closed for event 7.
Joe McKeehen has two WSOP Circuit rings (one a Championship ring) and over $600,000 in reported tournament earnings. This is his first win at Borgata, despite a few near-misses. He has two prior seconds and one third place finish here. "I thought I played very well against a tough table" Joe McKeehen said. "I knew they wouldn't get it in bad. I had to get lucky 1 or 2 times, but I played well."
Final Table Results
1 - Joe McKeehen (North Wales, PA) $30,963
2 - Chris DeQuatro (Norfolk, VA) $18,246
3 - Cornel Cimpan (Las Vegas, NV) $10,505
4 - Jay Zimmet (Manalapan, NJ) $8,515
5 - Dan Walsh (Homedale, NJ) $6,635
6 - Monica Dorenkamp (New York, NY) $5,529
7 - Josh Supsak (Linwood, NJ) $4,423
8 - Rob Hanes (Odessa, TX) $3,317
9 - Guy Maxtone-Graham (New York, NY) $2,212
10 - Todd Michael (Lancaster, PA) $1,438
FINAL RESULTS
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