Stunning many in attendance at the eponymous casino in Atlantic City, NJ, last night, former “November Niner” Jesse Sylvia defied the odds by coming from the short stack in winning his first major championship, the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open.
The man who was the runner-up to Greg Merson in the 2012 World Series of Poker Championship Event, Sylvia had never won a major tournament championship prior to arriving at the final table yesterday afternoon. It honestly didn’t look as if it would be this event either as Farid Jattin came in with more chips (15.735 million) than the other five competitors combined. For his part, Sylvia was the short stack (with 3.035 million), looking up at Simon Lam (3.23 million), Chris Limo (3.46 million), Taha Maruf (4.405 million) and Zach Gruneberg (5.39 million).
Jattin had great cards and played them for the rush on Thursday to get the lead, but that rush seemed to desert him on Friday afternoon. He tried to eliminate Sylvia on Hand 7 (along with Lam) but the duo’s pair of Big Slicks’ couldn’t catch up with Sylvia’s pocket fours on a ten-high board to give Sylvia a big triple up to over seven million chips. As the early action wore on, Jattin’s “sheriff” actions let more chips slide from his stack than add to his riches.
Then came Hand 17, the beginning of the end for Jattin. Jattin would raise the action off the button and Gruneberg defended his big blind to see a Q-7-3. Gruneberg would check-call a 330K bet from Jattin and, after a deuce on the turn, Gruneberg sprung a check-raise that Jattin called. When a Jack came on the river, Gruneberg fired out for the first time. Jattin didn’t believe him as he immediately made the call but, just as quickly, Jattin fired his cards to the muck when Gruneberg showed pocket sevens for the flopped set to take the pot and the chip lead.
Five hands later, Jattin took another severe hit. After a Limo raise, Jattin three-bet the action out of the small blind and Sylvia pushed out a four-bet of 2.375 million. Limo didn’t waste any time getting out of the way, but Jattin pushed all in to put Sylvia at risk for elimination. Sylvia made the call and showed an off suit A-K while Jattin could only muster an off suit 5-4 for the battle.
An Ace on the flop was good for Sylvia, but a trey gave Jattin a draw at the wheel. A Queen on the turn brought a Broadway draw for the still-leading Sylvia and the Jack on the river sealed the hand for Sylvia, which catapulted him over the 13 million chip mark and into the chip lead. Jattin, meanwhile, had gone from the “penthouse to the outhouse” in a mere five hands as he sat with only 1.26 million chips. Jattin would become the first elimination in sixth place only four hands later, his pocket eights failing to catch Gruneberg’s pocket Aces on Hand 26.
With Jattin’s chips split fairly evenly between Sylvia and Gruneberg, it now became a battle of who could challenge them for the title. The answer was no one; Limo would try to make a move, but he ran into a set of sevens from Sylvia and departed in fifth place. Gruneberg knocked off Lam and Maruf in fourth and third places (respectively) to bring the match to heads up play after only 46 hands of action, with Sylvia and Gruneberg basically even (100K chips separated them).
Over 43 hands of play, Sylvia maintained a lead, but it wasn’t a dominant one by any stretch. In fact, on Hand 91 Gruneberg was able to take over the lead by about 1.6 million chips. The man known as ‘HustlerGrune’ online actually tried to put away Sylvia on Hand 97, but it would not go his way. On a K♥ 8♠ 5♠ Q♥ 9♥ board, Gruneberg called a huge bet out of Sylvia and was dismayed to see that Sylvia had played an unlikely J♥ 2♥ for the flush. Sending his cards to the muck, Gruneberg saw the 18.5 million chip pot and the tournament lead shipped over to Sylvia.
Gruneberg would never recover from the setback. It would take almost 30 hands for the end to come but, with his tournament life on the line holding an A-2 against Sylvia’s J♥ 4♥, Gruneberg would only see a Jack on the flop and no help at all for his Ace, sending the championship to Sylvia in an exciting series of events.
1. Jesse Sylvia, $821,811
2. Zach Gruneberg, $490,617
3. Taha Maruf, $300,031
4. Simon Lam, $250,970
5. Chris Limo, $207,569
6. Farid Jattin, $167,942
