After hovering around the top of the leaderboard for the past two days, poker professional David Paredes made his big breakthrough in taking down his first major tournament poker championship in winning the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City late Friday night.
Paredes, who held the Day 3 chip lead earlier this week, came to the final table in the middle of the pack. Sitting behind James Gilbert (the chip leader with 9.65 million chips) and fellow pro Maurice Hawkins (7 million) with his 5.625 million stack, Paredes had the edge over the other three competitors in Joe Kuether (3.77 million), Jerry Payne (3.025 milloin) and Roman Valerstein (2.155 million). The men making up the final table, while not household names, definitely had the chops to be sitting in their chairs; each man could count at least six-figures in career tournament poker earnings, with Kuether’s $4.3 million leading the sextet.
The table spent the first couple of hours shifting chips around before an elimination would be made. Never able to get anything going, Valerstein was the unfortunate individual who would take the walk from the WPT stage after he moved all in pre-flop and Gilbert decided to look him up. Valerstein’s K-10 was able to pick up a gutshot straight draw against Gilbert’s A-Q on the 8-7-6 flop, but a four on the turn and a Jack on the river didn’t bring what Valerstein was looking for as he departed in sixth place.
Valerstein’s departure didn’t exactly loosen up the remaining players as it took another 30-plus hands before the next elimination was made. Once again it was a pre-flop move, this time from Payne, who was called by Gilbert again. Gilbert once again had the edge with his pocket Jacks against Payne’s K-9 offsuit and, once again as had happened in the previous knockout, Payne caught the chance of a gutshot straight draw on the Q-6-5-10 flop and turn. Alas, the four on the river failed to hit for Payne, sending him home in fifth place.
Gilbert was still in front at this point, but Kuether was only about 1.4 million chips behind him. Paredes would need a double up to get his stack up to Gilbert’s and Hawkins was treading water with his 2.785 million chip stack. Hawkins would be the first to make a serious move, doubling through Kuether bring his stack to a more healthy level, but it would be enough to delay the inevitable. After Hawkins raised under the gun, Paredes three bet out of the small blind and Hawkins put the remainder of his stack in the center. Paredes was more than happy to call, turning up pocket Aces against Hawkins’ pocket tens, and only got better when the board came J-4-2-3-5 to give him Broadway and knock out Hawkins in fourth place.
With the newfound chips from Hawkins, Paredes began to push back towards the top of the mountain. The hand that basically determined the tournament came on Hand 109 after Paredes had upped the action. Gilbert would three bet Paredes to 1.3 million and an unfazed Paredes pushed out a four bet of nearly 3 million chips. After some contemplation, Gilbert decided to move all in and Paredes immediately called, tabling an A-Q for his tournament life against Gilbert’s A-J. Two Kings and a ten would come on the board, but none of the cards helped Gilbert as the huge double went to Paredes. How big was the double up? After the hand, Paredes was sitting on a 19.125 million stack while Gilbert plunged to 2.33 million.
Most players would have been devastated with that beat, but Gilbert’s resolve was only steeled. About 30 hands later, Gilbert had worked his way back to the lead in the tournament as Kuether and Paredes each doubled him up. Just as quickly, however, Gilbert would drop back to third place when Kuether doubled through him five hands later. This would go on for the next 40 hands until heads up play was determined.
On Hand 180, Paredes raised off the button and Kuether pushed his remaining stack of almost 10 million chips to the center off the small blind. After Gilbert mucked his big blind, Paredes snap-called and showed pocket Aces for the upcoming battle. Kuether was going to need a great deal of help with his A-K offsuit and, although a King would come on the turn, there was no other help on the board. Packing up his bags, Kuether headed to the doors of the Borgata with the third place check in his hands.
Going to heads up play, Paredes had almost a 2:1 lead over Gilbert and he wouldn’t let it get away. Only 18 hands after Kuether’s elimination, Gilbert limped into the pot and Paredes challenged him with a raise. Gilbert responded with an all in move that saw Paredes once again quickly call and for good reason. Paredes’ pocket Kings were dominating Gilbert’s pocket Jacks and, once the board ran with no “fishhooks” for Gilbert, he was out in second place and David Paredes was champion at the WPT Borgata Poker Open.
1. David Paredes, $723,227
2. Jim Gilbert, $434,598
3. Joe Kuether, $262,994
4. Maurice Hawkins, $220,258
5. Jerry Payne, $180,808
6. Roman Valerstein, $146,291
