He has 20 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Cashes for over $450,000. Add to that three gold rings and you have one of the most successful players in WSOP Circuit history. However, what has insofar eluded Dwyte Pilgrim is a signature win in a major live tournament. That could all change on Thursday, however, when Pilgrim takes his seat at the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open.
Pilgrim owns the fourth largest stack in the event with six players to go at 4.8 million. Leading the way is Ofir Mor, who will come armed to Thursday’s finale with a mound of 7.3 million. Pilgrim told WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage on Wednesday night, “Today was one of the best days of my life. I feel like I did something great and I’m going to try and shock the world tomorrow.”
On his lack of a major title, Pilgrim contended, “This would be great. The WPT is the big stage; we all know that. It’s one step above the WSOP Circuit and it’s a great place to get your start. A lot of people say I don’t have any big wins, but if you look at the research, I have the most cashes in the world the last two years and the most final tables, so I’m doing something right.” Accordingly, Pilgrim owns the third spot in the CardPlayer Player of the Year standings, while fifth ranked Jeffrey “jpapola” Papola was the final elimination on Wednesday at the Borgata Poker Open.
Papola was the final table bubble boy, busting in seventh place after open-shoving from the cutoff with A-8 of spades. Mor looked him up with a wired pair of sevens and no ace or eight fell when the board came K-Q-9-K-2. Pilgrim, as you might expect, was elated to make a WPT final table and receive much-needed face time on Fox Sports Net. In celebration, he ran over to his rail following Papola’s elimination and exclaimed, “We’re gonna shock the world! We’re gonna shock the world! It’s a new style of poker – Gracie Jujitsu!” Papola took home $118,000 from the $3,500 buy-in tournament.
Eighth place in the WPT Borgata Poker Open belonged to Andrew Youngblood, who also moved all-in from the cutoff, this time with K-J. Kia Mohajeri made the call with A-Q of diamonds and promptly hit a queen on the flop to preserve his lead in the hand. Youngblood spiked a jack on the turn to give Mohajeri a sweat, but the river was a seven and Youngblood exited stage right. He picked up $90,000 for his efforts.
2007 WSOP Main Event final table member Lee Childs landed in ninth place at Borgata after running pocket nines into the pocket tens of Benjamin Klier. He earned $61,000 after his four-day run, about one-eleventh of his payday three years ago in the world’s most prestigious poker tournament.
Here’s how the final six look entering today’s final table at the Borgata Poker Open:
1. Ofir Mor – 7,300,000 (37 big blinds)
2. Benjamin Klier – 6,125,000 (31 big blinds)
3. Brandon Novena – 5,125,000 (26 big blinds)
4. Dwyte Pilgrim – 4,800,000 (24 big blinds)
5. Kia Mohajeri – 4,225,000 (21 big blinds)
6. Daniel Makowsky – 3,300,000 (17 big blinds)
The final table will pick back up at 4:00pm ET. When it does, the action will be in Level 33, where the blinds are 80,000/160,000 with an ante of 20,000. Four of the six players remaining have less than 30 big blinds, so it’s likely to be a high-octane final table. Everyone left standing will receive at least $148,000:
1st Place: $733,802
2nd Place: $440,945
3rd Place: $266,835
4th Place: $233,475
5th Place: $183,449
6th Place: $148,427
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT results.
