Event 17 Recap

$1,000 + $90 NL (6 Max)

It’s a Happy Easter for our Six-Max champion, poker pro Franco Bonacci (Pittsburgh, PA), who just took down the $33,174 first place prize along with the 2011 Borgata Spring Poker Open trophy.

Franco hit quad 3333’s at the right time to become the chipleader three-handed but also got off to a great start from the starting pistol. “I was basically a card rack the entire first two hours…it was crazy” exclaimed Bonacci.

A suck out against his friend, Joey Cappuccio with 40 bb’s left didn’t hurt either. It always feels good when your A-8 topples your buddy’s A-Q.

The tournament ended at 4:30 AM in Borgata Poker Room, but lets rewind all the way back to11:00 AM in The Signature room where 114 poker players plunked down $1000 + $90 to see if they had the mettle to survive to the final 18 players, all of whom enjoyed part of the $114,000 total buy-in.

Players started with 15,000 in chips and were seated six to a table with no re-entries.
The cast of characters included: Mike Dentale, James Boyle, James Casement, Jr, Adam Gerber, Danny Yousefzadeh, Dan Spirer, Roland Israelashvilli, Mickey Woll, Charles Furey, Alexander Queen, Will Heger, Mirsad Kovaci, Chris Edwards, Tony Sinishtaj, Miguel Borrero and Josh Brikis. All these guys are great players and have impressive wins in big tournaments.

And don’t forget the only lady in the field, Jamie Kerstetter, who had quads early on and played beautifully all the way to an 11^th place finish for $2,212.

The entire field feared Brock Parker, who has two 2009 WSOP bracelets in the 6-max format, (No Limit and Limit) and who beat Daniel Negreanu heads-up for one of them.

George Medrano’s pocket aces knocked the bubble out and brought the final 18 into the cash. George went on to finish in 2^nd place for $18,245. “I’m feeling hot and ready for the Championship tomorrow” said the physical therapist / semi poker pro who felt he played perfect poker today.

The final table found seven players, not six, and included: Alan Lipson (7^th place), Nathaniel Marmur (6^th place), Cotton Snuffer (5^th place), Nicholas Lowry (4^th place), Brett Fox (3^rd place), George Medrano (2^nd place) and Franco Bonacci (1^st place).

Snuffer had some big hands including a straight flush with two tables to go.

Brett Fox takes home $10,505 for his third place showing. The internet poker teacher is fighting for his freedom to play on-line again.

But once again our big winner today was Franco Bonacci who will add $33,174 worth of candy to his Easter basket and a Borgata trophy made entirely out of chocolate. Or maybe it’s crystal, I’m not exactly sure – it is 5AM.