Event 20 Recap

$500 + $60 6-Max NL

After maneuvering his way through a field of 168 players, Reggie D. Franklin (Park Forest, IL) is the last man standing in Event 20 (6-max) of the Borgata Spring Poker Open. Franklin takes home $24,444 and the coveted trophy.

"This is pretty sick," says the Chicago native while admiring the hardware, "I actually have a trophy. The money is nice, but this is what people play for."

Franklin finished just ahead of Baksh Wazir (Queens, NY) 2nd/$13,444, Donald Thompson (Columbus, OH) 3rd/$7,714, William Klevitz (New York, NY) 4th/$6,518 and John Albis (Richmond, VA) 5th/$4,889.

Wazir's run to the final table was fueled just before the dinner break when his pocket aces held against pocket kings and he doubled through the big stack of Mark Ioli (Long Island, NY). "I was able to hold onto the chips and didn't let them go," says Wazir, who made his second final table of the Open.

Wazir finished 6th/$2,532 in Event 10 ($350) and says he's been playing well, "Maybe not my "A" game, but certainly a good game."

The day began with notables Sheree Bykofsky, Adam Lippert, Lee Childs, Matt Mazzeo, James Salters, David Zeitlin and Ian Palomo in the field. But Only Palomo (New York, NY) made the money with his 10th place finish ($1,630) as the top 18 places divided up the $84,000 total buy-in.

Even though this was a 6-max tournament, the final table had 7 players so there wouldn't be a three-handed table when two tables remained. Rounding out the final table were Mark Ioli (Stony Brook, NY - 6th/$4,074) and Scott Collins (Chester, NJ - 7th/$3,259).

For Franklin this tournament was redemption after starting off well in Event 17, also a 6-max, but stumbled down the stretch and missed the money.

Franklin is currently working in Spain and back in the U.S. to attend a wedding next week. He planned his trip around Borgata and arrived early just so he could play in the last few tournaments including the Championship Event, which he busted in.

Fortunately Franklin regrouped and picked up a nice consolation prize by winning Event 20.