Event 4 Recap

$500 + $60 NL

One of the fastest tables in Borgata Open history saw few double ups and rapid knockouts as
Marcelia "Peachez" Keene (Maplewood, NJ) is the last player standing on her way to the first place prize of $28,372. Keene defeated Chris King (Powder Springs, GA) heads-up when her 5♠ 5♣ flopped a set to take the title to end the final table that lasts less than three hours.

"This is great," says Keene. "I've been laid off and this what I do now full time." Keene lost her job off as manager of a non-profit two years ago and needed the windfall which exceeds her
lifetime tournament earnings of $19,000. Ironically, it's work in the technical field that brought King to New Jersey from the Atlanta area.

"I decided to come early and play in some tournaments," says King, who earned $15,604. "It was real work the first five hours," he says after surviving multiple all-ins after dropping to 3,300 chips during level 4.

The final table featured three players named Tony and two woman. The women outlasted those men as Kim Edmonds (Toms River, NJ), joined Keene at the top of the pay sheet by finishing third ($8,984). "It's great to see the woman doing well," said King, "there's no reason they can't play (well)."

"More woman are starting to win major tournaments," added Keene, who noted the recent
win by Vanessa Selbst, that gave her back to back NAPT titles. "I want to be one of the few that's next in line."

The quick moving Day 2 began with back to back knockouts on the second and third hands as
short stacks Robert Chung-Shui (New York, NY) and Jon Sorscher (Lynbrook, NY) hit the rail in 10th ($1,892) and 9th places ($2,128) respectively.

The rapid fire knockouts continued with two Tony knockouts. Tony Antonious (Redington Shores, FL) 8th/$2,837 and Anthony Hill (Egg Harbor City, NJ) 6th/$4,729 sandwiched the elimination of Day 2 chip leader John Lee (Westwood, NJ) 7th/$3,783, who never got anything going after his strong Day 1 start.

The tournament began with 195 entrants competing for the $97,500 total buy-in. The field featured two of the final six players from the 2010 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship Event including Champion Dwyte Pilgrim and 6th place finisher Ben Klier, but neither one cashed.

Those who did hit the money included Borgata regular "Action" Bob Hwang (Barnegat, NJ) who finished 15th and dinner break leader Chris Valsamos (Long Island, NY), 13th, as both earned $1,655. Other notables in the field included WSOP Bracelet holder Mike "Little Man" Sica (North Brunswick, NJ), Event 1 Champion Mike Dentale (Brooklyn, NY) and Dave Zeitlin (Brooklyn, NY), but none of them made the money.

The remaining final table payouts went to Marc Lunenfeld (Virginia Beach, VA) 4th/$7,566 and Tony Sinishtaj (Flushing, NY) 5th/$5,674. But in the end it was Keene who's day turned out
"Peachez."

"I played really well," she said. "I didn't take many chances, but was aggressive when I had to be."