Five-Way Deal in Borgata Bounty Event Eliminates Risk

The drama wasn’t over in Borgata when Bin Weng conquered Joe McKeehen and others to take down The Return’s Main Event for $1 million despite the former world champion McKeehen having led going into the final table . In fact, it was only beginning and a dramatic Bounty Event closed things out with a five-way deal at the final table.

Final Table Reached in Style

The final day at the felt didn’t take long to reach the final table, but plenty of excitement led the last nine players to that point. The race really started to speed up when Robert Elias busted in 14^th place for $4,850, his pocket tens overtaken with some fortune by Soukha Kachittavong’s ace-five, an ace on the flop doing the fatal damage to Elias’ stack.

After Mike Gao departed in 13^th place, his ace-queen vanquished by Joshua Smith’s ace-king, She Wong busted in 12^th place for $6,305. When Dominick Sannino was eliminated in 11^th place for the same amount, his pocket queens overtaken in lucky fashion by Kachittavong’s ace-seven of spades, a flop full of spades gifting the eventual winner the nut flush.

It was the final table’s bubble, and Simon Levy was the man to miss out. All-in with the shorter stack, his ace-three was hoping to chop when Nir Cohen was the caller with ace-six. But as he announced “we’re chopping!” a six came on the flop to deny him even that hope. The board of K-8-6-7-5 doomed Levy for a score of $6,305 himself and the final nine was set, with Jake Ripnick a big chip leader of 4.3 million chips, Scott Bohlman the short stack on just 650,000.

Cohen Misses out on Final Five

The final table kicked off with a short period of stalemates, but an hour-long dinner break, the action sped up again. Jesse Mercado was the first to bust, cashing for $9,700 in ninth place when his ace-five lost to Kachittavong’s ace-jack. He was followed from the felt swiftly by Joshua Smith as he lost with jack-ten to Mitchell Garshofsky’s ace-ten for a score of $13,823.

Out in seventh place was Nir Cohen, who also started and ended his final hand with the worst of it. All-in with ace-seven of clubs, Cohen couldn’t catch any luck against Garshofsky’s pocket jacks as the board of Q-9-6-5-9 sent the former home with a score of $17,703 to his name.

In sixth place, Scott Bohlamn’s laddering was done, his day over for a result worth $22,310. All-in with king-queen, he lost to Garshofsky’s pocket eights, a board of A-K-2-4-8 proving the cruellest bust out of all.

Deal Done and Drama to the End 

“I played cautiously because he was chip leader at that time.”

With five players remaining, a deal was discussed and a quick look at the ICM numbers gave everyone what they wanted. With over a quarter of a million dollars on the table, Daniel Williams with $46,495 won the lowest amount, with the chip leader at the time, Kachittavong, banking over $70,000.

Having grabbed the chip lead at a crucial time, Kachittavong revealed to our friends at PokerNews that he had changed his playing style after the dynamics demanded it.

“I played cautiously because he was chip leader at that time and I was second in chips,” Kachittavong said after the action. “It worked out fine just like that.”

Going on to describe the feeling after clinching the win, Kachittavong said: “I haven’t been playing here very often and I will probably play here more now. My home turf is Foxwoods, I play there a lot, but they don’t have a series going on, just dailies. I don’t travel like these guys. I have two kids. But I do play a lot of tournaments.”

Another one in the bag, the enigmatic Kachittavong was delighted to take the crown, albeit with a slightly reduced top prize.

*denotes five way deal