Chop It Up! Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event Ends With Deal

It’s not that unusual for poker tournaments to finish in a deal, with the ultimate few contenders re-distributing the remaining prize cash to clean out a number of the huge jumps in prize cash on the high. What one doesn’t usually see, although, is a winner’s picture that includes each co-champions.

That is exactly what went down on the finish of the 2025 Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit maintain’em championship occasion, although. Joseph Neiman (1st – $406,971) and Nguyen Le (2nd – $425,000) chopped, with the previous successful the ultimate all-in flip to finish because the official first-place finisher whereas the latter walked away with the bigger high prize. Both gamers have been capable of depart with a trophy, with one from the internet hosting venue (Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ) and one other from BetMGM Poker, the presenting sponsor.

Neiman took dwelling the bigger share of Card Player Player of the Year factors. The winner of the 1982 World Amateur Backgammon Championship secured 1,368 for this victory, sufficient to maneuver him into first place within the 2025 POY race standings offered by Global Poker. Le sits simply behind him, having additionally recorded a final-table end within the opening occasion of the current PokerGO Tour Last Chance collection. Le has a complete of 1,340 factors, with 1,140 earned for his exhibiting on this occasion.

A complete of 932 entries have been made throughout the 2 beginning flights and a few ranges of day 2 late registration on this match, surpassing the $2,000,000 assure to create a remaining prize pool of $2,875,255 that was paid out amongst the highest 119 finishers.

Plenty of massive names ran deep, together with bracelet winner Justin Liberto (twenty third), four-time World Poker Tour champion Darren Elias (18th), 2022 WSOP Circuit Chicago most important occasion winner Frank Lagodich (seventeenth), 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas winner Christian Harder (fifteenth), bracelet winner Nick Pupillo (eleventh), bracelet winner Ryan Depaulo (ninth), and 2023 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open most important occasion fourth-place Kitty Kuo (eighth).

The remaining day started with six gamers nonetheless in rivalry and Le within the lead and Neiman in third chip[ position. Sal Evola was the first to fall. He got his last chips in with A-Q leading A-10 suited for Dorian Rios, but the board brought a ten to give Rios a pair and the pot. Evola earned a career-best live payday of $82,033 as the sixth-place finisher.

Dorian Rios’ tournament came to an end when his A-J ran into the A-Q suited of Clemen Deng. Rios surged ahead on a jack-high flop, while Deng picked up the nut flush draw. He ended up rivering a pair of queens to take the hand, sending Rios to the rail with $105,691.

Deng also scored the next knockout, with his pocket aces besting the A-6 of Phil Saracino (4th – $153,430). Deng had the hand locked up by the turn, and entered three-handed play as the chip leader. It took several hours before the next knockout arrived. Deng had slid to the bottom of the counts, and eventually got all-in with A7 trailing the AJ of Neiman. The board ran out K32J7 to end Deng’s run in third place ($233,882). The rising tournament star now has more than $2.7 million in recorded tournament earnings.

Neiman held better than a 2:1 chip lead over Le to start, but stacks leveled out before the two traded the lead back-and-forth a few times. They eventually decided to cut a deal, with Le locking up the larger payday given his lead at the time. With that, this huge tournament officially came to a close, and the victorious duo lined up for their unusual winner’s photos.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: Poker.org.