Veerab Zakarian Wins Long-Delayed 2020 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event

The last desk of the 2020 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open was set again on Jan. 30 of that yr in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The discipline of 1,290 complete entries was narrowed down to simply six gamers, who had been scheduled to attend roughly two months earlier than they’d make their option to Las Vegas to play right down to a champion as a part of the WPT’s delayed last desk format for televised occasions. As a results of the COVID-19 pandemic, these plans had been placed on maintain final spring and the anticipated delay was prolonged dramatically because the occasion was placed on maintain indefinitely. Eventually, the ultimate desk was lastly rescheduled for May 16, 2021. After a 471 day layoff, Canada’s Veerab Zakarian emerged victorious to seize his first WPT title and the highest prize of $674,840.

“Everyone always wants the bracelet but these days it looks like the WPT is what everyone is chasing. Because the bracelets, there’s so many of them. But the WPT is special, especially Borgata,” said Zakarian after the win. “When you think of poker on the East Coast, the first thing you think of is Borgata. Winning something like this.”

This was by far the biggest rating of Zakarian’s profession, blowing away the $63,340 he earned because the 2018 Mid-States Poker Tour Seneca Niagara Casino $1,100 fundamental occasion champion. This newest victory elevated his lifetime dwell event earnings to simply over 1,000,000 {dollars}.

In addition to the career-best payday, Zakarian was additionally awarded 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year factors because the champion. This was his first POY-qualified rating of 2021, nevertheless it alone was sufficient to catapult him into twelfth place within the general standings.

Zakarian entered the long-delayed last desk because the chip chief, having bagged up roughly 100 huge blinds over a yr in the past. Wooster, Ohio resident James Anderson was the next-largest stack. Anderson received his first World Series of Poker bracelet within the 2019 $1,111 Little One For One Drop occasion and was well-positioned so as to add a WPT title to his resume. Two-time WPT fundamental occasion champion Brian Altman was sizzling on Anderson’s heels. Altman just lately locked up the Hublot WPT Player of the Year award, having secured 4 cashes, three final-table finishes (together with this occasion) and a title through the tour’s most up-to-date season, which spanned from 2019-2021 as a result of dwell poker shutdown that prolonged by a lot of 2020.

Andrew Hanna was the primary participant eradicated on the last desk. He misplaced a bit of his stack with a flopped prime pair towards the turned set of Bin Weng, after which ran pocket deuces into the pocket tens of Zakarian to hit the rail in sixth place ($143,264). Despite having received that sizable pot towards Hanna early on on the last desk, Weng was the following to fall. He bought all in with pocket nines towards the pocket kings of Anderson. Both gamers made a full home by the river, however Weng’s was second greatest. He earned $187,900 for his fifth-place end on this event, whereas Anderson surged into the lead.

Nathan Russler had come into the day because the shortest stack, however he managed to maneuver his option to the ultimate 4 gamers. His run got here to an finish, although, when he three-bet all-in with OkayJ for roughly 18 huge blinds from the small blind. Zakarian had raised from under-the-gun with QQ. He made the decision and flopped center set to take the lead. Russler was drawing lifeless by the flip. He was awarded $248,913 for his fourth-place displaying, whereas Zakarian regained the highest spot on the leaderboard.

While Zakarian and Anderson had added to the stack within the early motion, Altman had fewer chips than he began with by the point three-handed motion started. Just ten arms after Russler was knocked out, Altman bought concerned in what turned out to be his last hand of the occasion. Altman min-raised to 400,000 from the button with A3 and Zakarian referred to as from the large blind holding 42. The flop introduced the Q53 and each gamers checked. The A on the flip improved each gamers, giving Altman aces up and Zakarian the wheel. Zakarian check-called Altman’s wager of 1,000,000 and the river introduced the 9. Zakarian checked once more and Altman bets 2,800,000, leaving himself with simply 1,250,000 behind. Zakarian moved all-in and Altman went into the tank earlier than calling. His aces up had been no good, and he was eradicated in third place ($333,012). The rating elevated his profession earnings to greater than $4.8 million. The 960 POY factors he earned had been sufficient to see him transfer into eleventh place within the standings, with three last tables, 1,488 complete factors and $401,101 in year-to-date earnings.

With that Zakarian entered heads-up play with 28,375,000 to Anderson’s 23,125,000, which means that they every had over 115 huge blinds to begin with limits of 100,000-200,000 and a giant blind ante of 200,000. It took 80 extra arms for a winner to be determined. Anderson was in a position to battle his method into the lead ever-so-briefly earlier than the decisive hand of the match was dealt. Anderson raised to 1.2 million from the button with the Okay5 and Zakarian three-bet to 4.5 million holding 66.Anderson four-bet all-in for 25.5 million and Zakarian shortly referred to as along with his pocket pair. The board ran out J9326 and Zakarian made a set of sixes to safe the large pot.

Anderson was left with a single 100,000 event chip, lower than a small blind. He received the following 4 arms in a row to get all the best way again to 2.6 million, however within the fifth consecutive all-in his J4 didn’t edge out the ten5 of Zakarian, who turned an eight-high straight to safe the pot and the title. Anderson took house $449,904 because the runner-up. This was his fourth POY-qualified last desk of 2021, with two titles received alongside the best way. With $558,939 in earnings thus far and a pair of,256 factors, Anderson has shot up the standings to land in second place on the general POY leaderboard.

Here is a have a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the last desk:

Photo credit: WPT/ Joe Giron.