Al Ardebili Triumphs at WPT Borgata Poker Open

And just like that, it was over. It only took four hands of heads-up play for Al Ardebili to win the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open Thursday night, eliminating Ricardo Festejo and taking home $1,498,650. The second place purse was nothing to sneeze at, either – a sweet $799,280.

The two were virtually even in chips (about $5,000,000 a piece) when the one-on-one portion of the evening commenced. Action was to be had immediately.

On the first hand, Ardebili raised to $600,000 only to see his opponent push over the top, all-in. Ardebili laid down his hand.

The very next hand, it was Festejo’s turn to raise to $600,000, this time seeing it called by Ardebili. After the flop of Ks-7d-2s, Festejo led out with $1,000,000 and Ardebili re-raised all-in. Festejo hesitantly called, showing As-2h for bottom pair, but he did have Ardebili’s 3d-2d dominated. The turn was another 3, giving Ardebili two pair, and the river did not help Festejo. Now, with that double-up, Ardebili had a huge $8,000,000 lead.

The third hand, both players went all-in again, but ended up chopping the pot, both with K-5.

The final hand was a simple case of the best hand winning. Festejo moved all-in with a meager 7h-8h and Ardebili called him with Ah-9c. Neither hand improved and Ardebili took the title.

Interestingly enough, the two finalists found themselves in the bottom half of the chip standings when the final table started, with Festejo actually the small-stack, and by a wide margin. The chip leaders, David Singer and John D’Agostino seemed to find themselves in one of two situations that eroded their stacks. The would either end up calling the all-in of a smaller stack and lose, or ended up getting re-raised all-in after they, themselves raised pre-flop.

The players took turns doubling each other up throughout the day and, as a result, the match became very even for a while. At one point, with five players remaining, there was a tie for first and the top four were within $400,000 of each other. Then, with four players left, Festejo had $4,000,000 and the rest of the field had $2,000,000.

It took a long time for the first player to be eliminated (73 hands), but once that happened, the rest of the field got knocked off rather quickly, as the level of the blinds and antes forced many all-in-or-nothing decisions.

Complete Final Table Results

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. Al Ardebili -- $1,498,650
2. Ricardo Festejo -- $799,280
3. Kathy Liebert -- $427,115
4. John D'Agostino -- $349,685
5. Robert Hwang -- $299,730
6. David Singer -- $249,775

Originally published September 23, 2005