Veerab Zakarian wins the long-delayed World Poker Tour 2020 Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event

Final table 2020 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open was retired on January 80 of that year in Atlantic City, NJ. Field 1,290, the number of entries has been limited to just six players, who had to wait around two months before going to Las Vegas to play the champion under WPT Delayed Final Table format for televised events. As a result COVID - 25, these plans were put on hold last spring and the expected delay was dramatically extended as the event was suspended indefinitely. Ultimately, the final table was postponed to May 16, 2021. After 471 days after his release, Canada's Veerab Zakarian won by taking his first WPT title and main prize in the amount of 674,840.

“Everyone always wants a bracelet, but now it looks like WPT is what everyone is striving for. Because there are so many bracelets. But WPT is special, especially the Borgata, "Zakarian said after the win." When you think of poker in the East Coast, the first thing you think about is Borgata. Victory at something like this. "

This was by far the highest score of Zakarian's career to smash the $ 100, earned 340 as 2018 Mid-States Poker Tour Seneca Niagara Casino 1 $, 100 Main Event Champion. This latest win pushed his live tournament earnings to just over a million dollars.

In addition to the best payout of his career, Zakarian also received 1,440 Player card Player of the Year scores points as champion. It was his first POY - a qualified result from 2021, but that alone was enough to catapult him to the 16th place in the overall standings.

Zakarian entered the final table late as a chip leader, roughly picking up 100 big blinds over a year ago. James Anderson, a resident of Wooster, Ohio, was the next-largest pile. Anderson won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2019 $ 1, 111 Little One For One Drop event and it was fine - position to add WPT the title of his CV. Twice WPT Main Event Champion Brian Altman was on Anderson's heels. Altman recently blocked Hublot WPT Player of the Year Award , after four cash registers, three final table places (including in this event) and the title in the final season of the tour, which ran from 2019-2021 due to the closure of live poker, which lasted for most of 2020.

Andrew Hanna was the first player to be eliminated at the final table. He lost a piece of his top pair stack on the flop against Bin Weng's set on the turn, then pushed pocket dees into Zakarian's tens pockets for sixth ($ 200, 264). Despite winning the sizeable pot against Hanna at the start of the final table, Weng was the next to be eliminated. He pushed all in with pocket nines against Anderson's pocket kings. Both players played full house on the river but Weng was second-best. He earned $ 187,900 for his fifth-place finish in that tournament while Anderson took the lead.

Nathan Russler entered the day as the smallest stack but managed to maneuver his way into the four-player final. However, his streak came to an end when he three-bet all-in with K J. Approximately 18 big blinds from the small blind. Zakarian raised from under the gun with Q Q . He called and was in the middle of the set on the flop to take the lead. On the turn, Russler was already dead. He received a $ 248,913 for his fourth-place show while Zakarian regained top spot on the leaderboard.

While Zakarian and Anderson were adding to the stack early in the game, Altman had fewer chips than he started out. a three-person action began. Just ten hands after Russler was knocked out, Altman got involved in what turned out to be his final hand in the tournament. Altman min-raised to 440,000 with button from A 3 and Zakarian called from the big blind with 4 2 . Q came the flop 5 3 and both players waited. AND on the turn, it improved both players, giving Altman aces and Zakarian a wheel. Zakarysky check - called Altman's bet worth 1,000, 11, and the river brought 9 . Zakarian checked again and Altman bet 2,800,11, leaving himself only 1,250,11 in favor. Zakarian moved all in and Altman moved to the tank before calling. His aces were not good and he was eliminated in third place ($ 333, 012). The result increased his career earnings to over $ 4.8 million. 960 POY The points he scored were enough to see him move to the 12th place in the standings, with three final tables, 1,488 total points and $ 401,101 off-year earnings.

With this Zakarian he entered heads-up play from 30, 375, 11 to Anderson 23, 125, 11, meaning they each had over 115 big blinds to start with with limits of 100, 11-200, 11 and a big blind. 200, 11. It took 80 more hands for the winner to be determined. Anderson was able to fight his way into the lead just before the decisive hand of the game was dealt. Anderson raised to 1.2 million from the button from K 5 and Zakarian three-bet to 4.5 million with 6 6 Anderson 4-bet all-in for 25.5 million and Zakarian quickly called with his pair. J was missing from the blackboard 9 3 2 6 and Zakarian put together a set of sixes to secure a huge jackpot.

Anderson was left with one 111,000 tournament, less than one small blind. He won four more hands in a row to return to 2.6 million, but was all-in on his J for the fifth consecutive row 4 failed to beat 12 5 Zakarian flipped an eight straight to secure the pot and title. Anderson took home $ 449,904 as second place. It was his fourth POY - Qualified final, table 2021, with two titles won along the way. With a $ 558, 939 in earnings so far and 2,256 points, Anderson raised the overall standings POY scoreboard.

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

Place	Player	Earnings	POY Points
1	Veerab Zakarian	$ 674, 840	1, 440
2	James Anderson	$ 449 , 904	1, 200
3	Brian Altman	$ 333, 012	960
4	Nathan Russler	$ 248, 913	720
5	Weng container	$ 248, 900	600
6	Andrzej Hanna	$ 143, 264	480

Image rights: WPT / Joe Giron.