Olivier Busquet Leads WPT Borgata Poker Open Final Table

The six-handed final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open is set. Leading the way is Olivier Busquet, who holds 10.3 million chips. His stack is double that of the next closest competitor, Yanick Brodeur.

Michael Brown was the final table bubble boy in the $3,500 buy-in tournament, falling in seventh place and earning $117,000. Brown shoved with pocket eights from middle position, but was met with Jeremy Brown’s A-K. In a classic race situation, the board ran out Q-10-7-J-6, giving Jeremy Brown a straight and sending Michael Brown to the rails. The former told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman when play concluded, “I like to run my mouth a little bit. I try to get under their skin and see if I can get them on tilt a little bit.”

Michael Brown served as the executioner of Steve Brecher, who won the WPT’s Bay 101 Shooting Star event in March for $1 million. Brecher shoved with 9-4 after a flop of J-9-2, but Brown called and showed J-6 for top pair. The turn and river both came kings and Brecher was ousted from the Borgata Poker Open. He earned $39,000 for his efforts and missed out on his third WPT final table. Many longtime poker players remember Brecher’s sixth place finish during the Season II WPT Championship, which earned him $232,000.

The field became a little quieter when Maurice Hawkins departed in 13th place. Hawkins pushed pre-flop with A-Q for 50 big blinds, but ran into Busquet’s pocket aces. The board ran out five cards 10 or lower, providing no help to Hawkins, who banked $28,000 for his efforts. After the chips were counted to ensure that Hawkins was indeed eliminated, he exited the Borgata poker room. WPT coverage noted that Hawkins “rose to prominence in this tournament late in Day 3 as he took the chip lead and busted quite a few players in the process. He was lively at the table and very talkative, but it just wasn’t meant to be today.”

While Busquet’s aces held up, some players at the Borgata Poker Open were not as fortunate, including Jason Warriner, who saw his pocket rockets go down in flames against J-8. Warriner shoved on a board of 10-9-5-7 and Hawkins happily called, turning over the nuts. Warriner was drawing dead to the river and found himself on the outside looking in. He earned $12,000 for his 21st place showing.

Busquet helped his cause by cracking aces with A-K. The flop came A-10-4, leaving Busquet calling for a running Q-J, which promptly hit. Eric Blair was eliminated in eighth place in the hand, which boosted Busquet’s chip stack to 4.5 million, double his total entering it. The day began with 27 players taking to the felts. When the smoke cleared, just six remained:

1. Olivier Busquet - 10,350,000
2. Yanick Brodeur - 5,780,000
3. Ivan Mamuzic - 5,655,000
4. Jeremy Brown - 5,480,000
5. Keith Crowder - 2,750,000
6. Kenny Nguyen - 600,000

The following prizes are up for grabs, including a $925,000 first place payday and a seat into the 2010 WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas:

1st Place: $925,514
2nd Place: $453,519
3rd Place: $251,955
4th Place: $216,681
5th Place: $188,126
6th Place: $156,212

The action resumes at 4:00pm ET and is open to the general public. When play ended for the night on Wednesday, blinds were 60,000-120,000 with a 10,000 chip ante. The tournament will air as part of Season VIII of the WPT on Fox Sports Net.

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Useful poker information:

KICKER - In hands containing pairs and trips, the highest card not matched. In draw games, sometimes a card kept for deception purposes.
FORCED BET - In some stud games a player may be required to make a bet to start the action on the first card. This is similar conceptually to blinds and antes, but in this case is dependent on the cards shown rather than player position. Usually the weakest hand is forced to bet.
TAP - In no-limit games, to wager all of one's money in one bet.
BICYCLE - The best possible low hand: A-2-3-4-5. More common term: WHEEL.
SPREAD LIMIT - A variation on fixed limit wherein the minimum and maximum bets are different. A 1-4-8 game allows bets from 1 to 4 in the early rounds and 1-8 in the last round. A 1-4-8-16 game allows bets from 1 to 4 in the early rounds, 1 to 8 in the next-to-last round, and 1 to 16 in the last round.
KICKER TROUBLE - Not having as high a kicker as an opponent.

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