Event 16 Recap

$1500 + $150 + $500 Purple Chip Bounty Heads Up NLH

A quality field of 64 players at the Borgata Poker Open came down to an evenly matched final between Kevin Saul (Chicago, IL) and David Paredes (New York, NY). The two played their heads up, best of three, final for nearly four hours and on the last hand, Saul hit a King on the river while holding K♦ Q♦ against Paredes' pocket 9s to win his second Borgata trophy.

"He was a tough player," said Saul who earned $37,248 for the win and rallied from a 1-0 deficit to take the title.  And both players agreed that a Saul bluff in Game 2 was the pivotal hand in the match.

"It was a tough spot, I was very close to calling," said Paredes who would have doubled-up and severely crippled Saul, "but I didn't want to call off the second match."

"I had to bluff you one time," said Saul after Paredes folded and Saul tabled Jack high on a 10♠ 5♠ 3♠ K♥ 9♥ board. "You're the most unbluffable person, now I don't care what happens."

Saul maintained his chip lead in Game 2 and rode the momentum to the win.

"It was a close call between jamming, check-calling and check-folding," said Paredes who mucked his cards. "I'll replay that one and I'm still not sure what the right option was."

Paredes made an impressive run through the field with five straight 2-0 series wins, and with a 1-nothing lead in the finals, won 11 straight games before losing the final two.

The day began with four quarterfinal matches and the remaining eight players all in the money. The field of 64, in the NCAA basketball style bracket, put up $96,000 in total buy-ins and played three rounds on Day 1.

Four former Borgata Heads Up champions were in the field, but none of them cashed.

Chalie Hook (2009 Summer Open), Jesse Yaginuma (2009 Poker Open) and Jeremy McLaughlin (2010 Poker Open) all lost in the first round, while Christian Harder (2011 Poker Open) was one win away from the money, but lost to lost to Jeffrey Coon in the third round.

The stacked field also featured 5-time Borgata trophy winner Will "The Thrill" Failla, 2005 WSOP runner-up Steve Dannenmann and the only woman to enter the tournament, Amanda Musumeci.

In addition to the standard prize pool, $500 bounties were paid out after each match.

Saul now has bookend trophies after he won an event during the 2012 Borgata Winter Open.

Money Matches

Finals

Kevin Saul def. David Paredes

Semifinals 

Saul def. Jeffrey Coon
Paredes def. Jeff Gross

Quarterfinals

Saul def. Orson Young
Paredes def. Aaron Massey
Gross def. Mike Linster
Coon def. Matt Rock


Final Results
Entries: 64
Total Buy-In: $96,000