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 Just
before midnight on Day Three of the tournament, the lineup for the final TV
table of the Borgata Winter Open was finally set with the elimination of
online qualifier Peter Feldman. Once Feldman's aces were cracked by Josh Spiegelman's A-K the identities of the final table participants were finally
revealed. Three well-known pros, one tournament regular, an online player, and
a local player survived the first three days of the tournament to play out the
endgame. The 6th place finisher would earn a fine payday of over $100,000, but
there was plenty of incentive to win with more than $1 million more going to
the champion - not to mention a brand-new Cadillac Escalade and a seat in the
$25,000 WPT Championship in April.
Final Table Lineup (by seat)
Amnon Filippi --------------------- 820,000
Stuart Patterson ------------------ 1,060,000
Erick Lindgren --------------------- 2,635,000
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi -- 2,040,000
John D'Agostino -------------------1,340,000
Josh Spiegelman ------------------ 1,635,000
The early going of the third WPT final table of 2006 was full of tentative
play. The typical hand went something like raise, re-raise, fold, scoop pot.
Many of those re-raises were big ones thrown out by initial chip leader Erick
Lindgren. He put his opponents to the test with regularity, especially when in
position, as he looked to solidify his lead. Stuart "The Donator" Paterson
also got in on the act, making his presence known by taking down a pot from
Josh Spiegelman by making a big pre-flop re-raise.
There were two big changes in the game before the first level was finished.
First, Josh Spiegelman took down a $1.2 million pot from Lindgren when his A-9
hit a bigger two pair than Lindgren's Q-6. That stripped Lindgren of most of
what he took from the others by pure aggression throughout the first level,
leaving him with a gain of only about $200,000 when the second level started.
The other big shift came when John D'Agostino doubled through Michael "The
Grinder" Mizrachi. The hand began with Mizrachi uncharacteristically limping
from middle position and then calling D'Agostino's late position raise to
$130,000. On a flop of A-Q-7 with two hearts, Mizrachi check-raised all-in and
put D'Agostino to the test. The local favorite ended up making the right call,
turning over K-K. He had to dodge another heart to hold up against Mizrachi's
4-2 of hearts, but after the river had been dealt D'Agostino was suddenly 3rd
in chips.
When the day's second level began, Stuart Paterson made a quick exit. He came
over the top of a pre-flop raise by Mizrachi, who had Paterson's A-T dominated
with A-K. The flop came K-7-6, all spades, giving Mizrachi top pair with the
nut flush draw. When Paterson got no help, he took home $110,871 for 6th
place. Halfway through the level, Erick Lindgren took a commanding lead when
he dragged a $1 million heads-up pot against John D'Agostino with an all-in
move on the flop, but the next half hour dragged by as the table mostly played
tentative poker. The day's third level finally brought another elimination
when D'Agostino's J-8 of spades outflopped Josh Spiegelman's K-Q. Spiegelman
took home $147,828 for his 5th place finish.
With the first two players gone, things quickly heated up. The Grinder put
himself on the edge of elimination when he ran his 9-9 into D'Agostino's Q-Q.
D'Agostino flopped a set and turned four of a kind to knock Mizrachi back into
3rd place, a warning to Mizrachi straight from the desk of the poker gods. He
quickly turned his ship around, and in the process changed the course of the
tournament. First, he moved all-in before the flop on a coin flip with 4-4
against Erick Lindgren's A-Q. Lindgren paired on the flop, leaving Mizrachi
with only two outs, but the river brought the Grinder a miracle 4 and put him
over $3 million.
Amnon Filippi, who'd had little opportunity to get involved through much of
the final table, finally picked a spot and moved his chips in before the flop
with A-T. His timing was a little off - he ran into John D'Agostino's A-K and
took home $184,785 for 4th place. The next big shift at the table wasn't far
off - within 15 minutes, Erick Lindgren was on the verge of elimination. He
moved over the top of a re-raise by Michael Mizrachi while holding the nut
flush draw with one card to come, but Mizrachi already held the second nuts
and took the bulk of Lindgren's stack when his hand held up. Within minutes,
the crippled Lindgren exited the tournament in 3rd place with $282,721 -
certainly a lesser result than he had hoped for coming into the day.
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and John D'Agostino entered heads-up play
almost dead-even in chips, but that didn't last too long. Mizrachi took down a
$2 million pot without a showdown early on, and then chipped away at
D'Agostino until he was able to get all the money in the middle with two pair
against D'Agostino's gutshot straight draw. D'Agostino played remarkable poker
over the course of the last two days of play and his $591,312 2nd place prize.
Mizrachi impressively improved on his World Poker Open finish from the
previous week, taking home a hefty $1,173,373 for the win, as well as a new
Cadillac Escalade and a seat at the WPT Championship.
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