Event 22 Recap

$1,000 + 90 Six Max No Limit Hold'em

Two poker pros squared off heads up for more than two hours, but in the end Theo Tran (Las Vegas, NV) overcame Wade Woelfel's (Mankota, MN) home court advantage for his first Borgata cash and win.

On the final hand, Woelfel, who has 15 career Borgata cashes, admitted that he was impatient and should have waited for a better spot to ship 40 big blinds with A♥ 9♠ against Tran's 9♥ 9.  "I gave it away at the end," says Woelfel, "I know the worst hand he has there is pocket 8s and I'm flipping. There's no way I'm ever ahead."

"I was surprised he was restless," said Tran who earned $64,8087 and the trophy,and added "he's a really good player."

The two began heads up play with Tran holding a 2.4 million to 1.5 million chip lead, but Woelfel flipped the script before the dinner break when he doubled-up with AK vs Tran's AQ.  Tran returned from break focused and got two double-ups of his own to set the stage for the final hand.

"He was a better short stack player than I was," says Woelfel, who earned $38,502 for his second Borgata runner-up finish and largest cash here.

"I never gave up," said Tran, who now has nearly $2.5 million in career tournament earnings.  "Even when I was down to 500 (thousand), I knew I had a chance."

Play resumed with 14 players already in the money as they went after the $262,000 total buy-in put up by the 262 entries.

Day 2 Chip leader Tyler Patterson (Everett, WA) made it to the final table, but wound up with a fourth place finish, going out before Ari Albilia (Syosset, NY) who finished third.

The rest of the final table was Ian Searing (5th), Martin Raus (6th) and Alex Smith (7th).

Other recognizable faces who cashed included: Alek Bolotin (19th) Jamie Kerstetter (23rd) and Eugene Fouksman (27th).

One player called Tran "a beast" and while the 30-year-old pro hasn't played a lot at Borgata he seemed right at home for his 5th recorded career win.

Final Table Results

1st Theo Tran (Las Vegas, NV) $64,8087
2nd Wade Woelfel (Mankota, MN) $38,502
3rd Ari Albilia (Syosset, NY) $29,226
4th Tyler Patterson (Everett, WA) $23,508
5th Ian Searing (Smithtown, NY) $18,425
6th  Martin Raus (Mississauga, CAN) $13,342
7th Alex Smith (Highland Park, NJ) $10,166