Recap Event 21

 $260+40+100 Black Chip Bounty No Limit Hold 'Em

In a true grindout heads-up, Joseph Agron defeated former Borgata series champion Cuong Phung to take down Event 21 and $19,138.

The table started off with a bang as Larry O'Halloran and Nicolas Alafogiannis were knocked out on a four-way hand by Agron and at the same time took a chunk out of R.J Wright's hand.  Joseph never looked back.

Back to back shaky calls from Ruslan Dykshteyn sent most of his stack over to Agron who held aces and flopped trips and then sent Ruslan packing the next hand.  And then to follow it up, Agron had aces again to quickly eliminate Ed Rappa in 4th place.

Nissin Benjamin, who had only 30,000 chips to start the final table battled his way back to third but got blasted out of the tournament by Cuong Phung's flopped quad fours ending his comeback bid.

The heads up was a true grind as Phung had gotten a two-to-one lead on Agron but he slowly worked his way back and then won a critical hand on a J-6-4-10-7 board which put him up three-to-two.  Agron told us he was holding 3-5 and caught a straight on the river while Phung had J-10 for top two but was able to lay it down.  Agron built his lead even more when he hit trip 9's with Phung holding 10's.

Tens turned out to be the winner as they held against Phung's AQ and at 5:30 am, Borgata had a new champion.  Agron told us he felt he had to a take a slow and delibarate style because he felt Phung "was the better heads-up player" and he felt "phenominal" after the victory.  Agron also picked off 11 bounties plus kept his own on the way to the title.

Congratulations to Joseph Agron - Event 21 Champion!

Final Table Results

1st - Joseph Agron - Langhorne, PA - $19,138
2nd - Cuong Phung - Atlantic City, NJ - $11,277
3rd - Nissin Benjamin (Brooklyn, NY) - $6,493
4th - Ed Rappa (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - $5,263
5th - Ruslan Dykshteyn (Brooklyn, NY) $4,101
6th - Howard Wolper (Atlantic City, NJ) - $3,417
7th - R.J. Wright (Toms River, NJ) - $2,734
8th - Scott Kilcullen (Ocean Township, NJ) - $2,050
9th - Larry O'Halloran (Colonia, NJ) - $1,367
10th - Nicolas Alafogiannis (Toronto, ONT, CAN) - $889