Atlantic City’s season got its share of fun with the Borgata Poker Classic, which was a great game in its own special way. The entire tournament lasted for a nail-biting four days, starting from the 29th of January, 2006, and concluding on the 1st day of February.

With an entrant having to pay $10,000 as the entry fee, there were 381 entrants in all. The total prize pool that would be given away to the finalists totaled $3,695,700, with the first winner getting just under a third of the entire amount.

Among the six finalists were three renowned poker players, and three others who were not so celebrated, but very fierce, dangerous and competitive nonetheless. The list of the winners is mentioned below. The coveted first seat was gained by Michael Mizrachi, who was the runner-up in World Poker Open and was acknowledged by the winner Scotty Nguyen as well. Here, he won $1,173,373 for getting 1,000 points.

John D’Agostino received a payout of $591,312 for 700 points, while Erick Lindgren got the third seat getting $282,721 for 600 points.

The fourth and the fifth seat were reserved by Amnon Filippi and Josh Spiegelman for 500 and 400 points, getting $184,785 and $147,828 as the payout respectively. Stuart Paterson gained the sixth seat for a payout of $110,871 for his 300 points.

Mizrachi started off as the seasoned player that he really was, but got some stiff competition from Lindgren, who was equal to him in all respects. The game was very evenly contested through the start, and it became very difficult to predict who would emerge as the victor. After a grueling session, Mizrachi won the coveted first spot and took home a grand $1,173,373.

- Thomas Hardy