The Borgata Poker Open took place between September 19 and September 22 2005. Buy-in was fixed at $9,700 and 515 participants entered the tournament. The entry fee was $300 and the prize pool totaled to $4,983,145 with the winner of the first prize bagging home a grand sum of $1,498,690. The Borgata Poker Open was held at the casino area of Borgata Hotel, Atlantic City.

The Borgata Poker Open is a prestigious game for professional poker players and this year’s number of entrants was at a record high. The final table, given the prestige attached to this game saw 6 very accomplished players, all coming from various walks of life.

35 year old seasoned player, “Action” Bob Hwang from Clark, New Jersey, took Seat 1 while Ricky Ricardo Festejo, veteran blackjack dealer occupied Seat 2. An amateur player, Al Ardebili took the 3rd seat, a leading female winner, Kathy Liebert in World Poker Tour history took the 4th seat, and young professional John Dags D’Agostino took the 5th seat. In Seat 6, sat veteran professional from New York, David Singer.

At the start of the game, Festejo surprisingly started taking the lead with Dags finding himself losing out with every move. New Jersey's Ardebili clinched the much-coveted title and found himself walking home with a handsome prize of $1,498,650.

Festejo emerged second place with $799.280. Festejo had taken a risk at the final table between Ardebili and himself. He was however, rebuffed by Ardebili and lost out only by an ace high. The only female player, Liebert in the final table found herself reaching the top position in the ladies ranking by finishing 3rd. She took home for herself a cool amount of $427,115.

D’Agostino found himself losing to Liebert, despite taking home $349,685 for himself in 4th position. “Action” Bob Hwang from Clark found himself in 5th position, winning for himself $299,730. Meanwhile “Action” Bob managed to knock out Singer who came in last. Singer won for himself $249,775.

Apart from his weekend trips to Atlantic City, Ardebili did not spend much time on poker until he found that poker was growing in popularity. That was when he decided to give poker a serious though and tried his luck at small-scale tournaments. He managed to cash at a small tournament held at Sands in 2003. Having put his foot into serious poker tournaments, he started playing in more tournaments at Atlantic City and Las Vegas where he made for himself impressive winnings.

- Thomas Hardy