The spectacular
Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey hosted the
WPT Borgata Poker Open from September 16, 2007 to September 20, 200. The five-day tournament saw 560 entries, who each paid $9,700 + $300 to buy into championship for a stab at the total pool prize of $5,432,000. There were 54 payouts in all and the final table witnessed an impressive line-up of five professional poker players.
At the start of the final table, Heung “Scotty” Yoon was the sole amateur with cards on the felt. Yet he was the one who faced seasoned poker star, Dr Roy S. Winston, M.D., at heads up play. The chips count and seating arrangement for the last six players were:
- Seat 1 – Heung “Scotty” Yoon with 3,090,000 chips
- Seat 2 – Roy “The Oracle” Winston with 5,355,000 chips
- Seat 3 – Haralabos Voulgaris with 1,465,000 chips
- Seat 4 – Mark Weitzman with 1,750,000 chips
- Seat 5 – Mike “The Mouth” Matusow with 2,965,000 chips
- Seat 6 – Eugene Todd with 2,190,000 chips
Final game play began at Level 29. Blinds were 40,000 – 80,000 with 5,000 antes. Poker pro
Mike Matusow made a surprising first exit with prize winnings of $271,280. Prizes for the rest of the players were:
- Voulgaris - $434,560
- Weitzman - $380,240
- Todd - $325,920
That left Yoon and Winston to face off at heads up play. Winston had a massive 4 to 1 chip lead, counting 13,370,000 chips to Yoon’s 3,445,000 chips. Winston emerged as the new WPT titleholder after 84 hands. His winning hand of 4 hearts 4 spades beat Yoon’s A spades and King hearts. 2 diamonds on the turn and 7 clubs on the river were not enough to secure the amateur’s victory. Winston won a silver watch in addition to the prize money of $1,575,280. Runner-up Yoon bagged $832,725.
Dr Roy Winston is a medical practitioner who hails from Brooklyn, New York and is currently based in Rancho Mirage, California. He graduated from University of Pennsylvania and later earned a Doctor of Medicine from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He specialised in the field of anaesthesiology, becoming a Professor of Anaesthesiology at Emory University and University of California before founding a company in Los Angeles, called LaserAway LLC, to remove unwanted tattoos and hair. The good doctor now plays poker full time after finding phenomenal success since his first tournament foray in 2006. Dr Winston’s total live tournament earnings exceed $2.5 million as at the end of 2008.
-- Reinu C.
