May 1-4
Hendon Mob entries for Mykhailo Lendel after his first at the 2022 WSOP, a 11th place finish in the Million Dollar bounty for $60K.
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1ST
Mykhailo Lendel
$147,650
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2ND
Rob Pagano
$100,200
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3RD
Patrick McConnell
$68,450
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4TH
Josh Sulzman
$45,300
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5TH
Ariel Herzog
$30,825
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6TH
Anthony Cuffari
$23,565
Mykhailo Lendel bought in to his first poker tournament just four years ago, but he has already built up a resume with several five and six-figure cashes to his name and over $1,000,000 in earnings.
On Monday at the Borgata Spring Poker Open, his meteoric rise on the East Coast poker scene continued after he beat Rob Pagano in heads-up play of the $500 Almighty Stack to take down the second-largest score of his short career.
“Thank God I got in from one bullet. Usually with these kinds of tournaments you gotta spend like 10-15 bullets,” the newly crowned champion told us after the win.
“At one point, I had like five [big blinds], and I doubled up, tripled up. That’s how you get to the final table. Just a little more patience, discipline.”
Started from the top
Lendel’s first career score was a big one, finishing 11th from more than 14,000 entries at the 2022 Mystery Millions at the WSOP in his second-ever tournament. He described really breaking through in 2024 when he earned $800,000 in tournament scores, including a seventh-place finish in the WPT Championship.
“I started hitting, won a lot of tournaments, big cashes, and all that stuff,” Lendel said. “I have businesses and everything, I don’t really have time to study. But if I do something, I try to put some goals to achieve. You know, to take a first place, not a fifth or any other place.”
Lendel had a dominant performance for most of Day 2 yesterday, at one point holding over 10% of the chips in play with more than 30 players left. He hit a disastrous run of cards at the end of the night, finishing fourth out of six players going into the final day.
“I had a rough 3 hours at the final table. No cards. Some spots, you have some hands that you can’t do anything with. It was really annoying and disappointing.”
“I was wishing for that day to end and just go to the room,” Lendel continued. “Sleep, and like, you know, be fresh the next day. I honestly couldn’t sleep for three more hours, so I got to sleep at like 5 or 6am. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, what am I gonna do tomorrow?’”
Lendel doubles into driver's seat
James McConnell and Anthony 'Coof' Cuffari were the short stacks to start the day. McConnell quickly doubled through start-of-day chip leader Josh Sulzman, before eliminating Cuffari to go from short stack to chip leader within the first few orbits. Ariel Herzog was next out the door after losing a pivotal flip to Lendel that saw the champ virtually double, regaining all the chips he had lost the night before.
Lendel soon doubled again, holding pocket fours against Sulzman’s king-queen in a blind-on-blind confrontation. Lendel was now neck-and-neck with McConnell for the chip lead, while Sulzman had three big blinds and was eliminated soon after.
Pagano was by far the shortest stack of the final three players, but he benefitted from a $30,000 ladder after Lendel knocked out McConnell in a straight-over-straight cooler, giving himself roughly a 6:1 advantage over Pagano going into heads-up play.
Pagano fought admirably against the overwhelming chip leader, reducing Lendel’s advantage to less than 2:1 at one point. But Lendel turned two pair to best Pagano’s pocket queens and start pulling away again, and this time there would be no comeback. Pagano got his final chips in with ace-five against Lendel’s ace-jack and found no help, resulting in his runner up finish while cementing the win for Lendel.
The Borgata Spring Poker Open now looks toward its championship tournament with the last of three opening flights on Tuesday. It carries a $2,700 buy-in and offers a $1,000,000 guarantee with a final table that plays out on Friday on a livestream that starts Day 2.
PokerOrg will be there for the very best live coverage every step of the way.
