The players came in droves for the chance to turn a $500 entry into a six-figure score. When the dust settled on five starting flights, 2,837 players took their shot at the Borgata Poker Open's Almighty Million, creating a total prize pool of $1,191,540.
Day 2 saw 446 players return and they would battle down to the winner of the massive first-place prize of $178,065. Those players went to war for over 14 hours until eight players bagged up for the live-streamed final table.
It was a hard-fought battle that saw many turns, but when the final chip fell, it was local professional Joseph Molitor who took down the trophy and a prize of $103,140 after a four-way deal.
Wheeling and dealing
The chip leader at the time of the deal was Molitor’s heads-up opponent, Hayden Hetland, who also came into the final table as the massive chip leader. He takes home the lion's share of the funds with his portion of the chop, which comes out to $122,002. Kharlin Sued finished in third for $96,354, and Matt Wolf still secured second-place money of $114,519 after finishing fourth, but he was second in chips when the deal occurred.
Molitor was in fourth place when the chop happened, but despite the chip deficit, he battled to the win. His deal was for $83,140, but he scooped an additional $20K as part of the agreement for what was set aside for the winner.
“I’m feeling really good,” Molitor said in his post-win interview. “I put in a lot of work in poker and I’ve put in a lot of long hours. I can tend to get fatigued in certain scenarios, but this wasn’t one of them. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but I’m used to long hours, and this tournament didn’t feel much different from a long cash.
He continued, “In this specific tournament, the final table average was very low. I was the shortest when the numbers conversation came up. I was one of the ones initiating that conversation because the variance is super high. We are playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just a little bit of money. I felt like everyone was playing well, and I was anybody’s game. There is just a lot of variance, and I think it was a good decision for everyone involved.”
As for celebrating his victory, he said, “I’m going to have to talk to some family and friends, but I’m sure we will get some drinks and some food somewhere, maybe a nice dinner. In the meantime, I’m just gonna soak it all in. You guys will see me in the next few days in the Main.”
BPO Almighty Million final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joseph Molitor | $103,140* |
| 2 | Hayden Hetland | $122,002* |
| 3 | Kharlin Sued | $96,354* |
| 4 | Matt Wolf | $114,519* |
| 5 | Mike Wilson | $37,145 |
| 6 | John Port | $28,309 |
| 7 | Habib Zamzami | $21,903 |
| 8 | Kevin Grabel | $17,350 |
* - Denotes final-four deal.
