Championship Event Winner - Liu

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Jia Liu (Broolyn, NY) 

$312,483

On the final hand Jia Liu puts Larry Abrams all in for his last 750k.

Liu: K♣ 4♦

Abrams: A♠ J♣

Flop: 7♠ 2♣ K♦ (pair of kings for Liu)

Turn: 6♣

River: 7♦

Liu dodges the last three aces in the deck and is the Borgata Spring Poker Open Champion.  "It's still not sinking in," says the 25 year-old, who takes down his biggest poker score.  "I'm numb right now."

Liu doesn't consider himself a poker professional, but will now look to play in more tournaments. He considers this win redemption for the 2010 Borgata Spring Open when he cashed in 18th place ($4,000) after holding the chip lead at the bubble.

Liu says two pivotal hands helped win the title.  The first was not going broke with pocket aces against Abrams pocket 10s.

"I was supposed to be out with aces," he says acknowledging that had all the chips gone in preflop, Abrams would have hit a full house on the river to take the title.  Instead a scary board made it easy for him to fold to Abrams' river bet.

The other key hand came when Abrams slow played pocket kings and Liu flopped a flush to take all but 750k of Abrams' chips.

"This is my biggest accomplishment," says Liu, who wins the trophy and $312,483 as the Spring Open champion.

Liu's Crew

Championship Event Runner Up - Abrams

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Larry Abrams (Mahwah, NJ) 

$175,700

Larry Abrams is the Borgata Spring Poker Open runner up and is a classy 2nd place finisher to Jia Liu. "Nice kid," says Abrams who loses with A♠ J♣ against Liu's K♣ 4♦ when a king flops.

"Nice, guy," Liu replies. And a nice friendly heads up match that lasts three hours.

"It was a lot of fun," says the business owner who pockets $175,700 as runner-up. "The final table was great."

Abrams is a regular tournament player when Borgata holds one of it's five series throughout the year.  The 45-year-old family man has two Borgata cashes for ~$9,000 each, including a 75th place finish ($9,644) in the 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open.

Abrams had 3/4 of the chips in play at the dinner break, but ran into some bad luck later in the evening.  

One pivotal hand came when Abrams flopped top pair, top kicker with AJ, but Liu flopped the joint with Q 10.  The flopped straight gave Liu the much needed double-up and the stacks were virtually even after the hand.

"I played well, I can't complain," says Abrams, "I just couldn't finish it at the end."

Larry Abrams is the second place finisher who earns $175,700 for his four days of poker.

Champ Event Recap

 $2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Jia Liu (Brooklyn, NY) was dead and buried twice at the final table, but each time he kept his composure and survived to win the Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship.  Liu defeated Larry Abrams (Mahwah, NJ) heads up, holding K♣ 4♦ on the final hand, to win the title, the trophy and the $312,483 first prize.

"It's still not sinking in," said the 25-year-old, who out flopped Abrams' A♠ J♣ to complete the comeback from a 3 to 1 chip deficit. "I'm numb right now, this is sick."

Liu was feeling ill in a different way when he stared across the table at Russ Dykshteyn (Brooklyn, NY), who had 12 million of the 15 million chips in play while three-handed.  But despite holding less than 2 million and being down 6 to 1 in chips, Liu hung around.

"I was looking at second or third," said Liu, but Abrams had a different mindset.

"I was never intimidated by his (Dykshteyn's) stack," said Abrams, who earned $175,700 as runner-up. "You're deep enough (with chips) to keep playing. I knew a couple of double-ups and I'd be right there."

Dykshteyn, not only doubled-up each of his opponents, but his collapse resulted in a third place finish. "It happens," he said on his way to the cage to collect $112,950.

Abrams had a 2 to 1 chip lead when heads up play began and extended it to 3 to 1, but Liu stayed focus and had three key hands that led to the title.

First Liu flopped a straight against Abrams top pair, top kicker to double-up and pull even in chips. He followed that by not going broke with pocket aces.

Liu then flopped a flush when Abrams slow played pocket kings and won a big pot that gave him all but 750k of the chips, setting up the final hand.

It was a roller coaster day for Liu who began the final table as the chip leader with 4.2 million.

The field was quickly thinned with the eliminations of Mike Meskin, Mike Borovetz and Matt Woodward in 10th, 9th and 8th places respectfully.

The most recognizable names at the final table were next to go. Cliff  "Johnnybax" Josephy, a WSOP bracelet holder, finished 7th, followed by WSOP circuit championship Chad Batista in 6th place.

At that point Dykshteyn had half the chips in play.

After Cameron Cornell was eliminated in 5th place by 4th place finisher Robert Pardo, Dykshteyn knocked out Pardo to continue his march to the 12 million chip mark.

The tournament began with 520 entries for a total buy-in of $1.3 million. The field featured 13 WSOP bracelet holders and multiple WPT title holders.  In addition to Josephy, the bracelet holders included 3 time winner "Miami" John Cernuto, and two time winners Matt Matros, "Rep" Porter and Brock Parker*

The well decorated field also included 2010 WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion Dwyte Pilgrim, two time WPT winner Cornel Cimpan and 2005 WSOP Main Event runner-up Steve Dannenmann.

The five days of poker (two Day 1s) started with Woodward (1A) and Steve Saklad (1B) earning a $3,000 bonus as chip leaders at the end of their respective starting days.

Woodward worked his big stack to the final table, while Saklad cashed in 19th place for ($6,903).

By the end of Day 2 the field was trimmed to 54 players as everyone returning for Day 3 was in the money.  Those who cashed included WSOP bracelet holder and WPT titlist Paul Darden, Event 8 Champion Mike Dentale, Ian Palomo, Vinny Pahuja, John Lakatosh and Dave Inselberg.

Four woman made the money. Grace Sun (22nd) was the last woman standing and was joined at the pay window by Stephanie Hubbard, Joanne Monteavaro and Cathy Dever.

The last player to cash on Day 3 was Ofir Mor (in 11th place).  Mor was the third place finisher in the 2010 WPT Borgata Poker Open (he won $267,000 in that event). Mor's elimination sent the final 10 players into Day 4 and the final table.

Liu's thrilling day concluded with his largest poker payday -- which is nearly double his previous career tournament earnings of $182,000.

"This is my biggest accomplishment," says Liu, who joins Russel Crane (2011) and Alex Queen (2010) as Borgata Spring Poker Open Champions.

Final Table Results
1st Jia Liu (Broolyn, NY) $312,483
2nd Larry Abrams (Mahwah, NJ)$175,700
3rd Russ Dykshteyn (Brooklyn, NY) $112,950
4th Robert Pardo (Mount Vernon, NY) $89,733
5th Cameron Cornell (Asbury Park, NY) $70,280
6th Chad Batista (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) $57,730
7th Cliff Josephy (Syosset, NY) $45,808
8th Matt Woodward (Las Vegas, NV) $35,768
9th Michael Borovetz (Pittsburgh, PA) $25,100
10th Mike Meskin (Belmont, MA) $16,315

* Full List of Participants with WSOP Bracelet

Miami John Cernuto - 3 WSOP bracelets

Matt Matros - 2 WSOP bracelets

Ralph "REP" Porter - 2 WSOP bracelets

Brock Parker - 2 WSOP bracelets

Mike 'Little Man' Sica - 1 WSOP bracelets

Ken 'Teach' Aldridge - 1 WSOP bracelet

Kathy Liebert - 1 WSOP bracelet

Gavin Smith - 1 WSOP bracelet, 1 WPT title

Freddy Rouhani - 1 WSOP bracelet

Chris Bell - 1 WSOP bracelet

Jeff Papola - 1 WSOP bracelet

Brian Lemke - 1 WSOP bracelet