Darren Elias Wins WPT Borgata Championship

Kane Kalas did all the hard work on the final table of the WPT Borgata Championship, but it was Darren Elias who prevailed in the heads-up to win the event.

The WPT Borgata Championship was the fourth largest event ever staged by the World Poker Tour. The $3,500 buy-in event attracted 1,226 entries, which created a prize pool of $3,924,426 which was shared out between the top 120 players.

After a protracted penultimate day of the Championship, Kane Kalas held a substantial chip advantage when the final six players took their seats at the Borgata Casino on Saturday. However, he faced a tough challenge from vastly more experienced opponents if he was to go on and win the WPT Borgata Championship – including Darren Elias, who came fifth in this event in 2011.

Incredible Start puts Kalas in Control

The final table of the WPT Borgata Championship had an explosive start. In hand #3, Kane Kalas and Darren Elias chopped a big pot when both players rivered King-high straights, in hand #4 Kalas bust Ray Qartomy from the final table with A♣ A♠ > A♦ J♠ and, before the button had completed a full circuit of the table, Kalas found pocket Aces once again to eliminate Blake Bohn in fifth place A♣ A♦ > Q♥ Q♠.

Going into the first break of the day, Kane Kalas had two-thirds of the chips in play (24,775,000 chips) with Darren Elias (8,450,000 chips) eighty big blinds back in second, and both Aaron Overton (1,875,000 chips) and Jose Serratos (1,725,000 chips) having less than ten big blinds each.

Kalas Loses lead, but Takes it Back Again

Incredibly Darren Elias took the chip lead soon after the players returned to their seats – doubling up against Kane Kalas Q♥ 6♥ > 10♥ 4♥ after both players had made heart flushes on the board of K♥ 5♣ 2♥ / 8♥ / 10♣.

Kalas was to suffer a further blow to his chip stack when doubling up Aaron Overton Q♠ 8♥ > A♦ J♣, but – after Darren Elias had doubled-up Jose Serratos A♣ 10♣ > A♦ 9♦ – Kalas forced Elias out of a 2 million chip pot to take over at the top of the leaderboard once again.

Kalas Leads Elias into Heads-Up after 45 Hands

There was no slowdown to the pace of the final table, and the heads-up was reached in forty-five hands – Kane Kalas completing a hat-trick of KOs when busting Aaron Overton in fourth place J♣ J♠ > A♣ 2♥, and making it four-out-of-four when sending Jose Serratos to the rail in third place 7♦ 7♠ > K♥ 9♥.

Kane Kalas took a 24,800,000 -v- 12,025,000 chip advantage into the heads-up against Darren Elias, but Elias used his experience to chip away at Kalas´ advantage and after thirty hands of heads-up play, the chip counts were level after Elias had forced Kalas out of consecutive big pots.

Elias Traps Kalas to Win WPT Borgata Championship

Darren Elias continued to win valuable pots without any going to showdown and, going into the fifth Level of the day (Level 37 – blinds 250,000/500,000 – ante 75,000), Elias had developed a 5 million chip advantage over Kane Kalas.

The deciding hand came shortly after Level 37 had begun. Kane Kalas raised to 1,125,000 chips and Darren Elias called. Elias checked the flop of 10♠ 7♥ 4♣ and then called Kalas´ bet of 1,525,000 chips.

Darren Elias again checked the Turn of K♦, and responded to Kane Kalas´ bet of 3,225,000 chips by announcing he was all-in. Kalas snap-called and the cards were on their backs:

Darren Elias: K♠ 4♥ for two pairs

Kane Kalas: A♠ K♥ for one pair

Kalas needed an Ace, a Ten or a Seven on the River to stay alive in the tournament, but the dealer dealt the 3♠, and Darren Elias had won the WPT Borgata Championship for $843,744.