Final Table

The final table is set. Working on chip counts.

Seat 1 Alan Colon
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja
Seat 3 Mark Herm
Seat 4 Alex "Screwball" Nepomnyaschiy
Seat 5 Barry Leventhal
Seat 6 William Phipps
Seat 7 Boris Kravets
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos
Seat 10 Allen Bari

1:50pm - First real action has Jeremy Schoenberger doubling off Mark Herm. AT versus 99. Herm has been swimming upstream since his battle with Leventhal.

2:00pm - Leventhal's railbirds are losing their minds. No judgment calls from me. But he is wearing a Shockey jersey. Just saying.

2:05pm - No real action at the table but the battle of the railbirds started heating up but ended quickly when "Shockey" fell out of the stands. Leventhal is alive and kicking well but his railbird's day is over.

2:10pm - Blinds are now at 40k/80k/10k with the average chip at exactly 1,725,000. God bless ten handed math.

2:15pm - First elimination at the final table. Boris Kravets pushed as a shorty and was called by Paul Kitsos. Kitsos proves the presto is gold. Kravets collects $22,425 for 10th.

2:30pm - Things all of sudden got very tense. Nepomnyaschiy and Leventhal were involved in a hand and Phipps starts talking about the two soft playing each other. Both are warned by the TD but the chatter kept going between the three. Eventually all three were warned but things escalated. Leventhal was given a 10 hand penalty and ended up standing toe-to-toe with Phipps before leaving the area. Leventhal's railers were also given a warning.

2:33pm - Phipps takes the opportunity to almost felt Mark Herm. T2d for Herm, AKo for Phipps. Ten on the flop was outdone by a King on the turn. Herm doesn't have enough for the blinds.

He pushed his last 95k was knocked out by Schoenberger. After a great run, Mark Herm takes home $34,500 for 9th place.

2:50pm - Leventhal is back after his penalty. Things have calmed but we will see what happens once he starts slinging chips. Alex Nepomnyaschiy has been very quiet and is the shortstack at the table. This is a big change from his 20+ vodkas and slam dancing action near the end of day 2.

3:10pm - Things have slowed back down with no one willing to tangle with the big stacks and everything calmed down. Players are now on a 15 minutes and we're working on chip counts. 8 still remain.

3:20pm - Current chip counts at the break:

Seat 1 Alan Colon - 1,200,000
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja - 2,800,000
Seat 4 Alex Nepomnyaschiy - 1,100,000
Seat 5 Barry Leventhal - 2,400,000
Seat 6 William Phipps - 1,500,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger - 1,600,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos - 2,100,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari - 4,000,000

Blinds are 50k/100k/10k

3:50pm - Leventhal and Nepomnyaschiy had a significant hand that didn't really push many chips around but was interesting. Nepomnyaschiy folded AQ face up to a re-raise from Leventhal after tanking for a decade. Leventhal showed AK. Yesterday's version of Alex would be signing his prize sheet right for 8th right about now.

4:00pm - Possible misstep by Schoenberger by not catching the biggest tell in the world on Leventhal. While headsup, Shoenberger was contemplating calling a 600k river bet when Leventhal thought he heard a call and said "You got me" and started to show his cards even though there was no call. Floor and dealer confirmed there was no call. Either Schoenberger missed that piece of information or wasn't buying it because he ended up folding. Leventhal then mucks face up showing his airball bluff.

4:20pm - Alan Colon just doubled up off Allen Bari with AK versus KQ. Not much dancing going on at this point.

4:30pm - Blinds are now 50k/100k/15k with average stack just shy of 2,200,000. We've been 8 handed for two hours.

5:00pm - Classic deepstack final table. Flops are few and far between, railbirds are getting anxious and things will start to heating up prior to the upcoming dinner break.

5:30pm - Players on a dinner break. Most excitement I've had over the last 3 hours has been trying to figure out who is getting my dinner money.

6:20pm - Current chip counts:

Seat 1 Alan Colon - 1,600,000
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja - 1,400,000
Seat 4 Alex Nepomnyaschiy - 1,200,000
Seat 5 Barry Leventhal - 2,600,000
Seat 6 William Phipps - 500,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger - 1,400,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos - 3,300,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari - 5,400,000

Blinds staying 50k/100k/15k

6:35pm - Didn't take long for the first player to hit the rail after the break. William Phipps was severely short but caught AK. Allen Bari called with T9 and caught a 9. Phipps finishes in 8th for $51,750.

7:00pm - Players are getting a little chippy as they realize the end could come at any time. Railbirds are taking catnaps waiting for the next big action. TD's are probably tired of seeing all our faces for the last 70+ hours. I'm afraid to go on a hunt for RedBull lest I miss some action.

7:20pm - Big pot between Jeremy Schoenberger and chip leader Allen Bari. Schoenberger and Bari get all the chips in preflop with ATh versus QQ. Bari hit a set on the AKx one heart flop but Schoenberger went running hearts to pick up a huge pot.

8:00pm - New blind level is 60k/120k/20k. I've found a brand new way to entertain myself as these guys continue to push chips around to each other. And just like a good bluff, you have to use it at the right time. Suddenly moving out of my seat towards the table will have the entire stands full of railbirds get up and move forward. The dealer feels special getting all that attention when he is just collecting the blinds.

8:15pm - Barry Leventhal is out. Action folded around to Alex Nepomnyaschiy on the button who came in for 500k. Leventhal pushed in for an extra 860k. Nepomnyaschiy tanked and eventually called. His JJ survived again Leventha's AQ. Barry Leventhal will collect $69,000 for his 7th place finish.

8:20pm - Approximate chip counts in the middle of play:

Seat 1 Alan Colon - 2,000,000
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja - 1,700,000
Seat 4 Alex Nepomnyaschiy - 3,200,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger - 1,600,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos - 3,200,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari - ~7,000,000

8:30pm - At the beginning of the day Barry Leventhal promised to tip the dealers 10% of whatever he won. True to his word, he came straight back to the tournament room and deposited $6,900 into the dealer toke. Good man.

Anti-climatic hand between Schoenberger and Kitsos. Kitsos called Schoenberger's allin and they both turned up AQo with Schoebergers Qd freerolling the flush on the turn. Blank on the turn and chopped up.

8:35pm - Alex Nepomnyaschiy has decided to give himself a nickname. From hence forth until we've gone completely loopy, he will be called Alex "Jedi Master" Nepomnyaschiy.

8:40pm - Things are popping along again. Alan Colon open shoved with KTc and was snap called by Paul Kitsos with QQ. Colon doubled up when his saving King hit the turn. Action is picking up but it still took us 5 hours to go from 8 players to 6. The "Jedi Master" is starting to pick up his chatter now that we are 6 handed.

8:50pm - Alan Colon's KT luck has run out. In the SB he pushed in 1,700,000 with KT and was eventually called by Vinny Pahuja in the BB with 88. The eights held up and Alan Colon is out 6 place finisher getting $86,250.

9:00pm - Break time. Next level is 70k/140k/25k. Approximate chip counts at break:

Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja 3,800,000
Seat 4 Alex "Jedi Master" Nepomnyaschiy 3,200,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger 3,250,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos 2,100,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari 5,500,000

10:00pm - Things got a little strange and then techno issues kicked in. Between all that happening the tournament ended and we have a 2008 Borgata Summer Open Main Event winner.

Allen Bari outlasted Vinny Pahuja to take down the title, add $500k plus to his bankroll and add some fine jewelry.

New comer Jeremy Schoenberger finished 3rd followed by Alex "Jedi Master" Nepomnyaschiy in 4th and Paul Kitsos in 5th.

Standby for the followup post and live interviews. Congratulations to Allen Bari.