Erkut Yilmaz Wins 2018 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open

Erkut Yilmaz has won the 2018 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open $3,500 buy-in, $3 million guaranteed no-limit hold’em main event. The 42-year-old poker pro based out of Sacramento, CA defeated a field of 1,075 total entries to earn his first WPT title and the $575,112 first-place prize, by far the largest of his career. The 2014 Card Player Poker Tour Atlantis main event winner now has roughly $1.5 million in lifetime live tournament earnings.

Yilmaz entered the final day of this event as the runaway chip leader, holding just over half of the total chips in play with six players remaining. Eliminations came quickly at the final table, with Anthony Maio being the first to hit the rail in sixth place ($121,697) when he ran king-jack offsuit into the pocket kings of Austin Wentling. Liam He was the next player to be knocked out, with his 1010 losing a preflop all-in against the J9 of Oleg Shnaider. He took home $159,616 as the fifth-place finisher.

T.K. Miles began the final day in third chip position, but he had built his stack in the early going and managed to overcome Yilmaz by the time the next bustout took place. Austin Wentling shoved the last of his short stack with pocket nines and was called by both Miles and Yilmaz. Miles held the Q9 and paired his queen on the flop and his hand held up from there. With that Miles extended his lead, sending Wentling home in fourth place ($211,562).

The next big hand saw Oleg Shnaider get all-in preflop holding the AJ. He had run into the AK of Yilmaz. The board came down 54365 and Shnaider was eliminated in third place ($283,341).

With that Yilmaz took 25,600,000 into heads-up play against Miles, who sat with 17,350,000. The two battled it out for 56 hands before a winner was decided. In the final hand Miles limped in from the button with the K5 and Yilmaz checked from the big blind with the 63. The flop brought the 543 and Yilmaz checked. Miles bet 800,000 and Yilmaz raised all-in, having Miles’ 15,800,000 stack covered. Miles made the call with his top pair, but had to fade a lot of outs. Yilmaz picked up two pair on the turn when the 6 hit the board. The 4 on the river sealed it, securing the pot and the title for Yilmaz. Miles was eliminated in second place. He took home $383,399 as the runner-up finisher, the largest payday of his career.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.

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