The 2020 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event drew a massive field of 1,290 total entries, blowing away the event’s $3,000,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $4,129,290. Cards got in the air for this event on January 26. After two starting flights and three more days of action, that sea of players has been narrowed down to just six. The remaining competitors are all now guaranteed a payday of at least $143,264, but surely each of them has their eyes on the title and the top prize of $674,840.
The champion won’t de decided in this event for roughly two months, as this tournament is one of the first waves of WPT events to utilize a delayed final table format. Play concluded with the elimination of Peter Vitantonio in seventh place ($110,338) late on Thursday, Jan. 30. The final six bagged up their chips, with action set to resume on April 1. The final table will be filmed for television and live-streamed online at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The chip leader heading into the final table is Veerab Zakarian. His 11,990,000 will be good for roughly 100 big blinds when play resumes with 10:32 remaining in level 30, which features blinds of 60,000-120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante. The Canadian is in prime position to add a massive amount of money to his current career live tournament earnings of $336,933. James Anderson sits in second chip position with 10,040,000. The Wooster, Ohio resident won his first World Series of Poker bracelet last summer in the $1,111 Little One For One Drop event, earning $690,686. He’ll be looking to add WPT champion to his list of tournament accolades in April.
Brian Altman (pictured above) will enter the final table in third chip position with 9,865,000. Altman is fresh off of making poker history as the first player to ever win the same WPT main event twice. He took down the 2020 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 no-limit hold’em main event for $482,636 on Jan. 22, five years after having taken down the same tournament in 2015. Just over a week after emerging victorious in that event, Altman managed to navigate his way through the massive field in this main event to give himself a shot at his third WPT main event title. He would become only the sixth player in history to achieve that feat if he is successful this spring.
Bin Weng bagged up 8,890,000 to enter the final table in fourth chip position. He has already secured the largest cash of his tournament career by making it this far, and would more than double his total earnings with a finish inside the top three spots. Andrew Hanna sits in fifth place with 6,730,000, and like Weng, is at the biggest final table of his tournament career. The New Jersey resident has already managed to double his lifetime totals by making the top six.
Rounding out the final table is Nathan Russler with 3,990,000. Prior to making this final table, his largest score was for $75,407 as the 15th-place finisher in the 2019 WSOP $1,500 no-limit hold’em ‘Millionaire Maker’ event.
Here is a look at chip counts of the final six players:
| Rank | Player | Chip Counts |
| 1 | Veerab Zakarian | 11,990,000 |
| 2 | James Anderson | 10,040,000 |
| 3 | Brian Altman | 9,865,000 |
| 4 | Bin Weng | 8,890,000 |
| 5 | Andrew Hanna | 6,730,000 |
| 6 | Nathan Russler | 3,990,000 |
Here are the remaining payouts up for grabs at the final table:
1st: $674,840 (includes $15,000 seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions)
2nd: $449,904
3rd: $333,012
4th: $248,913
5th: $187,900
6th: $143,264
Altman photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.
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