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Borgata The Return Mystery Bounty Event Ends With Nine-Way Deal

Samuel Laskowitz Was The Official Champion Of The $2,200 Buy-In Event That Drew 1,361 Entries

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The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ welcomed back tournament poker players in the early days of 2023 with The Return Poker Championship, a four-event festival with more than $4 million in guaranteed prize money.

The first event on the schedule was the $2,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em mystery bounty event. The tournament attracted a massive field of 1,361 entries, creating a final prize pool of $2,670,340.

The final day of the tournament was running for approximately 18 hours before a nine-way deal between the entire final table brought the event to an unusual conclusion at 5:00 a.m. local time. The remaining nine contenders made an ICM chop of the main prize pool, which resulted in Sam Laskowitz securing the title and the largest payout of $146,609. This was the second-largest score ever for the New York state resident, trailing only the $256,170 he earned as the runner-up in the 2022 World Series of Poker Colossus event.

Anthony Maio took home $142,054 as the second-place finisher, while bracelet winner Ryan Eriquezzo earned $132,093 for his third-place showing.

The final nine also ultimately agreed that each remaining player would get one of the nine bounties still up for grabs, which included a $250,000 grand prize bounty. The bounties would be drawn in a randomized order that was decided by high cards. The shortest stack at the table when the deal was made belonged to Ryan Dodd. He was second in line to pull a bounty and managed to draw up the quarter-million dollar bounty.

Check out a video of his lucky pull via PokerNews’ live coverage of the event:

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the main prize pool after the nine-way deal:

Place Player Earnings POY Points
1 Sam Laskowitz $146,609 960
2 Anthony Maio $142,054 800
3 Ryan Eriquezzo $132,093 640
4 Baruch Forst $123,817 480
5 Maxim Urvantsev $122,844 400
6 Benedetto Biano $116,700 320
7 Constantine Bogiatzis $116,249 240
8 Francis Anderson $104,084 160
9 Ryan Dodd $92,098 80

And here are the bounties that were pulled by the final nine (in order from first to last):

Baruch Forst – $500
Ryan Dodd – $250,000
Francis Anderson – $25,000
Constantine Bogiatzis -$500
Anthony Maio – $500
Samuel Laskowitz – $25,000
Maxim Urvantsev – $500
Ryan Eriquezzo – $500
Benedetto Bianco – $500

Winner photo credit: PokerNews / Rachel Kay Miller.