Phil Hellmuth wins his first tournament of 2019
It didn’t take the legend that is Phil Hellmuth long to win his first tournament of 2019 as he took down the 2019 Borgata Winter Poker Open Heads-Up Trophy.
A field of 64 started out in the knockout-style Heads-Up event where each match was a best of 3 affair.
Some of the big names joining him – all of whom went out at the last 64 stage – included Joe McKeehen, Anthony Zinno and Anthanasios Polychronopoulos.
Hellmuth’s path to the final was far from easy and saw him overcome Wenhao Ying in the last 64, Tim Reilly in the last 32 and Travis Greenawaltt in the last 16 which saw Hellmuth recover from a large deficit to progress.
Steven Sarmiento was next to fall by the wayside followed by Ryan Hall in the last 4.
On the other side of the draw, it was Joey Capello who made it through to the final, getting the better of Aleksei Vandyshev, Alex Rocha, Alex Queen, Dylan Gang and Olivier Busquet in the final 4.
In the end, Hellmuth’s K9o was enough to see off the all-in of Capello’s Q7 after a 3 hour marathon final.
The 8 players who finished in the money were:
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil Hellmuth | $37,248 |
| 2 | Joey Cappello | $18,624 |
| 3 | Ryan Hall | $9,312 |
| 4 | Olivier Busquet | $9,312 |
| 5 | Steven Sarmiento | $4,656 |
| 6 | Mike Vela | $4,656 |
| 7 | Dylan Gang | $4,656 |
| 8 | Chris O’Hara | $4,656 |
Many congratulations to all winners from everyone at LateReg!
