Borgata Poker Open and WSOP Europe

22-Year Old Vivek Rajkumar won the 2008 Borgata Poker Open, taking home the $1.4 million dollar first place prize. The final table of the Borgata Poker Open included top pro Mark Seif but he ran into bad luck when his aces were cracked by Rajkumar’s tens.

Seif finished 5th and collected $287,500. The first player to go out at the final table was Andrew Knee who earned $237,500 for finishing sixth. Finishing fourth was Jason Strochak who won $337,500.

As the action got down to the final three players Dan Heimiller couldn’t overcome his short stack and finished third, earning $387,500. Heads-up play didn’t last long as Rajkumar took out Sang Kim.

It was only six hands into heads-up play before it was over. Kim collected $750,000 for his second-place finish.

In other poker tournament action, the 2008 WSOP Europe began in London, England. Jesper Hougaard defeated a field of 410 entrants to win the first event, a ₤1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament. Hougaard is the first player ever to win World Series of Poker bracelets in WSOP Europe and the WSOP in Las Vegas.

He won the $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament in the 2008 World Series of Poker. Hougaard started the WSOP Europe final table in eighth place but played well and was actually the chip leader when they got down to three players.

Here are the results from the first event of the 2008 WSOP Europe:

1st Place: Jesper Hougaard, ₤144,218
2nd Place: Fuad Serhan, ₤89,175
3rd Place: Yevgeniy Timoshenko, ₤55,350
4th Place: Neil Channing, ₤44,588
5th Place: John Dwyer, ₤36,285
6th Place: Adam Junglen, ₤28,598
7th Place: Linda Lee, ₤22,448
8th Place: Ian Woodley, ₤17,835
9th Place: Daniel Nutt, ₤13,222

The second tournament of WSOP Europe is underway. It is the £2,650 buy-in HORSE event. Many top pros are in contention including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and Andy Bloch.