Brian Lemke wins the Borgata Spring Poker Open Main Event after defeating Andy Spears, in heads-up action, to take the first prize of $276,949 in Atlantic City.
The Pennsylvanian native has just picked up the fourth six figure score of his career, and the second earned in the venue that recently won the Operator of the Year award at the 2015 EGR North American awards.
Lemke overcame 447 entrants to reign victorious in the Borgata Spring Open Main Event. The event carried a $1m guarantee. Lemke walked away with $276,949 after beating Andy Spears in heads-up action.
With the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championships in the house, a top quality field ascended on the Spring Poker Open, as was proved with the final table line up that Lemke had to lacerate.
The headline act was Joe Kuether. He is currently ranked #16 in the Global Poker Index (GPI) world rankings, and took his seat safe in the knowledge that he had already banked over $1.2m in 2015, including a seven figure score at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25k High Roller at the start of the year.
Kuether wasn’t the only final table occupant who had previous form at the PCA. Ben Zamani finished fourth in the PCA Main Event back in 2010 for a cool million dollars. Zamani also final tabled WPT Rolling Thunder, last season, finishing fifth.
Justin Zaki also made the final table. Zaki has experience at both WPT and World Series of Poker (WSOP) final tables, and James Gilbert was more than comfortable in his seat after beating 2,191 entrants, last year, to capture the first prize of $184,902 in a side event at the Borgata Fall Poker Open.
But Lemke is no slouch. He is a WSOP bracelet winner after winning a $5k event for $692,690 back in 2009. Back then he had to get through a final table that included the likes of Isaac Baron (7th), Mike Sowers (4th) and Fabian Quoss (2nd); and in 2012 he beat 1,041 entrants to pick up $111,076 in this very series.
Yet despite a final table brimming with stars, Lemke managed to find himself heads-up against the most inexperienced player of the six. It was 8m chips for Lemke, 5.4m for Andy Spears, and despite both having stacks deep enough for a long drawn out affair, the action ended after just two hands.
All eyes now transfer to that WPT World Championships. The $15,400 buy-in Freezeout, with no re-entries, attracted 234 players; 166 players got through to Day 2, with late registration still open until Level 9.
Final Table Results
1st. Brian Lemke – $276,949
2nd. Andy Spears – $159,886
3rd. James Gilbert – $97,558
4th. Ben Zamani – $78,588
5th. Justin Zaki – $61,787
6th. Joe Kuether – $51,489
