New York Contractor Wins $600 Tournament at Borgata

New York contractor Vitaly Kovyazin won the $600 Half-A-Milly Almighty tournament at the Borgata Fall Poker Open. The first-place prize was $88,315 from a field of 1,006 entrants. Kovyazin also received the Borgata and BetMGM Poker trophies.

Entering heads-up play with a large chip lead, Kovyazin faced Omar Taveras, a New York professional who had won a trophy earlier that week. When Taveras moved all his chips in with two sevens, Kovyazin called with two aces. Kovyazin later eliminated Taveras with another hand of aces to complete the tournament.

After the match, Kovyazin made a brief statement. "This is very important to me. It's my first big trophy. I'm very happy, honestly I can't put it into words. Seeing them made me happy. I didn't think too much about it, I just played my cards," he said.

Kovyazin has had cashes in his career since 2004. This is his best result since finishing second at a LAPT event in Brazil in 2008. Entering the final table third in chips, Kovyazin was more experienced than many of the other players at the table, though he said he did not think about that.