It’s not that unusual for poker tournaments to finish in a deal, with the ultimate few contenders re-distributing the remaining prize cash to clean out among the massive jumps in prize cash on the prime. What one doesn’t usually see, although, is a winner’s photograph that includes each co-champions.
That’s exactly what went down on the finish of the 2025 Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit maintain’em championship occasion, although. Joseph Neiman (1st – $406,971) and Nguyen Le (2nd – $425,000) chopped, with the previous profitable the ultimate all-in flip to finish because the official first-place finisher whereas the latter walked away with the bigger prime prize. Each gamers have been capable of depart with a trophy, with one from the internet hosting venue (Borgata Resort On line casino & Spa in Atlantic Metropolis, NJ) and one other from BetMGM Poker, the presenting sponsor.
Neiman took house the bigger share of Card Participant Participant of the 12 months factors. The winner of the 1982 World Newbie Backgammon Championship secured 1,368 for this victory, sufficient to maneuver him into first place within the 2025 POY race standings offered by World Poker. Le sits simply behind him, having additionally recorded a final-table end within the opening occasion of the current PokerGO Tour Final Probability sequence. Le has a complete of 1,340 factors, with 1,140 earned for his exhibiting on this occasion.
A complete of 932 entries have been made throughout the 2 beginning flights and a few ranges of day 2 late registration on this match, surpassing the $2,000,000 assure to create a last prize pool of $2,875,255 that was paid out amongst the highest 119 finishers.
Loads of massive names ran deep, together with bracelet winner Justin Liberto (twenty third), four-time World Poker Tour champion Darren Elias (18th), 2022 WSOP Circuit Chicago fundamental occasion winner Frank Lagodich (seventeenth), 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas winner Christian More durable (fifteenth), bracelet winner Nick Pupillo (eleventh), bracelet winner Ryan Depaulo (ninth), and 2023 Seminole Exhausting Rock Poker Open fundamental occasion fourth-place Kitty Kuo (eighth).
The ultimate day started with six gamers nonetheless in rivalry and Le within the lead and Neiman in third chip[ position. Sal Evola was the first to fall. He got his last chips in with A-Q leading A-10 suited for Dorian Rios, but the board brought a ten to give Rios a pair and the pot. Evola earned a career-best live payday of $82,033 as the sixth-place finisher.
Dorian Rios’ tournament came to an end when his A-J ran into the A-Q suited of Clemen Deng. Rios surged ahead on a jack-high flop, while Deng picked up the nut flush draw. He ended up rivering a pair of queens to take the hand, sending Rios to the rail with $105,691.
Deng also scored the next knockout, with his pocket aces besting the A-6 of Phil Saracino (4th – $153,430). Deng had the hand locked up by the turn, and entered three-handed play as the chip leader. It took several hours before the next knockout arrived. Deng had slid to the bottom of the counts, and eventually got all-in with A
7
trailing the AJ of Neiman. The board ran out K32J
7
to end Deng’s run in third place ($233,882). The rising tournament star now has more than $2.7 million in recorded tournament earnings.
Neiman held better than a 2:1 chip lead over Le to start, but stacks leveled out before the two traded the lead back-and-forth a few times. They eventually decided to cut a deal, with Le locking up the larger payday given his lead at the time. With that, this huge tournament officially came to a close, and the victorious duo lined up for their unusual winner’s photos.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
Place
Player
Earnings
POY Points
1
Joseph Neiman
$406,791
1368
2
Nguyen Le
$425,000
1140
3
Clemen Deng
$233,882
912
4
Philip Saracino
$153,430
684
5
Dorian Rios
$105,691
570
6
Salvatore Evola
$82,033
456
7
Tom Mcnicholas
$65,053
342
8
Kitty Kuo
$51,919
228
9
Ryan Depaulo
$41,315
114
Photo credit: Poker.org.
