So Sick, That Quick: Rajkumar Wins Borgata

It took one massive hand and just 47 others for Vivek Rajkumar to take down the WPT Season 7 Borgata Poker Open in record time tonight.

 

Vivek's East Coast coming-out party started fast and never really slowed down, with New Yorker Andrew Knee going out sixth in what seemed like the first six minutes of play.

Knee shoved short with a weak ace and got the call from fellow shorty Jason Strochak and his pair of tens. Strochak's tens held and he looked primed to run deep when he got Absolute Poker's Mark Seif all in a few hands later.

Strochak had two black queens against Seif's eights and was all smiles until Seif sucked out, flopping an eight. Strochak was left crippled, but a nasty little thing called karma would come back and bite Seif in the butt soon after.

Strochak tripled up to stay alive over the next few hands and suddenly and decisively, the biggest pot of the tournament played out.

Seif and Rajkumar got into a huge pre-flop raising war that culminated with Vivek pushing all-in and Seif making the call.

It ain't Seif no more.

A $12 million pot hung in the balance and Seif laid claim to it felting aces over Vivek's tens. But just as Seif had sucked out on Strochak, Vivek did the dirty to him, flopping a ten and never looking back.

A crippled Seif busted a few hands later to take fifth and with almost a 2-1 lead on the rest of the field, Rajkumar went into end-game mode.

Vivek didn't have to do much of the work to get three-handed as Jason Strochak and Sang Kim ran into each other, with Kim coming out ahead in a kings-over-queens scenario that practically played itself.

Strochak was left with a chip and a chair, but that didn't last long and he busted fourth. Dan Heimiller then took a run at Rajkumar with Q 3, but that only served to cement the fact it was Vivek's day when he called with A 5, flopped a five and went runner-runner for quads to end Heimiller.

Heads-up looked like it was over before it started, with Rajkumar coming in on close to $16 million to Sang Kim's $4 million. Within just a few hands, all the money went in the middle.

Sang had A Q against Vivek's A J, but even domination could not stop the Rajkumar run to Borgata glory.

So sick, that quick.

He flopped a jack and after two bricks on the turn and river, the $1.4 million first-place prize was his.

The 48-hand final six represents a new record for the WPT and considering the speed and ferocity with which he played here at Borgata, Vivek Rajkumar could not be a more fitting record holder. Another poker-made millionaire has been crowned, and the PL.com crew must now say goodbye to Atlantic City.

We heard they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night so we've bought us two tickets on that coast city bus and we're out.