This week, yet another World Poker Tour Event took place across the pond, this time at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in, yep you guessed it... Borgata.
And, as has been the pattern of recent WPT Events, the $10,000 Main Event was to be won by a name unfamiliar to most households, Mark Newhouse.
Although Mark placed 5th in a WSOP Limit Event for $56,470, he is not well known on the circuit, yet has shown his calibre as a fearsome poker player by fending off a host of renowned poker stars and winning a cool $1,519,020, not to mention that $25,000 Bellagio seat - not a bad day at the office.
Hailing from Chapel Hill in North Carolina, Newhouse had to come from behind to defeat eventual runner-up, Chris McCormack, who had a chip lead of 8,625,000 to 4,350,000 going into the Heads Up battle.
But, in what will surely be exciting televised viewing, Newhouse soon doubled through when he flopped two pair to McCormack's top pair (K-5 vs K-7 on a K-5-x flop).
And then it appeared to be all over as McCornack moved all-in preflop with A-8, only to run into Newhouse's Pocket Kings. But, as with most tournaments, winning wasn't going to be that straight forward as the first card that hit the felt was the dreaded Ace. A double up for McCornack, and the fight was back on.
But alas, it wasn't to be as Newhouse found another big pair, this time the lovely Ladies, which, on this occasion, stood strong in the face of McCormack's A-J off.
Newhouse filled up on a T-5-4-T-Q board and it was all over, we had our latest WPT champion, and our latest millionaire - a club that seems to be frequently increasing in size.
Although the 'name' players were nowhere to be seen come the very latter stages, stars such as Kathy Liebert, John Pham, Chad Brown, Mark Seif, Barry Greenstein and actress Jennifer Tilly (above-left) did manage small cashes, the latter taking $52,380 for her 15th place finish.
One name that did make the final table, and a few bucks for that matter, was acclaimed poker author, David Sklansky (right), a highly respected figure, not only in the poker world, but the literature one also. And whilst Sklansky was forced to settle for 3rd place when his 5-5 ran into McCormack's Pocket Tens, he will surely be proud of his final day finish.
[Ed Note: To view the resuts of this comp, please click here]