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It's tough to think that if you don't win a tournament in a year that you're slumping, but for Jeff Madsen, it seemed that way heading into 2010. Since the start of the year, Madsen has turned things around with a 19th place finish at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and now a massive $625,006 pay day by winning the Borgata Winter Poker Open main event.

The Borgata Poker Blog

No conspiracy here: Jeff Madsen won at the Borgata.

The final table wasn't a smooth ride for the champ, but with some luck on his side, he was able to take control of the table. The pivotal hand came during seven-handed play when Madsen faced off against Al Grimes. Grimes, a Borgata regular, opened the action to $1.1 million which was 11-times the big blind. Facing this massive overbet, Madsen decided to move all-in for $3.3 million and was instantly called by Grimes who held K-K. Madsen showed A-K and would be an underdog heading to the flop of 4h-Qc-9d. An ace, two running hearts or straight cards would give Madsen the pot, but a 3h on the turn would limit him to only the ace or the hearts for the win. The river was the Qh and Madsen had taken down one of the biggest pots of the day.

Here's how Madsen recalled the action on his Twitter feed:

Tweet No. 1: "Just made a huge mistake…"

Tweet No. 2: "Guy over raised to 1.1 million. I shipped AK of hearts. So bad… He had KK"

Tweet No. 3: "I made a runner runner flush btw. 6.7 million now."

From that point on Madsen became the aggressor. He eliminated Grimes later in sixth place who was still devastated by the previous beat.

"I thought I had him," said Grimes to the Borgata Poker Blog. "That's the worst beat I ever took. I win that, I win the tournament."

It was the Madsen and Sirous Jamshidi show when action became four handed, but once again, Madsen would need to get extremely lucky to survive. Jonathan "Barkley" Hamilton was Madsen's next river victim.

After flopping a set of threes (9-3-5), Hamilton (holding 3-3) and Madsen (holding 4-4) both checked. The turn was a 10 and Hamilton led out with a half-pot bet. Madsen once again made the call and was "rewarded" with a four on the river to give Madsen a set. Hamilton bet out a value bet of $1.3 million into a pot of $3.6 million and Madsen moved all-in for another $800,000. Hamilton made the call and couldn't believe that Madsen had hit the two-outer. Crippled from the previous hand, Hamilton was then eliminated by Jamshidi who retained the chip lead as the table entered three-handed play.

On the very next hand, Thomas Marchese put all his chips at risk in a race situation against Madsen. Holding 9-9, Marchese would need the dealer to avoid the A-Q of Madsen. After the flop of 7-J-Q, it was all but over. An ace on the turn and the river 10 ended Marchese's tournament. Madsen and Jamshidi would now be even in chips to play for the title, but it would be Madsen dominating heads-up play and eventually knocking out Jamshidi holding K-10 to Jamshidi's Q-2.

Madsen will now turn his sights to the L.A. Poker Classic and the tattoo prop bet with Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok. Tournament Director of the LAPC Matt Savage let Madsen know that his accomplishments will be forgotten if he ends up with two tattoos on him. Madsen responded with confidence: "Ur … crazy if you think I'm losing that bet now! No way!"

Here are the final results from the Borgata main event:

1) Jeff Madsen ($625,006)

2) Sirous Jamshidi ($367,794)

3) Thomas Marchese ($190,027)

4) Jonathan Hamilton ($165,508)

5) Nicholas Kamen ($140,988)

6) Al Grimes ($116,468)

7) David Fox ($91,949)

8) Chan Pelton ($67,429)

9) Ross Mallor ($49,039)

10) Matt Matros ($31,876)

Small blinds: Doyle Brunson backed out from playing the PartyPoker Premier League citing that he doesn't feel that he plays his best when he's busy with a full schedule. Can you really blame him? Since the boom started he's been busy. … The Cake Blog is discussing a possible move of the WSOP away from the Rio and to Planet Hollywood in 2011. That would be bad news for the Rio, but I think having the event on the strip would be great. … High Stakes Poker returns to TV on February 14. … UB signed a sponsorship deal with the Bellator Fighting Championships. … Phil Hellmuth has hired Sam Chauhan as his mindset coach. Chauhan has coached others players recently including Antonio Esfandiari.… This may be a big week in the battle for legalized online poker in Washington D.C. Barney Frank and the PPA believe a committee vote on HR 2267 will be coming shortly.

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