In mask-carnival the religion exemplary player flick Rounders (1998), poker hero Mike McD lets the crowd know that Las Vegas is the undisputed “focus of the poker universe.”
That might have been valid for WSOP hopefuls like him, yet genuine Rounders fans can see you Mike never sits down in Sin City. All things considered, he pivots between the Big Apple and Atlantic City to devour a constant flow of sightseers.
As the East Coast’s solitary poker area of interest quite a while back, Atlantic City was the demonstrating ground for the majority of the game’s most achieved masters, including World Poker Tour legend Darren Elias.
School Kid Turned Online Poker Prodigy
Darren Elias was brought into the world in Boston in 1986, yet his dad’s profession as a school football trainer implied he would spend his life as a youngster crisscrossing the nation over.
Ultimately, the Elias family settled down in Pennsylvania, however Darren’s water polo gifts landed him at the University of Redlands in California.
Not yet 21 years of age, Elias found the quickly developing universe of genuine cash online poker, where he figured out how to go a $11 become involved with $15,000 on the PokerStars stage.
As he later told CardPlayer Magazine, this early triumph pushed Elias into a blossoming vocation as an expert poker player:
“From that point forward, everything recently compounded. I put in a ton of volume and begun playing for greater stakes. I wasn’t mature enough to play in Las Vegas yet, so I would win satellites online to go to Europe or Australia and play in a portion of the greater purchase in competitions around there.”
By mid 2009, still just 22 years of age, Elias banked $126,544 for winning his most memorable vocation Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) title. After one year, a 6th spot run in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event delivered a $396,987 pull, which was immediately trailed by a PokerStars Sunday Million last table for $114,570 more.
During this warmer, Elias was additionally ascending the live competition stepping stool in series from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, however his biggest score yet anticipated in Atlantic City.
Atlantic City’s Adopted Son Comes Home to Crush
With his folks actually living in adjoining Pennsylvania, Elias had a lot of involvement crushing the poker scene in Atlantic City, explicitly at the Borgata Poker Room.
Opened in 2003, the Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa immediately became Atlantic City’s chief objective for high-profile competition series like the World Poker Tour (WPT). By 2011, the WPT Borgata Poker Open had become one of the visit’s unique stops, went to by authentic legends and hopeful stars, for example, Elias the same.
Borgata Atlantic City Poker Room
Yet, for Elias, the Borgata had proactively procured an exceptional spot in his heart because of reasons having nothing to do with lemon and folds. He met his significant other there when he was 22 years of age, as he affectionately reviewed to the WPT Blog in 2019.
Elias likewise told the WPT Blog that he went through numerous a drawn out evening crushing in the Borgata’s famously extreme money game field:
“Borgata has been great for poker for quite a while on the East Coast… I played a ton of money games at Borgata in my mid 20s and they’ve generally had great activity on the ends of the week.”
In this way, it was in September of 2011, when Elias sat down in the $3,300 purchase in WPT Borgata Poker Main Event. The esteemed no restriction Texas holdem (NLHE) competition pulled in a tremendous field of 1,313 sections, yet those numbers didn’t stop Elias the slightest bit as he played his direction to the six-gave broadcast last table.
Playing at his most memorable TV last table, Elias proceeded to experience a cooler with pocket Jacks losing to take lords in a preflop all-in conflict. Regardless, his fifth-place finish got $230,610 in prize cash for his biggest profession money to date.
Elias proceeded to add a next in line finish in the Borgata Fall Poker Open’s $1,650 purchase in heads-up NLHE occasion, trailed by a fourth-place run in a similar occasion at the 2012 Winter Poker Open. In any case, as a shrewd man once said, the best was on the way…
In 2014, Elias got back to Atlantic City to contend in the WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event.
Furthermore, almost three years to the day after his frustrating fifth-place leave, Elias made up for himself by overcoming a 1,226-passage field to gather up every single chip in play, all while his significant other and family observed live from the studio crowd. The triumph procured Elias an astounding $843,744 in rewards, alongside his most memorable vocation WPT title and the persevering through regard of his friends in the expert poker player positions.
Gotten some information about the profound excursion he encountered from 2011 to 2014, Elias told the WPT Blog that triumphant huge at the Borgata was a second he’d always remember:
“Coming out on top for my most memorable significant championship at Borgata, my home gambling club, was astounding. I made the last table a couple of years earlier in a similar occasion, and to have the option to finish it off before my loved ones felt better.”
The Borgata Continues to Be Elias’ Home Away From Home
Elias made a brave endeavor to safeguard his title one year after the fact, eventually bowing out in seventeenth spot from a 1,027-section field.
Quick forward two years after the fact, and Elias was back on his Borgata grind indeed, winning the 2017 Borgata Fall Poker Open Main Event for $293,062.
Ground View of the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City
He wasn’t finished pursuing WPT gold and greatness all things considered. Over the course of the following five years, Elias turned into the WPT’s unequaled competition title pioneer with four in front of the pack wraps up. By and large, Elias has won $3,893,049 on the WPT circuit alone, changing out on 40 events and parlaying those profound runs into 12 last tables and four triumphs, all tops in WPT history.
Also, with more than $7.5 million in vocation live competition profit, Elias presently positions 6th generally speaking on New Jersey’s record-breaking competitor list as per the Hendon Mob following data set.
Today, his kindred professionals gladly consider Elias the poker world’s “End Boss,” alluding to his uncanny skill of anticipating any and all individuals at significant competition last tables.