Champion - Ernst

John Ernst (Oakhurst, NJ)  

$19,988

After trading the chip lead back and forth heads-up for 30 minutes, Ernst wins the third annual Put a Bad Beat on Hunger poker tournament, presented by Cabot Creamery Cooperative.  Ernst beat Ivailo Dimov (Astoria, NY) to take home $19,988 and earned a $3,500 seat into the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship event.

"This is great," says Ernst, who's a regular player for Borgata's Wednesday tournaments.  "This is by far my biggest win, and I'm looking forward to coming back in September."

On the final hand, Ernst has 2♠ 2♦ vs A♥ J♦ and wins the coin flip when the flop of 2♥ J♠ 6♥ gives Ernst a set and he avoids runner-runner when the board bricks out.

Ernst is the last man standing in a tournament that featured 283 entries, including pro players Bernard Lee, Roy Winston and Eric Buchman as he grabbed his share of the $73,580 total buy-in.

Ernst and several of the players donated more than $7,500 to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Full Tournament Results

Praet, Ernst, Lee & Schiers

Jon Praet and Bob Schiers of Cabot and pro Bernard Lee present John Ernst his ceremonial voucher for September's WPT seat, while Margie Barham accepts a $5,000 donation to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey from the cooperative.

Margie Barham, Executive Director of the Southern Branch 
of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey