Baruch Fishman Turns One Bullet Into Borgata Title
The Philadelphia dental technician won the $500 Almighty Stack for $108,840 after a three-way ICM deal and a heads-up finish.
Baruch Fishman turned a single bullet into a Borgata Almighty Stack title, winning the $500 event at the 2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open for $108,840. The Philadelphia cash-game player and dental technician outlasted a huge field after a three-way ICM deal and a heads-up finish.
According to PokerNews, Fishman had only $6,172 in live tournament earnings across five recorded cashes before this run. He said he had just started playing tournaments and called the score the deepest he had ever gone.
The event drew 2,209 entries and built a $927,780 prize pool. Just under 24 hours of poker were played from the first shuffle, and 279 players made the money.
By the final table, Fishman was fifth in chips with 16 million, well behind John Malczan’s 75 million and Yuriy Kudrynskyy’s 57.5 million. William Shaw had 31 million, John Wilson 29.5 million and Raymond Ferretti 12 million.
Malczan had already done a lot of the damage on Day 3, first by helping reach the nine-handed table and then by busting Toby Gafner in seventh to set the final six. Ferretti was the first to fall at the final table when his pocket eights ran into Fishman’s pocket kings, and Wilson next exited when his ace-jack failed against kings.
After a break, the final three agreed to an ICM chop but still played for the trophy, with an extra $15,480 reserved for the eventual champion. Fishman then quickly doubled through Shaw with aces, Shaw took third, and Kudrynskyy’s final shove with king-six ran into Fishman’s ace-nine to end the tournament.
Fishman said the win felt unreal and that he had run “so pure” on Day 2, holding in every all-in. He also said he enjoyed tournaments more than cash games, but had to return to his normal job that evening and had no immediate tournament plans.
