It’s not that uncommon for poker tournaments to end in a deal, with the final few contenders re-distributing the remaining prize money to smooth out some of the big jumps in prize money at the top. What one doesn’t often see, though, is a winner’s photo featuring both co-champions.
That is precisely what went down at the end of the 2025 Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em championship event, though. Joseph Neiman (1st – $406,971) and Nguyen Le (2nd – $425,000) chopped, with the former winning the final all-in flip to end as the official first-place finisher while the latter walked away with the larger top prize. Both players were able to leave with a trophy, with one from the hosting venue (Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ) and another from BetMGM Poker, the presenting sponsor.
Neiman took home the larger share of Card Player Player of the Year points. The winner of the 1982 World Amateur Backgammon Championship secured 1,368 for this victory, enough to move him into first place in the 2025 POY race standings presented by Global Poker. Le sits just behind him, having also recorded a final-table finish in the opening event of the recent PokerGO Tour Last Chance series. Le has a total of 1,340 points, with 1,140 earned for his showing in this event.
A total of 932 entries were made across the two starting flights and a couple of levels of day 2 late registration in this tournament, surpassing the $2,000,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $2,875,255 that was paid out amongst the top 119 finishers.
Plenty of big names ran deep, including bracelet winner Justin Liberto (23rd), four-time World Poker Tour champion Darren Elias (18th), 2022 WSOP Circuit Chicago main event winner Frank Lagodich (17th), 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas winner Christian Harder (15th), bracelet winner Nick Pupillo (11th), bracelet winner Ryan Depaulo (9th), and 2023 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open main event fourth-place Kitty Kuo (8th).
The final day began with six players still in contention and Le in the lead and Neiman in third chip[ position. Sal Evola was the first to fall. He got his last chips in with A-Q leading A-10 suited for Dorian Rios, but the board brought a ten to give Rios a pair and the pot. Evola earned a career-best live payday of $82,033 as the sixth-place finisher.
Dorian Rios’ tournament came to an end when his A-J ran into the A-Q suited of Clemen Deng. Rios surged ahead on a jack-high flop, while Deng picked up the nut flush draw. He ended up rivering a pair of queens to take the hand, sending Rios to the rail with $105,691.
Deng also scored the next knockout, with his pocket aces besting the A-6 of Phil Saracino (4th – $153,430). Deng had the hand locked up by the turn, and entered three-handed play as the chip leader. It took several hours before the next knockout arrived. Deng had slid to the bottom of the counts, and eventually got all-in with A
7
trailing the AJ of Neiman. The board ran out K32J
7
to end Deng’s run in third place ($233,882). The rising tournament star now has more than $2.7 million in recorded tournament earnings.
Neiman held better than a 2:1 chip lead over Le to start, but stacks leveled out before the two traded the lead back-and-forth a few times. They eventually decided to cut a deal, with Le locking up the larger payday given his lead at the time. With that, this huge tournament officially came to a close, and the victorious duo lined up for their unusual winner’s photos.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Joseph Neiman | $406,791 | 1368 |
| 2 | Nguyen Le | $425,000 | 1140 |
| 3 | Clemen Deng | $233,882 | 912 |
| 4 | Philip Saracino | $153,430 | 684 |
| 5 | Dorian Rios | $105,691 | 570 |
| 6 | Salvatore Evola | $82,033 | 456 |
| 7 | Tom Mcnicholas | $65,053 | 342 |
| 8 | Kitty Kuo | $51,919 | 228 |
| 9 | Ryan Depaulo | $41,315 | 114 |
Photo credit: Poker.org.