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Fresh off a win in November in the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $91k, Steve thorladen Weinstein was at it again. This time, he emerged victorious atop a field of 1,017 entrants in the $3,000 buy-in Borgata Winter Open Main Event. Formerly a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT), the Borgata tournament had a balmy $3.1 million in the prize pool. Weinstein, whose wife convinced him to play in the event, is one of the age-old members of PocketFives, having joined the site back in August of 2005. He sat down to discuss his Borgata success just a few days after the final cards were dealt.

On his overall tournament experience in the popular New Jersey casino, Weinstein commented, “I had a lot of big blinds and it seemed like the tournament went smoothly. I kept getting chips without a showdown.” Weinstein entered the final day of play 17th in out of 27 players and held about 30% of the stack of the chip leader. He was able to pick his spots carefully throughout the final day of play, eventually showing down a bluff and then tightening up. Weinstein explained, “I had queens and raised a really tight guy who knew that I had bluffed earlier on. He had pocket fives and the flop came 9-8-6. We both checked and the turn was a nine. He checked, I bet the pot, and he called. The river was another nine, so I shoved all in and he called. They all thought I was bluffing so much.”

Battling his way back from 17th during the final day didn’t faze the New York native. He recalled his mentality holding a below average stack: “People focus on averages and the place they’re in, but the key is the number of big blinds you have. I focus on having a shove stack and a re-shove stack. People dwell way too much on what their stack is relative to the average.” Four-handed, the massive prize pool was chopped, with Weinstein taking home $518,000. Todd Terry, Robert Merulla, and Robert McLaughlin were also part of the deal. Weinstein officially finished first.

Weinstein finished 10th in the Foxwoods Poker Classic Main Event for $33,000 last April. In the September, 2007 installment of the Borgata Poker Classic, he took 11th for $70,000. During the 2007 World Series of Poker, Weinstein finished 35th in a $1,000 rebuy tournament for $16,000. On the development of his skills on the poker felts, he told PocketFives.com, “I think my overall poker game has gotten a lot better. Any game that I am at least break-even in, I want to play against the best competition. The better people you play against makes you better much faster.”

In 1981, the PocketFiver became the youngest person ever to win the National Life Master Pair title in bridge at age 18. One year later, he took down the Goldman title at 19 years-old. He had traveled to Atlantic City to talk over strategy with his bridge partner and had no intentions of entering the Borgata Winter Open Main Event. On his decision to compete, he explained, “I have the most supportive wife in the world. She really encouraged me to go down and play it.” Weinstein had intended to prepare for a national bridge tournament, but instead wound up winning over a half-million dollars in the Borgata Winter Open.

Online, he took down the Sunday 500 on PokerStars in November for $91,000. One month earlier, he won the $200 rebuy on the same online poker site for $51,000. He has also logged a win in the Nightly Hundred Grand on PokerStars for $26,000 and finished second in the $100 rebuy for another $27,500. In December, he took third in the $200 rebuy for $22,000 and finished 16th in the most recent Full Tilt Online Poker Series Two Day Event for $21,000. That tournament was won by PocketFiver Amit amak316 Makhija.

Being accomplished in both bridge and poker means a unique opportunity to generate income in both games. Weinstein explains how he’s been able to juggle the two: “Both of them play off each other. Playing one game makes me better at the other. I don’t play either game for the money, but balancing both of them is more enjoyable to me and stops burnout.”

Congratulations to Steve thorladen Weinstein, accomplished bridge and poker pro, for his win in the Borgata Winter Open in Atlantic City.