Andrew Chang pulled off one of the more dramatic comebacks of the 2026 Borgata Big Big Series, storming back from a ten-big-blind, five-to-one chip deficit in heads-up play to win Event #2, the $2,200 Big Big Kick Off, for $182,000. The victory at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City capped a wild run that included multiple all-in survivals, a dead-money nickname from his own tablemates, and a heads-up turnaround that unfolded in barely two levels.
A Massive Field for the Big Big Kick Off
The Big Big Kick Off drew 456 total entries across two starting flights, building a $1,000,000 prize pool for the event that opens the annual Borgata Big Big Series, a stretch of tournaments that blends marquee no-limit hold’em events with specialty formats through the fall in Atlantic City. A field of that size guarantees a long, grinding structure, and Chang’s path through it was anything but smooth.
Along the way, Chang was whittled down to just five big blinds by chip leader Nick Pupillo, a stack size that leaves almost no room for error and usually signals an early exit. Instead, Chang survived repeated all-in confrontations to claw his way back into contention, eliminating Matthew Constanzo and Jeremy Becker as the field narrowed. His resilience through those spots earned him the nickname “nine lives” from the players around him, a tag that turned out to be fitting once the final table played out. Players newer to reading these late-tournament chip swings can find a refresher in Poker Pro Academy’s how to play poker guide before following the final-table sequence below.
Quad Aces and a Statement Pot
The final table produced its own share of fireworks well before Chang reached heads-up. David Stefanski built significant momentum after flopping quad aces against chip leader Pupillo’s full house, a cooler that swung a massive pot in Stefanski’s favor and reshuffled the stack sizes at the table. That pot positioned Stefanski as the man to beat heading into the closing stages, and by the time the field reached three-handed play, it was Stefanski, Chang and Namit Patel battling for the trophy. Patel departed in third for $87,725, setting up a heads-up match between Chang and Stefanski that looked, on paper, like a lopsided affair.
Down 5:1, Chang Refuses to Fold
When heads-up play began, Stefanski held a commanding five-to-one chip lead, with Chang sitting on roughly ten big blinds, a stack most players would describe as being on fumes. Short stacks in that spot are typically counted out, forced into a shove-or-fold pattern with little margin for maneuvering. Chang had other plans. Over the next two levels, he chipped away at Stefanski’s lead through a string of well-timed shoves and calls, gradually erasing the deficit that had looked insurmountable only minutes earlier.
The match swung entirely in that stretch, and by the time the final hand arrived, the two players were competing on far more even footing than the start of heads-up play had suggested.
King-Jack Completes the Turnaround
The title hand saw Chang’s king-jack hold up against Stefanski’s ace-three, sealing a turnaround that had seemed unlikely just two levels earlier. Stefanski settled for the runner-up prize of $126,375, a significant score in its own right but a distant second to the outcome he appeared destined for when heads-up play began. For Chang, the $182,000 payday validated a run built almost entirely on survival instinct rather than a dominant stack for most of the tournament.
“Persistence and fortune,” Chang said when asked to sum up his run, crediting his composure through the multiple all-in spots that could have ended his tournament well before the money reached six figures.
Setting the Tone for the Borgata Big Big Series
As the opening event of the 2026 Borgata Big Big Series, the Kick Off’s $1,000,000 prize pool and dramatic finish set a high bar for the events that follow it through the rest of the series calendar. Big field, marquee buy-in tournaments like this one routinely produce the kind of late-stage chip swings that separate recreational fields from the series regulars, and Chang’s run is a reminder of how quickly fortunes can change once a tournament reaches its final two or three tables.
Series organizers built the Big Big Kick Off as a marquee curtain-raiser precisely because of moments like this one. A short stack surviving cooler after cooler before completing a heads-up turnaround against five-to-one odds is the kind of story that keeps recreational and professional players alike buying into the next event on the schedule, and it leaves the rest of the Borgata Big Big Series with a difficult act to follow.
With the series continuing across the coming weeks, Chang’s win joins an early highlight reel that already includes Jeffrey Gibson’s mixed-game title, underlining just how competitive the 2026 Borgata Big Big Series has been right out of the gate.
