The Event Center was full with some of the biggest names in poker during Day 1A of Event 20 ($3,300 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship), but it would be a name familiar to Borgata that ended up bagging the chip lead. Benny Bianco’s (Franklin, NY) career highlight came two years ago when he won Event 1 of the 2012 Borgata Poker Open ($309,196), besting a field of 3,705 entries. Bianco has just five recorded cashes in the years since the win, but he’s got his name on top once more, bagging an unbelievable 389,000 (returning with 426 big blinds). Andrew Atkinson (240,000) and Allyn Shulman (231,200) would round off the top three stacks from this opening flight, which saw a total of 172 players bag chips (from 400 total entries).
The Day 1A field saw notables from all over the poker world converging on the Event Center, including 2013 Main Event winner Ryan Riess, Carlos Mortensen, Maurice Hawkins, Shawn Cunix, Dan Shak, Ray Qartomy, and Melissa Burr. Among the notables who made it through the day are Travell Thomas (196,600), Cornel Cimpan (166,900), Darren Elias (126,100), James Calderaro (100,700), Matt Affleck (85,100) and Mike Leah (77,800). Defending champion Anthony Zinno made it through to Day 2, finishing the day with 146,900.
Some of the players who did not make it through the field today include Tyler Patterson, Jared Jaffee, Jonathan Little, Matt Salsberg and WPT Season XII Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja.
Day 1B kicks off at 11:00am, and with it being the last chance for players to get into this prestigious event, it’s sure to be a very busy day. Registration is open until the start of Level 7, which is after the dinner break for the day (8:20pm). If you’re a fan of Borgata Poker…or poker in general, you will not want to miss the updates throughout today’s play. Action kicks off in just under an hour, with live coverage resuming once the cards are in the air!!