BorgataPoker.com
The 2018 Borgata Poker Open came to a close in the early morning hours of Saturday morning when the 21st BPO trophy found a new home.
Erkut ‘Eric’ Yilmaz
About eight hours earlier, Erkut Yilmaz took 1st place in the Championship event, along with $575,112 and both BPO and WPT Champions Cup trophies. Yilmaz took a huge lead into the final day of the Championship and held that lead until heads-up with poker pro Timothy ‘TK’ Miles. They proceeded to battle for more than two hours, with the lead changing several times, before Yilmaz finally collected all the chips and the title. Miles added another $383,399 to his career earnings, pushing the total past $3.2 million.
This series saw a lot of firsts. For the first time, the BPO was not held in the Event Center, but in a temporary Tournament Area between the Poker Room and Signature Room. This was a one-time occurence and this area will now he turned into the new Borgata Sports Book. The Winter Poker Open in January will be back in the Event Center as usual.
Another first was buy-in guarantees on the non-No Limit Hold’em events. The Omaha/Stud High/Low, HORSE, and PLO tournaments all had guarantees for the first time ever. There was also an “Old School” Freeze-out NLH tournament with no re-entries, and a Double Black Chip Bounty tournament added to this year’s schedule.
Justin Leeds (seated) took 1st in Event 1 in a 4-way adjusted payout.
Justin Leeds claimed the top spot in the $1 Million GTD Kick-Off event, which saw 3,106 entrants. The final four players all took home more than $170,000 for their efforts in the three-day event.
Altogether, the series had $7.6 million in guarantees and paid out more than $8.3 million in prize money in Main Events alone, not including secondary and satellite events. A complete list of Main Event winners and their winnings is below.
*Indicates Adjusted Payout
The next major tournament series is the Fall Poker Open, which runs November 6th through the 21st, so start making plans now. The tournament schedule has not yet been released. Follow @BorgataPoker on Twitter to catch the announcement when it is. Until then, Borgata’s regular schedule of Daily Tournaments will resume. For those of you in New Jersey, there’s alway another tournament coming up on BorgataPoker.com. October 14th – 21st, the Garden State Super Series (GSSS) will be running with more than $450,000 in guarantees.
For now, it’s farewell from the Borgata Blogging team of Tim Kelliher, Chris Murray, Al Rash, Brittany Paige, and myself. Hope to see you in November during the Fall Poker Open!
@Kaelaine
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure | Payouts
Level 26: Blinds 25,000/50,000/50,000 BB Ante
Total Entries: 1,075
Players Remaining: 13
Average Stack: 3.3 million
While the Championship Baker’s Dozen continue to play tight, let’s take a look at a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Peter Passias – Quarterly Freeroll Invitational Winner
Playing in a World Poker Tour event is a pipe dream for many poker players. The ability to pony up $3,500 (or more) to play in a tournament is something they can dream about, but will never be able to do.
Sometimes dreams do come true, however, thanks to online poker at playMGMpoker.com. One of the many promotions they run is a Quarterly Freeroll Invitational for the top 750 point-earning players. Players earn points by participating in qualifying tournaments at all buy-in levels, just like on BorgataPoker.com.
Peter Passias is a micro-stakes player, but he earned enough points in June to qualify for the Quarterly Freeroll Invitational (ranked 347th in points out of 750 qualifying players). He finished 1st in the Freeroll Invitational tournament and his prize? A $3,500 seat in the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open Championship! The micro-stakes player won the chance of a lifetime – to play in a big buy-in brick-and-mortar tournament, for free.
He makes his living working for his brother’s commercial glass company, so this was a huge opportunity for him. He got to play in a tournament with players like 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event winner Joe McKeehen and WPT BPO Champions Olivier Busquet, Darren Elias, and Anthony Zinno, who have all won millions playing tournament poker.
The Jackson, New Jersey, resident did not cash in the tournament, but he got to do something others only dream of. Now Peter can forever lay claim to the fact that he played in a World Poker Tour event alongside Champions of the game.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure | Payouts
Level 23: Blinds 15,000/25,000/25,000 BB Ante
Total Entries: 1,075
Remaining: 30
Average Chips: 1.43 million
Vinny Pahuja
Vinny Pahuja moved all-in for ~360,000 and Greg Himmelbrand looked him up from the big blind. Vinny’s 
was ahead of Greg’s 
. The the board came Q 8 4 J Q pairing Greg and shipping him the pot. He’s up to ~1.5 million.
Vinny, who is a BorgataPoker.com sponsored pro, finished in 31st place, earning $17,326.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure | Payouts
Level 21: Blinds 10,000/15,000/15,000 BB Ante
Total Entries: 1,075
Remaining: 41
Average Chips: 1.05 million
Yong Keun Kwon
Yong Keun Kwon won his seat in this event playing a satellite online at BorgataPoker.com. Now he’s parlayed that into a $12,740 payday for making it to 42nd place in the Championship event.
He got his last chips in the pot on a flop of 
holding 
in the big blind. His two pair was ahead of Nick Pupillo’s 
, but Nick made his flush when the 
landed on the turn. The 
completed the board and completed Kwon’s deep run in this event.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 13: Blinds 1,500/2,500/2,500 BB Ante
Total Entries: 1,075
Remaining: 288
Average Chips: 149,500
Soheb Porbandarwala
Soheb Porbandarwala and Shannon Shorr (button) checked it down on the river with the board reading 
. Soheb (hjack) tabled pocket 9s and Shannon mucked his hand. With that pot, Soheb chipped up to about 200,000. Shannon was still in good shape, playing ~ 275,000.
One of nine players to win his entry in this event playing satellites on BorgataPoker.com, Soheb is well on his way to parlaying that inexpensive entry into a bigger payday.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Returning to Level 9: 500/1,000/1,000 BB Ante
Total Entries: 917
Players Remaining: ~515
Gene Quinn
Day 1B of the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship drew a total of 657 entries brining the combined WPT BPO Championship NLH to 917 entries and counting.
There are approximately 390 players from this flight that will be advancing to Day 2 and it’s Gene Quinn bagging the overall chip lead with 328,000.
BorgataPoker.com sponsored pro Vinny Pahuja put one of the biggest stacks in the bag and will be returning to Day 2 with 225,000.
Vinny Pahuja
Approximately 515 combined Day 1A-B survivors will return on Tuesday September 18 at 11 A.M. to resume Day 2 play.
Below is a look at some of the big stacks and players from the first flight that will be moving on. A full list of Day 2 chip counts and seating assignments will be posted as soon as they’re available.
We have already hit the $3,000,000 guarantee and there’s still plenty of time to get in on the action. Tournament registration and re-entry will remain open until the first hand is dealt on Day 2.
Gene Quinn- 328,000
Vinny Pahuja- 225,000
Aaron Schaff- 222,800
Marc Sandy- 178,300
Chris Leong- 140,000
Stephen Song- 139,200
David Mock- 137,600
Stanley Lee- 137,500
Vittorio Faricelli- 93,500
Dan DiZenzo- 82,400
Kane Kalas- 70,000
Matt Iles- 54,000
Paul Volpe- 33,800
Maurice Hawkins- 18,900
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Three satellites will be running today at Borgata:
1 PM – Event 34: $350 + $50 BPO Championship Qualifier NLH (~1 in 10)
4 PM – Event 35: $700 + $50 BPO Championship Mega Qualifier NLH (~1 in 5)
7 PM – Event 36: $500 + $50 BPO Championship Qualifier NLH (~1 in 7)
Since BPO Championship registration remains open into Day 2, there will be another satellite running Monday evening, for a Day 2 start:
6PM – Event 38: $350 + $50 Last Chance BPO Championship Qualifier NLH (~1 in 10)
There’s also a Monday morning Turbo Survivor (Event 37) for $350 + $40 where ~1 in 10 wins $3,500, not coincidentally the exact amount needed to buy into the Championship. That starts at 10am tomorrow.
The last online satellite running at BorgataPoker.com will be tonight at 7:40pm. Click here for details.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH Re-Entry
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure
Level 11: Blinds 1,200/2,500/2,500 BB Ante
Entries: 547
The 100,000 starting stack is still a healthy 40 big blinds for players arriving late and registering during level 11.
Asher Conniff
BorgataPoker.com sponsored pro and legendary ‘mis-clicker’Asher Conniff has arrived for Flight A of the Almighty Million. He must be ready for a deep run, because he’s sporting a funky pair of Nike’s. This is the Nike Vortak Men’s Shoe, which “features a breathable mesh construction with synthetic leather overlays, plus lightweight cushioning for all-day comfort.” Sounds like the perfect shoe for poker players.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet | Payouts
Level 21: Blinds 6,000/12,000/12,000 BB Ante
Total Entries: 3,106
Players Remaining: 225
Average Stack: 345,000
Jose Piedrahita
Jose Piedrahita was sweating the money bubble earlier, but managed to cruise through with ab0ut 440,000. He’s still holding on with about 400,000 as the player count continues to dwindle. Jose earned his seat online via a satellite at BorgataPoker.com.
Elanit Hasas
Elanit Hasas just lost the last of her chips, finishing in 229th place for her first Borgata tournament cash ($1,171). Too bad her Falcons lost to the Eagles last night as well.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 15: Blinds 1,500/3,000/3,000 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
1D Players Remaining: 250
1D Average Stack: 102,000
BorgataPoker.com awarded about 45 seats in Event 1 via Online Satellites and the Mega Tuesday $535 promotion.
Anthony Maio
Anthony Maio earned two seats, one via each method, and is still free-rolling on his first entry today. He’s got about an hour and a half to go to get some chips in a bag for Day 2.
BorgataPoker.com is still running qualifiers to BPO events and you can check those out here. Other promotions including sign-up bonuses and deposit matches are available here.