Event 1 (Day 1D)
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 17 (complete): Blinds 3,000/5,000/5,000 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
1D Players Remaining: 150
1D Average Stack: 170,000
With over a thousand entries, the second to last flight was very busy from start to finish. Chuck Bryant, who clashed with Steve Kaplo all day, came out on top in those encounters and in our flight.
Bryant, center, finished with 558,000. He is a remarkably consistent performer in the NE.
Chris Leong, 496,000, dominated his table and dealt with The General in his ear all day.
Pavel Plotkin emerged late, right on Leong’s heels, with 494,000.
Song Kun, chip leader for much of the later levels, bagged a very healthy 438,000.
However, it was Shuntak Yeung, who baked up a pretty sweet nitroll in the final hand of the last level who moved the most, making a big jump thanks to a set of tens vs. TPTK to end with 482,000.
Official counts and seat draws will be posted as soon as available.
Players moving to day 2 will meet tomorrow, September 6 at noon – please note the blue BPO schedule contains a time error.
Good luck!
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 16: Blinds 2,000/4,000/4,000 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
1D Players Remaining: 210
1D Average Stack: 121,500
Chris Leong – 2016 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Champion
Cruising through the tables remaining in the tournament area yielded some familiar faces, so we gathered some rough chips counts as they approach the final break of the flight.
Chris Leong – 350,000
Justin Liberto – 185,000
Christian Harder – 140,000
Sal Busacca – 130,000
Rafael Reis – 130,000
Alex Rocha – 130,000
Jon Borenstein – 120,000
Ryan Meyers – 95,000
The all-ins are coming fast and multi-way as players feel the pressure of the end of the flight bearing down on them. They’ll take a break at the end of this level, then return for one final level before bagging up for the night.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 16: Blinds 2,000/4,000/4,000 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
1D Players Remaining: 210
1D Average Stack: 121,000
Back on action 23, the table has completely changed composition. Harry Weingord is still in his same seat, despite taking hit and doubling Howard Charyn.
Harry, foreground right, regretfully counts out the chips to pay off Howard, in the white cap.
Howard had flopped all the threes on 
. He doubles.
On table 1, the action is serious and silent , with maybe ten words spoken over a series of hands in level 15.
John Botticello opens to 7000. Andy Spears, turning his attention to his phone, isn’t interested this time but opens the next pot to the same amount.
Botticello gets a small bet through Andy and the button on 
.
Spears opens the next pot, defended only by Philip Wojtuniecki in the big. He won’t fold tens on a king high flop to Spears’ continuation, and gets to show them down for the win on 
.
Philip, center, picks up more chips two hands later when he attacks an open limp and a call, who fold to his raise. Nothing crazy at this sober table.
$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.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 14: Blinds 1,500/2,500/2,500 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
1D Players Remaining: 280
1D Average Stack: 91,000
Elanit Hasas
Amid a sea of Philadelphia Eagles fans sits a lone player wearing the red and black of the Atlanta Falcons. Elanit Hasas is from Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) and usually plays in North Carolina and Mississippi, but decided to come up and give Borgata a try. She’s playing about double the average in Flight D as they head for the home stretch.
She’s got nearly $55,000 in reported tournament earnings over the last two years. Her best live cash of $17,536 was in a WSOP Circuit event in November 2017 where she finished 7th out of 2,397 entrants.
The Falcons are playing the Eagles tonight in Philadelphia and the game will be on the TV screens in the tournament area so fans of both teams can watch while playing.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 14: Blinds 1,500/2,500/2,500 BB Ante
Total Entries: 1,020
Remaining: 480
Average Chips: 53,125
The biggest stack at the moment is Song Kun’s on table 29, with over 330,000.
Chris Leong is healthy with over 160,000, here taking a small pot from the General, apparently dreaming of the right flop.
Greg Fishberg, as mentioned in the last post, is nearing 250,000, here opening on 21.
Kaplo and Bryant are both doing well, about even with each around 200,000, and a few scattered stacks in the TTA are approaching that milestone as well.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 13: Blinds 1,000/2,000/2,000 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
1D Players Remaining: 370
1D Average Stack: 69,000
The last tables have been cleared in the Signature Room, so there are only 37 tables remaining in Flight D, all in the temporary Tournament Area. Those will start to break rapidly now that registration is closed.
Greg Fishberg
One of the bigger stacks in play belongs to none other than Greg Fishberg. He’s playing about 225,000 and is well above average.
With more than $1.3 million in reported tournament earnings, he’s a proven threat to go deep in an event like this. His last final table appearance here at Borgata was back in February of this year and it was the best kind – a win. He took down the $350 Almighty Stack event for more than $95,000.
He did the same thing the year before in February of 2017, winning the $350 Almighty Stack event for an even $70,000 (adjusted payout). That makes him one of only five players known to have a successful title defense (year-over-year) here at the Borgata.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 13: Blinds 1,000/2,000/2,000 BB Ante
Total 1D Entries: 1,020
Total A-D Entries: 2,108
Play has resumed and registration is closed for this flight. The unofficial count is 1,020 entries, which brings the overall count to 2,108 for the first four flights.
For those of you watching the guarantee, the magic number for the final flight is 670 to cover. Speaking of the final flight, that’s Flight E and it begins at 7pm in the Signature Room (tables 1-25).
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
End of Level 12: Blinds 800/1,500/1,500 BB Ante
Entries: 1,008
Flight D players have scattered for the break while the staff color up the black 100 chips. When play resumes, registration will finally close for this flight.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$1.5 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 12: Blinds 800/1500/1500 BB Ante
Entries: 1000
With among the lowest rate of occurrence, the monotone flop should be among the hardest in NL to handle. On Welther Marmol’s table, one just provided some interest.
With level 11 closing down, Chuck Bryant opened from early, picking up only the blinds.
Trouble.
On 
, they checked it to Chuck and fired the predictable cbet. However, that’s always a risky business. He’ll only have clarity with certain hands that include the 
and 
, meaning even if his action is protected by position, this could get dicey.
Bryant, background, fires away into the blinds on his right.
The small folded, and Steve Kaplo did the right thing, raising the bet. The hand ended there.
Bryant wasn’t just ready to roll over, however.
In the next hand, an early limper triggered the button to call, and allowed Kaplo to now complete. Chuck checked his option.
Kaplo then chose to lead very small on the flop, clearly an intentional and interesting decision, likely respecting the paired 
. Bryant called.
The lead was a little bigger on the turn, but now Bryant raised the lead, clearly repping the four – exactly what the small bet on the flop was supposed to exert some control over.
Kaplo and Bryant chat mid-hand.
Kaplo didn’t give up, and got to show down 
for the win. Chuck lost the hand, perhaps, but indicated he was not going to get run over.
Registration break is next – still some time to get into the action.