Level 6 (Blinds 200/400/50)
Total Entries: 541
Tournament Director Tab Duchateau just jumped on the microphone to announce the beginning of Level 6, with blinds now going up to 200/400/50. Players will finish the next (75) minutes before heading on their dinner break, which will see action resuming at 8:30pm. Some of the big named notables in the field (that haven’t been mentioned yet) include:
Joe Kuether
Jeff Madsen
Barry Hutter
Matthew Waxman
Ragi Raghavan
Allen Kessler
Johnathan Little
Tim Reilly
Level 5 (150/300/50)
Total Entries: 541
John Racener (Tampa, FL)
It’s easy for most of the players that follow this blog to make it to Borgata, as we live within driving distance and like to keep up with the people we know. For many players in this Day 1B field, getting to Borgata is a little hike, but there is no way that they would miss this event. Offering up one of the top prize pools outside of the WSOP, the WPT/Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Event has attracted many names we wouldn’t see on a normal basis.
John Racener (Tampa, FL) is one of those players who makes it to Borgata only a few times a year, spending a lot of time split between his home in Florida and Las Vegas. Racener was the runner up in one of the richest WSOP Main Event’s in history, taking home $5,545,995 for the second place finish. What many people may not know is that Racener’s career got kickstarted here in Atlantic City. His first, and the subsequently first three six-figure scores came in our city:
Dec. 2006 – WSOPC $5,000 NLH Main Event Atlantic City (4th Place – $103,527)
Jan. 2007 – Borgata Winter Poker Open $10,000 NLH Championship (8th Place – $166,161)
Dec. 2007 – WSOPC $5,150 NLH Main Event Atlantic City (1st Place – $379,392)
John is currently above the chip average, and wouldn’t mind re-capturing the Atlantic City magic he had to begin his career.
Level 5 (150/300/50)
Total Entries: 541
Faraz Jaka (San Jose, CA)
Packing bags at the end of each series, dragging numerous pieces of luggage through airport security, the outrageous amount of money spent on hotels…just three (of many) reasons that tournament poker life is usually taxing on a player. There is one player in the field that definitely has not only the poker thing figured out, but the traveling part as well.
Faraz Jaka (San Jose, CA) is one of the top online and live tournament players in the world, with over $4,565,000 in career earnings (live). His cashes are from places all over the world…Johannesburg, Dublin, Cannes, Paradise Island, just to name a few. Most would think that the lifestyle of living in five-star accommodations and partying in different destinations would be living the dream, but that’s not how Faraz goes about things.
To try and explain how Jaka lives his daily life would really never do it enough justice, so a link is provided to a great feature on CNN Money, interviewing Faraz and giving an insight to his way of life. The title “I’ve made millions playing poker, own almost nothing, and I’ve never been happier,” couldn’t sum things up more Jaka. Take a few moments to watch the piece, and read his blog if you’re looking to learn more.
Level 5 (150/300/50)
Total Entries: 541
Maggie Morris (Stamford, CT)
Almost a year ago now, Maggie Morris (Stamford, CT) basically came out of nowhere to win the Big Stax V 300, earning $95,000 in the process. It’s not an easy feat to accomplish, besting over 1,857 total entries, many of which are the top players on the East Coast. So what did most people think about the “nice lady” who took the top prize in a three-way chop? The players who didn’t know who she was basically just chalked it up to a good run of cards and a little luck over four days. Oh how those “pundits” were wrong…very wrong.
The reason Morris isn’t well known by the recreational tournament follower is the fact that her job keeps her from playing nearly close to as much poker as she’d like. Maggie went on to prove that the Big Stax win was no fluke, final tabling the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Event #49 during last year’s WSOP ($212,202).
There really is no saying what Morris’s tournament resume would be if she could play more often, but when she does get a chance to enter an event, she’s always going to be a force to reckon with. Maggie is sitting with just over 50,000 at the moment, and headlines a list of notables that haven’t not yet been mentioned: David Datashvili, Richard DeVivo, Christine Brewer, Mike Azzaro, Natale Kuey, David Tuthill, and Shawn Busse.
Level 5 (Blinds 150/300/50)
Total Day 1B Entries; 485
While the hours of 3:00-9:00am may be considered the “off-peak” time to be putting some material on Twitter, we should call these (10) minute breaks “peak” time for poker players. There are already a handful of tweets in regards to player statuses only seconds into the time off:
After level 4 (75 minute levels) got 17.8k from 30k start. Binked a River to stay alive @WPT @BorgataPoker #TeamBSO #JustaBigKidWithaDream
— Antonio Payne (@Anthony_1Payne) January 26, 2015
30k after getting my face ripped off.So feeling good 🙂 coming back to 150-300 — Ronnie Bardah (@RonnieBardah) January 26, 2015
26K 2nd break #borgatapoker
— john holley (@hohnjolley) January 26, 2015
Made it to 2nd break of @BorgataPoker WPT Main 1B with 36,250 from 30K ss blinds going to 150/300/25 leggooo — Aditya Prasetyo (@KingsOnTilt) January 26, 2015
Amazing that I haven’t tilted it off considering how bad the guy next to me smells. Fought back from losing a big hand w/KK. 30k on break.
— Cliff Josephy (@JohnnyBaxPoker) January 26, 2015
Level 4 (100/200/25)
Total Entries: 485
Cathy Dever (Ephrata, PA)
It’s been a pretty unusual series for Cathy Dever (Ephrata, PA), in the sense that she only has one cash, and that was during Event 1 almost two weeks ago. Dever finished in 116th place during that tournament, cashing for $2,635, and raising her career earnings to $223,287. Dever had her best year of poker in 2014, recorded (10) results, and making close to $100,000.
Cathy already has two WPT cashes on her resume, one of which was a deep run in last year’s $15,000 WPT World Championship (24th Place – $33,967). The World Poker Tour is still looking for their first female to win one of these prestigious events, and Cathy doesn’t see why it can’t be her. She currently leads the field as the Event Center empties out with players going on their second break. The stack of 135,000 is going to be pretty healthy when players return to Level 5, and new blinds of 150/300/50.
Level 8 (Blinds 300/600/75)
Total Day 1A Entries: 360
It took just a little while to make the chip counts official, but we do have the top ten stacks from this first flight of the 2015 Borgata Winter Poker Open WPT Championship Event. As reported earlier, Andy Hwang (Houston, TX) bagged the Day 1A chip lead with 251,300, returning for Day 2 on Tuesday with over (300) big blinds. There were 159 players advance from the field of 360 total entries. Here is how the top ten broke down:
Andy Hwang – 251,300
Dan Wach – 209,900
Daniel Fischer – 208,000
Jason Helder – 200,800
Sebastian Tejada – 180,500
John Moore – 177,700
Lance Steinberg – 168,200
Greg Weber – 156,200
Matthew Beier – 151,300
Matthew Silberzweig – 147,000
Zachery Schneider – 141,300
Eracles Panayiotou – 139,600
Brian Haveson – 132,000
Level 8 (Blinds 300/600/75)
Total Day 1A Entries: 360
As we mentioned moments ago, it was for sure players were going to immediately jump on Twitter to post chip counts and status updates in regards to this event. Here are some of the first ones that we caught rolling in on the feed:
85.4k in the bag. Decent day. Day off tmrw!
— Jerry Payne (@sandler1860) January 26, 2015
39200, 49 BBs, to end. #WPTBorgata — Todd Terry (@toddbterry) January 26, 2015
Ended day1 with 76,200. Day off tomorrow, a bullet saved, and almost 100bbs. Decent day.
— Tyler Patterson (@TylerPoker) January 26, 2015
Bagged 41,100 in this #WorldPokerTour event at @BorgataAC to end day 1. Fired two bullets. Day off tomorrow. Avg prob 60k. — Shannon Shorr (@ShannonShorr) January 26, 2015
Bagging 71950 @BorgataPoker main going to my real job tomorrow back Tuesday Gl to all in 1b
— Gordon Eng (@Flashgordon227) January 26, 2015
Level 8 (Blinds 300/600/75)
Total Day 1A Entries: 360
Andy Hwang (Houston, TX)
Tournament Directo Tab Duchateau just announced to those players remaining that there will be three more hands at each table, with the bagging process then beginning. Going into those three hands, the player primed to bag the chip lead looks to be Andy Hwang (Houston, TX), who won this event two years ago. Andy bested a field of 1,042 entries, and a final table that hosted the likes of James Anderson, Mike Golgliormella, and Matthew Salsberg, on his way to the championship and $730,053.
Hwang will end the night (unofficially) with 265,000, and will be one of only a handful to eclipse the 200,000 mark during this starting flight. With the bagging process taking a few extra minutes (in order to verify each count), we will bring you some of the top stacks shortly after the end of play, as well as Twitter updates from players fortunate enough to bag.
Level 8 (Blinds 300/600/75)
Total Day 1A Entries: 360
Eric Panayiotou (Toms River, NJ)
We would approach the action in a hand between WPT National Champion Keven Stammen and Eric Panayiotou on the river. The board would read {ac} {9h} {5c} {4c} {qs}, and Panayiotou would be deep in the tank, contemplating his next action after Stammen bombed the river for 30,700 (close to a pot sized bed). Eric wasn’t about to just make a hasty decision, and took a god amount of time before announcing a call. Stammen tabled {6h} {2h}, missing a combo draw going into the river, with Panayiotou showing {ad} {7d} for the win.
Panayiotou chips up to 140,000 with the pot, putting him close to top ten in the room, with only (30) minutes remaining in the night. Stammen on the other hand, who won the $15,000 WPT World Championship (hosted here at Borgata) for $1,350,000, leaves the tournament area and will most likely return tomorrow.
Tab Duchetaeu just made an announcement to the field in regards to satellites and sit and go’s that will be running tomorrow to get into the Day 1B flight. There will be a handful of different options for players looking to get into this event for a fraction of the cost.