Level 10: Blinds 500/1,000/100 ante
Total Day 1C Entries: 752
Total Event 1 Entries: 1,665
Lewis Wolters (Northport, MI)
Players are back in action following the color-up break and registration has closed for this flight.
Before the break, Lewis Wolters was another player building a big stack. He was up to about 140,000. He attributes his early fortune to “two sets of Tens, Jack-Ten beating Queen-Ten” and slowly building his stack up. Now that play has resumed, he’s got 140 big blinds to work with.
Lewis cashed in this event one year ago, finishing 317th out of 4,179 entrants, and is hoping to improve on that result this year.
Level 9: Blinds 400/800/75 ante
Total Day 1C Entries: 745
Total Event 1 Entries: 1,658
Don Nunya (New Hampshire) & Alida Veliu (Wyckoff, NJ)
Don Nunya (Biznazz) is stacking about 160,000 and his table-mates were eager to recount the hand that got him there. Don and two other players got to the turn with the board showing {8x}{4s}{2s}{8d} and the shortest-stack shoved, getting called by both Don and the third player.
When the {6x} came on the river, the third player shoved and Don snap-called. The shortest stack had pocket Aces, the other all-in had pocket 9s, and Don was holding {7s}{5s} and had rivered a straight.
Alida Veliu, who is sitting on Don’s left, said both players were yelling about it, but there was nothing they could do but pick up re-entry tickets.
Don gives credit to Alida for putting up with all the drama going on, calling her the “most tortured” at the table. She’s doing all right on her own with about 95,000.
Level 8: Blinds 300/600/75 ante
Total Day 1C Entries: 720
Total Event 1 Entries: 1,640
Stephanie Hubbard was victorious in the 2015 Fall Poker Open kickoff event, taking $159,776 for first place after triumphing over the field of 1,757 entrants. She’s back today, looking to repeat that feat in 2016 and caught up with the Will OC on break to discuss the significance of that win.
Unfortunately her luck failed on her first buy-in, but she’ll be back to try again.
@DannyDagostino gets my first bullet. Make a correct call with JJ vs sd/fd on 568ss s on river. Bullet 2 now 😡
— Stephanie Hubbard (@StephHub31) January 20, 2016
Level 7: Blinds 250/500/50 ante
Total Day 1C Entries: 689
Total Event 1 Entries: 1,602
Julian Miranda (Union City NJ)
Julian Miranda is letting his chips do the talking here today. The New Jersey native is up to about 70,000, close to triple the 25,000 starting stack. Julian has several cashes from his time on the felt at Borgata, but is still looking for his breakout score.
Alesy & Julian Miranda, awaiting the arrival of baby Zoe, back in April, 2011
His highest finish and largest cash came in the 2011 Spring Poker Open, when he finished 5th in the $170 Big Stack NLH event for $8,979. During that event, his wife Alesy was very pregnant with their first child, Zoe. Now he’s a father of two girls and his youngest, Mary Jane, is two years old.
“Send a shout out to the kids,” he said. Rest assured, girls, your Dad’s doing all right early in this starting flight!
End of Level 16: Blinds 2,000/4,000/400 ante
Flight A Entries: 593
Filght A Players Remaining: 124
Average Stack: 119,500
Chinmay Patel (Huntingdon Valley, PA) – Flight A Chip Leader
When the maelstrom of the end of night chip bagging process was completed, we discovered we had a new chip leader that had flown under the radar all day. Chinmay Patel bagged up 319,500, good for the Flight A chip lead.
Other stacks over 250,000:
Barry Allen – 313,500
Giuliano Lentini – 289,500
Brett Murray – 284,500
Larry Jaffee – 282,500
Mario Digangi – 269,500
Joe Cornwall – 263,000
Yehail Haim – 260,500
Kenneth Lin – 250,500
A full list of players with chip counts will be posted when available. A redraw will take place before Day 2 begins at 12 noon Friday and the seating assignments will be posted in the blog and in the Event Center.
Level 16: Blinds 2,000/4,000/400 ante
Flight A Entries: 593
Some big stacks are emerging now that the last level of the flight is underway.
Giuliano Lentini (Manhattan, NY)
Giuliano Lentini appears to be in the lead with ~300,000. He’s been flopping sets all day and most recently flopped a set of 3s against A9 and rivered quads.
Brian Allen (Port Washington, NY)
Brian Allen was in the lead with roughly 350,000, but as I watched, another player got all-in with pocket Queens against Brian’s pocket Kings. The flop fell {As}{qc}{3h} giving his opponent a lead with a set. When the turn brought the {Js}, Brian picked up some more outs, but the {4h} on the river was not one of them.
After shipping he double, Brian was left with about 260,000.
Larry Jaffee (Long Island, NY)
Larry Jaffee appears to be right on Giuliano’s heels with roughly 290,000.
Level 14: Blinds 1,200/2,400/300 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 874
Scott Baumstein (New York, NY)
When we arrived at the table, Scott Baumstein (cutoff) had shoved for 28,100 total after his opponent in seat 6 (big blind) fired a bet of 12,000. They were looking at a board of {qh}{9c}{3s}{8c} and with one card to come, his opponent was in deep thought.
After a minute or so, the call was made and Scott tabled {qs}{6s} for top pair. His opponent rolled over {as}{9d} for second pair.
Once the {5h} was delivered on the river, Scott’s pair held up, securing his double-up to about 65,000.
Scott’s career earnings are approaching $1.5 million. He has one Borgata Open series title from last September, but his largest single cash was actually a runner-up finish here at Borgata during the 2012 Fall Poker Open. He finished 2nd in the Championship event, earning $209,480.
Level 3: Blinds 100/200
Total Event 1 Entries: 835
Brian Lemke (Norristown, PA)
Another decorated player has turned out for Flight B. WSOP bracelet winner Brian Lemke has taken to the felt in search of his fourth Borgata Open title. He already has three titles won here, including the Spring Poker Open Championship last year. That win was good for almost $277,000.
His largest score is still from his WSOP bracelet win in 2009 when he took down the $5,000 buy-in NLH event, pocketing $692,690. His career earnings are over $1.6 million and climbing!
End of Level 12: Blinds 800/1,600/200 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 810
Break time again for Flight A and they’ll get fifteen minutes off before returning for the final four levels of play.
Lisa Pickell (Brick, NJ)
A few minutes before the end of level 12, Lisa Pickell got her last 18,800 all-in good holding pocket Kings. Her opponent in seat 8 had pocket Jacks and she was in good shape to more than double up (there was a micro-stack all-in holding pocket 6s as well).
Oh No Quadzilla!
Just to put the icing on the cake, she flopped a King, then the case King came on the river, giving her quads. With that pot, she chipped up to roughly 45,000. She said at one point earlier in the day she was down to only 7,900, so she may have launched her epic comeback. It will not be an easy climb, as she has poker pros Matt Stout and Jamie Kerstetter in the two seats to her right.
Lisa has career earnings of more than $119,000, the lion’s share of which came when she won her WSOP Circuit ring along with $47,860 back in 2005.
Level 12: Blinds 800/1,600/200 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 788
Flight A is thinning out quickly. The floor staff are breaking tables as quickly as they can collect the open seat cards. Only 25 tables remain. With 250 players in action, the average stack would be almost 60,000 (37 big blinds).
Jeff Rogers (Ithaca, NY)
Jeff Rogers has pulled into the lead — he’s currently stacking about 180,000. With three times the average stack and more than 112 big blinds, this professional poker player is setting himself up for a strong finish in Flight A.