Level 1: Blinds 50/100
Total Event 1 Entries: 735
Cards are in the air for the second starting flight of the Winter Poker Open kickoff event! Flight B is playing in the back of the Event Center.
Roughly 140 players are already entered in this flight with about 4.5 hours left for late registration and re-entry. Many players who bust out of Flight A in the front will relocate to new seats in Fight B as the night wears on.
A few fresh, familiar, faces have turned up in this flight. Michael Marder is making his Winter Poker Open debut, along with Kane Kalas and Len Vizirov.
Level 11: Blinds 600/1,200/200 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 713
The unofficial entry count for Flight A is 596.
Only 29 tables are still in action, leaving 290 players in this flight.
Chuck Seitchick (Egg Harbor Twp, NJ)
One of those players doing well is ‘Lucky Chucky’ Seitchick. He brought his own miniature Royal Flush to keep an eye on his cards for him. Chucky is up to about 120,000 (100 big blinds) and cruising with six levels left to finish tonight.
Chucky owns World Roofing and says “There are lots of roofers here today.” I guess with a high today of 26 degrees Farenheit in Atlantic City, no one wants to be on top of a house laying shingles.
Level 10: Blinds 500/1,000/100 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 682
Players are back at the tables and cards are flying once again. Lots of familiar faces are pouring in. Matt Stout announced his arrival via Twitter:
Just bought into the @BorgataPoker opening event 1a. Not f***ing finishing 2nd again. #BWPO2016
— Matt Stout (@MattStoutPoker) January 19, 2016
Of course he’s referring to his runner-up finish in Event 1 of the 2015 Fall Poker Open, when he got heads-up with Stephanie Hubbard. She had a significant chip lead and held on to take the title, leaving Matt with $102,257 for second place.
Matt’s got more than $3.3 million in career earnings and a WSOP Circuit ring, but has yet to take home a Borgata Open series title. Could this be his year?
Also turning up in Flight A:
Dan Buzgon
Scott Blackman
Tom Dobrilovic
Svetlana Gromenkova
TJ Shulman
Max Amjadi
Sam Bernstein
Danny Yousefzadeh
Michael Somma
Scott Baumstein
Mike Santoro
Rick Rossetti
End of Level 9: Blinds 400/800/75 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 654
Kathy Long (Reading, PA)
Players are on their third break of the day while the green 25 chips are being colored up. When play resumes, registration will close for this flight.
Kathy Long came dressed for success today. She’s got the {qh} on her shirt and has a Royal Flush on each hand. Her fingernails are painted with the playing cards {as}{ks}{qs}{js}{ts}.
Looks like it’s bringing her good luck as she’s already up to about 100,000, which will be 100 big blinds when they get back in action.
Kathy is a frequent flier on the felt here at Borgata, but she makes her living in Real Estate.
Two Royal Flushes for Kathy Long
Level 9: Blinds 400/800/75 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 609
Steve Scales (Red Bank, NJ)
Shortly before the end of level 8, Steve Scales was gifted some chips by his opponent in seat 6.
On the turn, the board showed {ad}{ac}{8d}{9h}. The player in seat 6 bet ~13,000 and Steve shoved for about 17,000. “Let’s get rid of those diamonds,” Steve said, suspecting his opponent was on a flush draw.
After tanking for a minute or so, his opponent declined to call the extra 4,000 to see the river and mucked his hand. With that pot, Steve chipped up to roughly 48,000.
Steve has one Borgata Open series trophy to his credit from the 2012 Winter Poker Open. His win in the $350+$50 Big Stack NLH event earned him $32,913, which is still his largest single score. He also has a WSOP Circuit ring and career earnings of more than $213,000.
Level 8: Blinds 300/600/75 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 609
Checking the Tweets from the previous break, we found a few players updating us on their chip counts. Follow us @BorgataPoker and Tweet us with #WPO2016!
~63k on 2nd break. Going to 50-250-500
— James Tedrow (@teddyrowe) January 19, 2016
Slow and steady. Dodge the land mines. Sittin at 43,600 level 7 feelin good lets go teampickle
— lisa pickell (@lisapickell) January 19, 2016
40k from 25k start at 500bb. #1bulletwonder
— Tyler Patterson (@TylerPoker) January 19, 2016
Level 7: Blinds 250/500/50 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 581
Players have returned to the felt following their second break of the day. These are just a few of the Borgata regulars and familiar faces spotted in the field:
Michael Buttacavoli
Bruce Yamron
Joe Simmons
Pierre Deissler
David Kim
Joseph ‘Mush’ Galazzo
Michael Drabot
Earl King
Dimas Martinez
Jon Gottlieb
Ilya Vasserman
Leo G
David Johnston
Jamie Kerstetter
Richard DeVivo
Bart Dowling
Phil Neiman
Steve Scales
Dan Wach
Level 6: Blinds 200/400/50 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 552
Ken Silberstein – BogataPoker.com Online Qualifier
Ken Silberstein (Edison, NJ) is a fixture on the felt here at Borgata. He’s always here for the big tournaments, but despite making numerous final tables, he has yet to claim his first Borgata Open title. Nevertheless, he has accumulated more than $415,000 in reported tournament earnings. His largest career cash of $103,957 came here at Borgata during the 2013 Fall Poker Open series when he finished 4th in that Championship event.
The New Jersey resident took advantage of the online satellites on BorgataPoker.com to earn his way into this event for just a fraction of the full buy-in.
Online qualifiers are currently running on BorgataPoker.com and they will continue through the end of January. Players can earn their way in for as little as $5. Click here for more details.
There are also a couple of live satellites, tonight and Wednesday at 7pm, where players can earn their way in for $125 + $25. Approximately 1 out of every 5 players will earn a $500 + $60 buy-in for Event 1.
Level 5: Blinds 150/300/25 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 545
Darren Elias (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Another poker player with earnings in the stratosphere is Darren Elias. Darren’s career earnings exceed $3.5 million and includes two WPT titles in 2014, one of which he won right here at Borgata in this room. He took down the 2014 Borgata Poker Open WPT Championship, earning $843,744.
His two WPT wins in 2014 and numerous other WPT cashes during the 2014-2015 Season put him in contention for the WPT Player of the Year, but he got edged out by the super-hot-streak of Anthony Zinno.
Darren got a good start on the 2015-2016 points race when he finished 3rd in the WPT Choctaw $3,500 NLH Main Event, adding more than $303,000 to his career total. He’s currently 6th on the WPT POY leaderboard and just 175 points behind the leader, Kevin Eyster.
Level 4: Blinds 100/200/25 ante
Total Event 1 Entries: 523
Cards are flying again after the break.
John Gale (Bushey, Hertforshire, England)
John Gale is making a big splash in his return to poker after a three-year hiatus. He’s been away from poker while battling a brain tumor and having open-heart surgery. Nine years after winning his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event (good for $374,849), he returned to Vegas last summer and claimed his second bracelet in the $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em event (good for $298,290).
Despite the three-year gap, John has career earnings of more than $3.7 million going back to 2005 and even has one Borgata Open title from 2008. His largest single career cash was in January 2005 in the WPT/PCA Championship. That $7,800 + $200 NLH event earned him a spot on the WPT Champions Cup and more than $890,000.
Displaying his wry sense of humor, he said the following in a interview with Poker News after his bracelet win at the 2015 WSOP:
“The last three years I’ve spent in and out of hospitals having all sorts of surgeries. I’ve missed the last three WSOPs, and I’ve been miserable as hell every time. I’m just so thrilled to be back here even though my doctor told me I shouldn’t fly. I said I’d compromise, I’ll take a plane.
“All unsuccessful on the brain tumor, which surprise, I thought you had to have a brain before you got a tumor on it.”