Event 13
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 24: Blinds 15,000/30,000/4,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 25
Average Stack: 662,000
John Tavss (NYC)
John Davss just busted a player in 26th when his {Jc}{Jd} outlasted {8s}{8d} on a {3h}{10d}{Ad}{9h}{4d} board. “You got on the blog!” said Steve Fiorentini from the same table. John has about 540,000 in chips, just a bit below the average.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 24: Blinds 20,000/40,000/4,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 28
Average Stack: 581,000
Ronald Mizrahi (Brooklyn)
Ronald Mizrahi, “Like the Grinder, but without the C,” he says, just had K-Q outlast 9-9 and 9-8 suited in a three-way all in. Ronald busted two guys in 31st and 30th and moved up to 730,000 in chips. Ronald has two cashes to his credit, both at Borgata in 2009 and 2011.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
End of Level 23: Blinds 12,000/24,000/3,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 31
Average Stack: 534,000
The remaining 31 players on the final four tables are finishing up a 15-minute break. They’ll be playing all night to get down to a single finisher. Here we go!
Steve Fiorentini (Lexington, MA)
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 23: Blinds 12,000/24,000/3,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 31
Average Stack: 534,000
Steve Fiorentini just doubled up with {Ad}{6d} against {Jc}{Jd} on a {6h}{Ks}{Ac}{8d}{5h} board. He then took out a mechanical clicker and clicked it up to 15. It seems that Steve counts the number of times all his chips have been at risk in a tournament, and in this particular Saturday Series event, his chips have been at risk 15 times. He’s at 700,000 in chips, well above the average, and it seems his risks are paying off thus far.
Steve has more than $735,000 in tournament winnings, including a win at a $2,500 + $150 event here, way back in 2008.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 22: Blinds 10,000/20,000/3,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 39
Average Stack: 424,000
DJ Mackinnon (East Amherst, NY)
DJ Mackinnon has quite the rail of players and anonymous rogue media cheering for him for a few hands on their way out the door. Imagine their excitement when DJ got it in with {2h}{2c} versus {Jd}{8c}. It ran out {5h}{9h}{Ad}{10h}{4h} and DJ doubled up. He’s still hanging on.
Meanwhile, at another table, Dan Dizenzo’s {7s}{7h} called another player’s {Ah}{Kh}, and Dan happened to have him covered by a slight amount. The door card was the {Kc} ….. but the card right next to it was the {7c}. The rest ran out {9s}{Qs}{2d} and Dan busted another player.
One of his railbirds said that DJ had the most cashes of anyone in 2015. We checked and he’s absolutely right. To go along with more than 600,000 in live earnings, DJ cashed a staggering 42 TIMES in 2015. He’ll be looking to pass that number this year.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 22: Blinds 10,000/20,000/3,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 44
Average Stack: 388,000
Tom McFarlane (Anna Maria Island, FL)
Tom McFarlane just busted a player in about 45th place, all in preflop. Tom had the {8c}{8h} to his oppoonent’s {Ac}{Kd}, in a classic race situation, as they say. The board had no aces or kings: {7c}{4d}{9h}{3h}{Jd} and Tom added to his considerable chip stack. Another player busted at the adjacent table, bringing us to 44 remaining on five nine-handed tables.
Tom has no previous tournament cashes on record, so this appears to be his first, wherever he finishes.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 21: Blinds 8,000/16,000/2,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 49
Average Stack: 338,000
Allan Vrooman (Greenville, NC)
Allan Vrooman, the man we previously mentioned as the one who busted Nicky short of the money, just checked a flop of {7c}{6s}{Jc}.
The turn came {Jd} and Allan threw out 30,000. His opponent called.
The river was {7s} and Allan shoved one stack of chips, and his opponent called without waiting for a count. It was an 80,000 stack. The caller turned over {As}{5s}, but Amman had {6c}{6d} for a flopped set. Allan takes the nearly 300,000 pot.
Allan has over $377,000 in tournament winnings including third in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the WSOP.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 21: Blinds 8,000/16,000/2,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 60
Average Stack: 276,000
Two players tweeted as soon as the money bubble burst:
63 left and ITM borgata $400 100k about 600k at 6000/12000 and 53k up top
— Dan DiZenzo (@dazedace) January 31, 2016
In the money in borgata $400. 495k going to 6/12k #fb
— Tom Pomponio (@PompYouUp) January 31, 2016
Dan has almost $630,000 in live winnings and $506,000 in online poker winnings, playing as dazedace everywhere. He also cashed in the Elevator Event #8 here just a few days ago.
Tom has more than $78,000 in live winnings and won the $300 + $50 event here, way back in 2011.
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 21: Blinds 8,000/16,000/2,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 60
Average Stack: 276,000
Yuriy Kim (New York)
Yuriy Kim just got the dream flop when all in with a short stack.
Yuriy: {Ks}{Qs}
Opponent: {Ad}{10d}
Flop {5s}{6s}{7s}
Yuriy flopped a flush; the turn and river were {3s}{Jh} to double up Yuriy in the short stack.
Sometimes you get a flurry of bustouts when players reach the money, and sometimes play tightens up. This is one of the latter as we still have 60 left still. Waitress, coffee!
Event 13 – $100,000 GTD ’Saturday Series’
Level 20: Blinds 6,000/12,000/2,000 ante
Total Entries: 662
Players Remaining: 63
Average Stack: 263,000
Chuck Hambley (Blue Point, NY)
Chuck Hambley is our 64th finisher, going out on the bubble in an all-in from the short stack that fell short. He was in good spirits despite falling just short of the money, as can be seen in the above photo.
Chuck has three cashes in his tournament history, all in Borgata events, and is done at the Winter Open, but we’ll likely see him in a couple events in the spring.
The remaining 63 players will earn a minimum of $764 for their efforts.