Pre-Event
Four down, two to go, as the final two starting flights of the $2,000,000 GTD opening Winter Poker Open event are set to begin early this morning. The first of those flights, Day 1E, begins at 10 AM and the final flight will begin at 7 PM and with over 2,200 players coming together over the last two days, we imagine the Event Center, again, will be at full capacity.
Of those 2,200 players, just under 400 have already advanced to tomorrow’s Day 2 session and with another 2,000 or so players needed to hit the guarantee on this event, we imagine that those numbers will more or less double before tomorrow’s 12 PM restart.
A complete list of the surviving Day 1C and 1D players from yesterday’s two starting flights will be posted shortly, once cards get in the air.
With an expanded starting flight schedule for this $2,000,000 GTD opening Winter Poker Open event, we are now into our second day of Day 1 sessions but it’s not the last. Two more starting flights will fire up today, with the first beginning shortly at 11 AM. The second will begin at 5 PM, meaning that today’s play will more or less follow the same structure as yesterday’s Day 1A and 1B flights.
That structure will see players start with 25,000 in tournament chips and play 16 half hour long levels before bagging for Friday’s Day 2 session. Late registration will again be open through the Level 9, giving players nearly five hours to get into the action. It should also be noted that this event is a best stack forward event, meaning that players can play multiple Day 1 sessions and take their best finishing stack into Day 2.
The WPO blog will be tracking the action throughout both Day 1C and 1D, with action starting shortly in the Event Center. After play begins, a complete list of survivors from yesterday’s two starting flights will be posted.
Online registration for the 2016 Winter Poker Open tournaments has closed. Players will now have to wait until 12 noon Monday, January 18th, to register onsite in Borgata’s Poker Room.
The registration window at the Poker Room cage will open at 12 pm Monday and remain open until 12 midnight. Once registration opens, players can register in advance for any of the WPO events. Beginning Tuesday, January 19th, at 8am, registration will re-open in the Event Center lobby, where it will remain through the close of registration for the final event of the 2016 WPO series. Hours will be 8am to 12 midnight daily.
There’s still time to register to win a seat in the Winter Poker Open WPT Championship! Just go to https://www.theborgata.com/casino/poker/tournaments/winter-poker-open-2016/contest and complete the form to be entered in a random drawing for a $3,500 entry in the Championship event. The winner may choose to start Day 1A – Sunday, January 31, 2016 OR Day 1B – Monday, February 1, 2016. The event runs through Friday, February 5th, when the final table will be live streamed by the World Poker Tour!
The 2016 Borgata Winter Poker Open is just one week away and the excitement is mounting! The series is starting about a week later than in previous years and many players are chomping at the bit to hit the felt. This series is going to be a monster with $6.7 million in guarantees! The WPO series will take place in Borgata’s Event Center as usual, but this year ALL events will play out in the Event Center, rather than relocating to the Poker Room for the last few days.
Online registration is still available for all 22 Main Events. In addition, online qualifiers are currently running on BorgataPoker.com and they will continue through the end of January. Click here for more details.
On-site registration will be open Monday, January 18 from noon to midnight in the Borgata Poker Room. Starting Tuesday, January 19, on-site registration will move to the Event Center lobby and will be open daily from 8am to 12 midnight throughout the series.
During the Winter Poker Open, FOUR events will have live-streamed final tables:
Event 1: $500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH, $2 Million GTD; Final Table: Sunday, January 24, 12pm
Event 10: $400 + $50 Deep Stack NLH, $1 Million GTD; Final Table: Saturday, January 30, 4pm
Event 14: $2,000 + $150 Heads Up NLH; Final Rounds: Saturday, January 31, 12pm
Event 17: $3,300 + $200 Borgata / WPT Championship NLH; Final Table: Friday, February 5, 12pm
Tournament Director Tab Duchateau has already released the names of the commentators for the $2 Million GTD Event 1 final table. Michael Gagliano (@Gags30Poker), Tyler Patterson (@TylerPoker), and Joe Stapelton (@Stapes) will be handling the play-by-play and all three have lots of experience sharing their excellent poker insights from the booth. Anyone interested in providing commentary for the other finales should contact @TabDuchateau.
In addition to the events previously mentioned, there are 18 additional trophy events, including two $100,000 GTD Saturday Series events, two Pot Limit Omaha events, an Omaha/Stud High/Low event, both Ladies and Seniors events, a $1,000 buy-in Six Max NLH event with a $200,000 Guarantee, and a $1,000 buy-in Turbo NLH event. Both the Super Stack Elevator and 40 Big Blinds tournaments, which joined the Borgata Open series lineup in 2015, will take place during the Winter Open.
For the first time ever, this series will feature a Charity Series of Poker (CSOP) tournament as a trophy event (Event 16). The fund-raising tournament takes place Saturday, January 30, at 5pm. For more details on the charity and it’s mission, check out www.charityseriesofpoker.org.
Click here for the full main event schedule.
Live qualifiers kick off Tuesday, January 19th and run through the start of the Championship event. Click here for the schedule of live qualifiers and secondary cash events. Satellites, Survivors, and Bounty events will be running in the evenings alongside the main events with buy-ins ranging from $100+$20 up to $700+$50, giving players plenty of opportunities to get in the action.
All the information you need for this series can be reached online at WinterPokerOpen.TheBorgata.com. Live coverage of the 22 main events will appear here at WinterPokerOpen.Blog.TheBorgata.com, so bookmark this site for future reference. The Borgata blog team consisting of Will O’Connor (@WOCPoker), Steve Horton (@TropicalSteve), and myself (@Kaelaine), with cameo appearances by Matthew Clark (@mattclark345), will be bringing you all the action from the first “Shuffle Up and Deal!” to the final river card over this 18-day series.
Last year, Aaron Mermelstein came out on top of a field of 989 entrants in the WPO Championship event, taking home $712,305. Who will claim top honors this year? Stay tuned to the Winter Poker Open blog for all the news as we make our way through what should be a record-setting series!