WPO Video Series
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 13 (1,000/2,000/300)
Total Entries: 1,170
Players Remaining: 320
Chip Average: 109,000
We just featured John Allan Hinds as one of the chip leaders but how did he get to working an over 450,000 chip stack? We caught up with Hinds to talk about the massive hand that played out over the last level and what a deep run in this WPT WPO Championship would mean to Hinds, who considers the Borgata his home casino.
Hinds and the rest of this field won’t be playing into the money until tomorrow’s Day 3 session but heading into Level 13, JAH finds himself in a good position to make another deep championship run.
It should be noted that we are entering the final two levels before dinner, with that 75-minute break coming at the completion of Level 14. Day 2 will then end after Level 16, with the players bagging and tagging their chips for tomorrow’s, official, moving day.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 11 (600/1,200/200)
Total Entries: 1,170
Players Remaining: 459
Chip Average: 76,000
Earlier today, we highlighted some past WPT Borgata Champions Cup winners and on the first break of Day 2, we caught up with the most recent of those winners. That player is David ‘Gaucho’ Paredes, who won September’s WPT BPO Championship, has recorded deep runs in two WPT events at Borgata over the last two years, as he finished 2nd in this exact event in 2014.
We caught up with Paredes to talk about how his restart is going, playing in a deep structured championship event and about how September’s win was a little redemption after a close call two years ago.
We’re now heading into Level 11 and, as it stands, over 150 players have already hit the rail on Day 2.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 2 (75/150)
Day 1B Entries: 511
Total Entries: 870
We’ve highlighted a few players that have made final table runs at Borgata over the last few WPT series and Justin Liberto is another player looking to do that this week. The Baltimore native opened his 2015 season with a 6th place finish in last year’s $3,000,000 guaranteed event but that was only the start of his stellar tournament run.
He added a WSOP Circuit ring and a ‘Casino Champion’ honor to his resume before adding a WSOP bracelet to his trophy case this summer. Most importantly though, Liberto also got married, which rightfully was his most important “win” over the last year.
We caught up with him on the first break of Day 1B to talk about that 2015 run, getting married, winning a bracelet and what 2016 has in store.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 5 (150/300/50)
Total Entries: 327
Over the first two weeks of the Winter Poker Open series, nearly 20 WPO trophies have been awarded, or as Jamie Kerstetter likes to call them, “tiny glass Borgatas”. The partypoker Pro is now trying to ride the momentum of her Charity Series of Poker win into the WPT WPO Championship and we caught up with her on the second break of the day.
The New Jersey native talked about the fun of playing, and winning, a charity event, navigating such a tough field, then had Will OC fall for the oldest trick in the book.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 3 (75/150/25)
Total Entries: 299*
Over the first few levels of Day 1A, we’ve highlighted some of the big name players in today’s WPT WPO Championship field but there are also some players that are making their first WPT appearances today. John Hall is one of them, as he won a live qualifier to this $3,000,000 GTD event last night.
We caught up with Hall to talk about the opportunity to play against the world’s best and how he’s going to approach this Day 1A session.
Event 10 – $1,000,000 GTD ‘Borgata Million’
Level 32 (80,000/160,000/20,000)
Total Entries: 3,270
Total Remaining: 10
Average Stack: 8,170,000
We’re still close to an hour away from the Winter Poker Open ‘Borgata Million’ live stream final table and while it is her birthday, Cathy Dever isn’t celebrating just yet. That’s because she has a WPO title to claim, something she’ll hope to achieve starting at 4 PM.
We caught up with Dever before play started to talk about her swingy Day 2 session, her birthday and what a win in this event would mean.
While Event 10 continues to play down into the money and Event 11 players through Level 1, we caught up with BorgataPoker.com pro Michael “Gags” Gagliano. “Gags” has been a staple on the BPO live stream commentary team and, while he isn’t in the ‘Borgata Million’ action today, he will be in the booth tomorrow to call the action at the final table.
That is, if he doesn’t go deep in the ‘$1,000 NLH Six Max’. Gagliano has had some deep runs in that event over the past few BPO series and before he said down, we talked BorgataPoker.com, his daily Twitch stream and how he blends entertainment with insightful poker commentary.
This week, all roads lead to the World Poker Tour and Cate Hall will enter this weekend’s WPT WPO Championship second in the WPT Player of the Year standings. A year ago today, the Washington DC based Hall was still working full-time as a lawyer but after making the switch to poker full-time this summer, Hall has had some impressive tournament runs.
We caught up with Hall on her off day, as she bagged chips yesterday, to talk about that transition, her recent final table run at the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond Classic and about playing with, and learning from, the world’s best.
Level 7 (250/500/50)
Total Day 1C Entries: 378
Total Event 1 Entries: 1,010
We featured Aaron Massey in an earlier Day 1C update but during the last break, we caught up with the Chicago native to talk about his 2014 deep $2,000,000 GTD run. Massey said he was “mashing” in that event and he’s hoping to do some mashing this week, as he spends every day getting better and going deeper in these big guaranteed events.
Level 4 (100/200/25)
Total Day 1C Entries: 312
Total Event 1 Entries: 944
Alex Jim has already qualified himself for both the opening $2,000,000 GTD event of this Winter Poker Open and a seat in today’s Day 1C flight of the ‘Borgata Million’. After cashing in Event 1, he’s hoping for similar success and we caught up with him before he got in the action to talk about his Event 1 run and online poker.