WPO Video Series
Event 8 still has close to a half hour on their dinner break and during that break, we caught up with Jake Schwartz, who is coming off two WPT final tables at the end of 2015. Schwartz is still looking to notch his first Winter Poker Open score of the series and looks like he’s in a good position to do so, as he’s near the top of the current ‘Super Stack Elevator’ leaderboard.
The New York based pro is near the top of another leaderboard heading into 2016, as Schwartz is close to the top of the WPT Player of the Year standings midway through their 14th season. We caught up with him on break to discuss that POY race and hitting the ground running into the new year.
On the East Coast, there might not have been a more consistent mid-stakes player than James Lillis in 2015. The New Jersey native made nearly $200,000, including claiming two Borgata Poker titles and making the Event 1 FPO final table. He’s hoping that consistency continues into 2016, as he’s already notched four tournament scores to open his calendar year.
We caught up with Lillis to talk what he plans on doing for the rest of the series, online play and how he can try to top his 2015 efforts.
Jason Loehrs just beat 5,101 players to take down Event 1 of the Winter Poker Open and the lion’s share of a nearly $2,500,000 prize pool. We caught up with the Pennsylvania native after his win to talk final table strategy, the live streamed final table and how things may or may not change in his poker future.
That officially concludes our coverage of Event 1 of the Winter Poker Open. A complete list of results will be published tomorrow and while Loehrs is the biggest WPO winner thus far, there are still two trophies up for grabs tonight.
Keep it here for all the action, as the WPO blog team will cover both Event 5 and Event 6 to a champion over the next few hours.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 39 (400,000/800,000/100,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 1
Average Stack: 127,525,000
John Simon (Naperville, IL)
Heads up play only lasted a few hands, as Jason Loehrs and John Simon played a massive pot with just a few minutes remaining in Level 39. Simon opened to 2,200,000 and Loehrs called in the blinds to see the {Kh}{Qh}{5c} flop. Loehrs checked and Simon checked back to see the {6d} fall on the turn.
Loehrs checked again and Simon bet 2,400,000, only to see Loehrs check-raise to 6,000,000. The short stack called and the {10h} completed both possible draws and the board, while bringing a third check from Loehrs. Simon quickly announced himself “all-in” and after Loehrs asked for a count, the dealer cut down a 29,400,000 chip stack.
Loehrs went into the tank and he admitted that he “didn’t think he could fold this one”. He ran the hand through his head and audibly eliminated putting Simon on a flush draw or a set. Eventually, he called and Simon tossed over {Ad}{10s}, for a rivered pair of tens.
The big stack then stood and turned over {Kd}{6h} and his kings up were good, meaning that his two pair hand had just won him the Winter Poker Open Event 1 title. The two remaining players exchanged a sportsmanlike handshake and Simon congratulated Loehrs on his victory.
Simon will make just under $250,000 for his runner-up finish and Jason Loehrs will take home $383,431 for his Event 1 win. A complete winner’s story and interview will be posted shortly.
We know that Borgata Poker followers like options and that is exactly what everyone has when it comes to this Event 1 $2,000,000 GTD WPO final table. This ten-handed final table will be live streamed on both YouTube and Twitch, allowing viewers to pick their live stream pleasure.
That live stream will be on a 30-minute delay and will be commentated by Joe Stapleton, Tyler Patterson and Jamie Kerstetter, three players and presenters that have tons of experience and personality that will make this stream must watch action.
They’ll be handling the action on the live stream but the WPO blog will be covering the action as it happens, with no delay. So, with the live stream and WPO blog following this Event 1 final table to a winner, there is no excuse to miss a second of the action and we look forward to having you follow along with us when cards get in the air at 12 PM.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 36 (200,000/400,000/40,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 10
Average Stack: 12,750,000
Six starting flights, a nearly 1,000 player Day 2 restart and a slow but steady grind to the final table has left the opening $2,000,000 GTD Winter Poker Open event with ten players and when play resumes tomorrow, John Simon will lead this field into the final table. Simon came back on the bottom half of the Day 3 leaderboard after a few hours of play, he took control of the chip lead and from that point on, he didn’t let it go.
He’ll come back with 27,000,000, with only one other player breaking the 20,000,000 chip mark. After today’s play down session ended, we caught up with Simon to talk some final table strategy, sneaking into a WPT score the last time he was at Borgata and the value of this massive event.
A complete final table preview will be posted tomorrow and a redraw will occur over the next few hours as the chips and bags are made official. Until then, the final ten are listed below, with their chip counts heading into tomorrow’s live streamed final table.
John Simon – 27,865,000
Rohit Hukmani – 23,150,000
Jonathan Borenstein – 19,110,000
Satish Surapaneni – 15,020,000
Jason Loehrs – 12,750,000
Gerard Kane – 8,835,000
Bill Johnson – 7,780,000
Edward O’Brien – 5,020,000
Asher Conniff – 4,330,000
Eudual Lopez – 3,140,000
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 34 (120,000/240,000/30,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 16
Average Stack: 7,980,000
This Event 1 field is coming back from it’s second break of the day and they’ll return to Level 34 shortly. We mentioned Jason Loehrs massive hand midway through Level 32 and while that action was missed, during the break, we caught up with Loerhs to see how it all went down.
He’ll now come back as one of the top stacks in the room, with a complete list of the remaining players counts provided below:
Table 1
- Edward O’Brien – 4,100,000
- Christopher Yakuboff – 6,200,000
- Jonathan Borenstein – 9,600,000
- Satish Surapaneni – 3,700,000
- Eudual Lopez – 3,300,000
- Rohit Hukmani – 13,300,000
- Claude Petroy – 5,600,000
- Joseph Curcio – 5,700,000
Table 2
- Wayne Lewis – 2,300,000
- Justin Liberto – 9,800,000
- Gerard Kane – 13,125,000
- Jason Loehrs – 13,800,000
- Bill Johnson – 4,520,000
- Christopher Mikil – 4,510,000
- Asher Conniff – 6,700,000
- John Simon – 17,500,000
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 32 (80,000/160,000/20,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 31
Average Stack: 4,115,000
We’ve hit our first break of Day 3 and this $2,000,000 GTD opening Winter Poker Open event is down to it’s final 31 players. Sean Shah is one of them, as he’s playing just shy of 6,000,000 and during the break, we caught up with him to talk being snowed in on Day 3 of a tournament, his first Borgata cash and keeping his worldwide fan base happy.
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 24 (12,000/24,000/3,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Players Remaining: 168
Average Stack: 759,000
Seven and a half hours after the biggest Day 2 restart in Borgata Poker Open history, we are finally on the Event 1 dinner break, with just under 170 players currently still alive. There are a few players over the 2,000,000 chip mark and one of those players is Jonathan Borenstein.
We caught up with the New Jersey online grinder to talk how his Day 2 session has gone and to look ahead through the rest of this massive event. He’ll come back near the top of the leaderboard and a list of some of the bigger stacks in the room is posted below:
John Gale – 2,300,000
Jonathan Borenstein – 2,300,000
Carlos Alvarado – 2,100,000
Anna Antimony – 1,935,000
Asher Conniff – 1,720,000
Aleksander Denishev – 1,620,000
Je Wook Oh – 1,510,000
Brian Mooney – 1,460,000
Jim Gilbert – 1,280,000
Event 1 – $2,000,000 GTD
Level 22 (8,000/16,000/2,000)
Total Entries: 5,101
Total Remaining: 330
Average Stack: 385,000
Players are now returning from their second break of Day 2 and their first ITM break of the day. The tournament clock reads that 330 players still remain but we’re going to continue to keep that number unofficial until we have a more contained field in front of us.
We’re also going to continue to bring you updates from this field as Event 1 continues into Level 22 but before we do that, we caught up with BorgataPoker.com pro Matt Stout to talk about his recent Event 1 success, swingy tournament play and the Charity Series of Poker.