WPT WPO Championship (Day 2)
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 16 (complete): (2000/4000/500)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 168
Average stack: 234,285
Day 2 of the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open has just concluded. Two names stand at the very top.
Jack Duong, all business, has the chip lead after day 2.
Jack Duong, working from Table 14, surfaced late in the day to nip Bart Dowling for the Chip lead. Duong’s table featured Asher Coniff, Ian Searing, Casey Yontz, and several other big name players, making his work all the more impressive. Jack bagged 727,500.
Dowling did have over 700,000 but late in the level lost a small pot to keep him out of the yellow jersey.
Bart Dowling, looking at another deep run.
Nevertheless, he was in a great mood as we bagged – and deservedly so. Bart finished with 687,000.
It was a field crowded with poker talent and day that saw many great player go to the felt and with no recourse to reentry. Cliff Josephy, Paul Volpe, Jesse Sylvia, Roland Israelashivili, and too many to list all hit the rail.
Here are just a few of the notables that will move on to Day 3:
Nicholas Immekus – 552,000
Tony Ruberto- 490,000
John Racener – 460,500
Olivier Busquet – 540,000
Jia Liu – 474,500
Blake Bohn – 491,000
James Dorrance – 522,500
Jeff Esterling – 439,000
Nathan Bjerno – 414,000
Shaun Deeb – 379,500
Mike Del Vecchio – 573,000
David Zemel – 375,000
Tony Tran – 539,500
Ian Searing – 515,000
Jiqiang Tong – 464,500
Official, complete counts, as well as seating assignments will be posted when available.
Matt Glantz and Shaun Deeb talk as the bagging goes on.
Will Failla got his wish – he hung tight and reached Day 3.
Not for charity this time – Matt Stout finished with 138,500.
Players should be in the Event Center for tomorrow’s Day 3 start at 12 p.m. noon.
There are still more events – check out the BWPO splash page for complete information.
Good luck to all moving on!
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 16: (2000/4000/500)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 216
Average stack: 168,205
Clock is called on 21. It’s Byron Kaverman who needs time, facing a big river bet on {10s}{8c}{7d}{4h}{qs}.
Kaverman versus Borenstein: Time. Dowling’s big stack rests on the right.
He needs most of the time to deduce what Jonathan Borenstein’s bet means – but the tournament legend makes a fold that Justin Liberto thinks must be good.
“He would have shown if it was a bluff.”
“You think so,?” Kaverman isn’t so sure.”
Another player wants to tease him, however. ” I had two nines, I don’t know what’s going on…”
Key cards that blocked what Kaverman might have been concerned about.
Immediately after Liberto, still neatly stacks, doubles up a Daniel Lim’s short stack sitting next to Keith Donovan.
Donovan, a Borgatapoker.com qualifier, rubs his forehead at a tough table. That’s Daniel Lim on his phone.
The online qualifier is still hanging in!
In the next hand it’s Borenstein who attacks Daniel Lim in the blind, and on hard to fight against runout of {ac}{10h}{qs}{ah}, Borenstein takes it down with the second barrel. Not a good result, but he has a few chips to spare still.
21 is a table, like many now, crowded with stacks and poker talent. Bart Dowling, who’s had chips throughout
the tourney now fires into Kaverman and Donovan on {kc}{5c}{5d}. As the preflop raiser, it’s a great board, and Kaverman makes Dowling bet twice.
Bart Dowling, here with Kaverman is having an impressive tournament and is one of the chip leaders, with over 600,000.
However, Byron gives up on the turn {qh}, and Dowling flashes the great player a {kd} – good fold, with half of a level until we bag.
Kaverman is steady with 200,000. Lim has 120,000, and Borenstein just under 200,000.
Day 2 ends soon.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 15: (1500/3000/500)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 216
Average stack: 168,205
Level 15 at 1500/3000 has very rapidly seen off dozens of players.
Frank the Tank Stepuchin, calling for cocktails, but really needing another queen after his opponent makes AK work.
Frank refused to call a reshove, then moved all in on the next hand with {qx}{qx}, losing a flip for his tournament.
Table 16 nearby, filled with talent, lost two key names in rapid succession.
First David Zemel three bet an early position open, only to have Paul Volpe, someone no one wants at their table,
shove for his final blinds.
Del Vecchio and Volpe: one rising, the other now out.
The opener made the fold pretty quickly, but now Zemel, both priced in and willing to gamble, tossed in the chips
without delay, turning over {8c}{7c}, while Volpe had been gifted a premium, {ax}{kx}. However the board was a
middle straightening one with two pair for Zemel, and Volpe intermediately stood up. He did not improve and the
elite player is gone.
A good run by Gola ends too soon – here he looks for a matching six to bail him out.
Just as rapidly, one time big stack and chip leader Joel Gola open shoved his final 15 blinds, only to snapped off by
Mike Del Vecchio holding the aces. {6x}{6x} did not find a third to crack the Birds, and it was over after an great early run by Gola.
Mike Del Vecchio has 450,000, while David Zemel has double the average with 350,000.
The rapid winners straighten their improved stacks. GG.
The players continue to drop out – now 45 and counting – lost this level.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 15 (1,500/3,000/500)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 216
Average Stack: 182,000
We highlighted Aaron Massey earlier on Day 2 for his precipitous rise up the chip counts. After buying in at the start of Day 2, Massey is over 350,000 on dinner and we caught up with him to discuss his day so far and his place among the BCP power rankings.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 15: (1500/3000/500)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 261
Average stack: 150,805
The chip leader.
We’re back from break and starting level 15.
And guess who wins the Guess Chip Leader Ruberto’s Stack contest?
(It’s exactly 558,500 as the level begins.)
Good luck as we go into the evening!
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 14 (complete): (1,200/2,400/400)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 261
As just posted, it’s Tony Ruberto, who just reported our estimation as high – but we’re sticking with it – 550,000 for the chip lead – and possibly more, as the climbing player had a few more hands to steamroll his table with, at last check.
We return at 8:50 pm for level 15. (And with yet another update on Ruberto’s stack!)
The end of break always sees those lingering hands. Michael Liang was observed telling Marsel Backa he’d show, and on a tough board for a low pair, Backa folded eights.
Liang, after some prompting, showed a pair of sixes for a bluff. Backa was not happy with Liang’s play.
Liang and Backa, foreground. Those turned over sixes are not the best hand – that’s in the muck.
On nine Will Failla is looking for some luck to grow that stub. This photo should do the trick!
Jacobs and Failla on nine.
And what happened to the short stacked Christian Soto? We found him on table 27, counting up a double up. This is the third time in recent memory that his hands have dragged over into the break – and he’s won each of them, an usual trend.
Having an eight on this board – 34567 – means good things.
In this hand, he defended the big with the eight seven of clubs, the flop and turn went check check, and then with a straight Soto bet 10,000. His opponent then ripped it in on him, looking to get him off a chop. Soto snapped and his opponent asked,”do you have an eight?”
Yep.
In and with the vultures circling a few levels ago, Soto is now a bit under average.
Meanwhile by the media desk in event 4, a fight broke out. Keep it on the felt, boys!
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 14: (1,200/2,400/400)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 261
How much does Tony Ruberto have?
Tony Ruberto wasn’t sure how much he has.
Notice the stacking technique at work – not quite Justin Liberto’s precise columns of twenty.
“It’s like one of the jars where you guess how much is in there,” he explained.
On careful inspection – a good estimate is 550,000 – well in the lead at the moment.
And a dinner voucher – just in time for the upcoming break.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 14 (1,200/2,400/400)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 284
Average Stack: 138,600
There are plenty of great players among the 284 still in the Winter Poker Open Main Event but there are only a select few worthy of being called bosses and it just so happens Table 9 has three of them.
There is only one “End Boss” and that is Anthony Gregg. Gregg earned that title through his online and live prowess that has spanned over a decade. Gregg is over the $11,000,000 mark in live earnings and in the hunt for his second career WPT title after claiming the only Champions Cup awarded at Parx.
If Gregg is the “End Boss” than Will “The Thrill” Failla is the ‘Borgata Boogeyman’. With seven recorded titles inside these walls to his name, the 2015 Summer Poker Open Main Event champion is plenty familiar with what it takes to run deep here in Event Center despite being hamstrung at the moment by a short stack.
You have a lot to live up to with a nickname like “The Czar” and indeed Bryan Piccioli has held up his end of the bargain. Piccioli’s $6,300,000 in online earnings are staggering but his $1,800,000 in live winnings are impressive just as well. Piccioli finished third in last year’s Bay 101 Shooting Stars event and is once again making his way toward a WPT final table.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 14: (1,200/2,400/400)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 284
Mike Liang, up to 420,000, taken down just a tad in this pot by Andre Crooks, right.
On table eight, Mike Liang is big stacked and very likely the chip leader in a rapidly shifting scene.
Not the biggest stack, but nearby Charles Coates is very healthy at 250,000. He just busted a player with a dominating draw. When the dealer was not clear whose pot it was, he let it be known with a choleric “damn right!,” then took off, a little vexed, for an unscheduled break.
That’s my pot: no confusion for Charles Coates.
Justin Liberto’s over 300,000 and knows how to stack the chips neatly.
Nicolas Immekus has over 420,000. He cooled off an opponent for near stacks, doubling up with the 63o versus top set on the flop – yes, 457r, naturally.
Tony Ruberto at very latest report has 450,000 – surpassing Liang and Immekus, as this is posted.
‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 14 (1,200/2,400/400)
Total Entries: 1,312
Players Remaining: 304
Average Stack: 129,500
We highlighted a few players earlier today who had spun up a Day 2 bullet but we’re now going even higher. In the spirit of Jesse Sylvia turning 20,000 on Day 2 in September of last year into a WPT championship, we are now taking a look at two players who bagged below a starting stack and are now among the chip leaders, with both over 300,000.
Seated all the way at the front of the Event Center, Kunal Patel has transformed his stack of 29,300 that came out his bag into over 355,000. Patel cashed in both Borgata WPT events in 2016 and is well on his way to toward another BPO payday. Not much has stood in Patel’s way today and the Texan has a chance to cross the $1,000,000 in live earnings should he make the final table.
He’s brash, he’s loud, but above all else, Michael Dentale can play some poker. The 2015 Fall Poker Open Main Event champion was down to 6,000 only a few levels ago and is now playing close to 320,000. Dentale has never found success in the Borgata WPT events but that could all change if he continues to chip up at this rate.