Event 1
All is quiet here in the Event Center as the final adjustments are made in preparation for the Kickoff of the 2018 Winter Poker Open! Registration is open out in the Event Center lobby at the top of the escalators and the doors to the tournament room will open in about 45 minutes.
There are six starting flights in this Kickoff Event, spread out over three days. Today’s first flight will get underway shortly after 11am once the starting announcements are completed.
The next five flights launch as follows:
1B: Today, 5pm
1C: Wednesday, 11am
1D: Wednesday, 5pm
1E: Thursday, 10am
1F: Thursday, 5pm
All players begin with 25,000 chip Deep Stacks and the first 17 levels are 30 minutes long. The plan is to complete all 17 of those levels on Day 1 before the bag & tag. The survivors of all six starting flights will return on Friday at 12 noon for Day 2, followed by the final day on Saturday, also beginning at 12 noon.
Tuesday January 16th marks the beginning of the 2018 Winter Poker Open and this series will be huge! There are 20 trophy events with a total of more than $7 million in guarantees. The kickoff event guarantees $2 million in total buy-ins and only costs $540+$60 to enter. There are six starting flights over the first three days of the series providing plenty of opportunities to get into what is sure to be a massive field.
Aristoteles Neto – 1st Place – 2017 Winter Poker Open Kickoff Event
Last year there were more than 5,500 entrants in Event 1 and Aristoteles Neto took 1st place and the largest portion of the $2.6 million prize pool. In a 7-way adjusted payout agreement, he walked away with $216,155. All of the final seven players took home six-figure paydays, taking advantage of Borgata’s payout adjustment option.
The pinnacle of the Winter Open is the $3 million guaranteed World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship event, which will begin with two starting flights on Sunday, January 28th and Monday, January 29th. The finale of this five-day event will be live-streamed Friday, February 2nd.
Dan Weinman – 2017 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Champion
In 2017, Dan Weinman bested the field of 1,312 entrants to claim the top prize of more than $892,000 and permanently etched his name on the WPT Champions Cup. The massive field set the record for Borgata’s largest WPO Championship and pushed the overall prize pool to nearly $4.2 million. Dan’s win also earned him a seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions and just a few months later, he pocketed another $381,500 when he won the TOC!
Between and during these two big events are the usual player-favorites including the Black Chip Bounty ($200k GTD), Almighty Stack ($1M GTD), Seniors, Ladies, PLO, Omaha/Stud mix, and Six Max NLH ($200k GTD) tournaments. New to this year’s schedule are a $350+$50 Monster Stack NLH event with 40,000 chips to start and 4o-minute levels, with two starting flights ($150k GTD) and a $200+$30 Frenzy Re-Entry NLH event with unlimited re-entries for only $100+$20 ($50k GTD).
Click here for the full main-event schedule. Satellites will be running both live and online for the big events, so check out the Winter Poker Open Microsite for links and additional details.
Borgata’s Event Center will play host to the 18-day-long tournament series again this year. Online registration is currently available for all main events here through Friday, January 12th. On-site registration will be open from 12 noon to 12 midnight on Monday, January 15th, then will re-open at 8am Tuesday in the lobby of the Event Center.
The Borgata Blog team will be bringing you the action right here from the first “Shuffle Up and Deal!” until the final trophy is awarded. Follow @BorgataPoker for Twitter updates throughout the series and use “#BWPO2018” in your Tweets — you might see them on the Event Center’s massive Twitter Wall!
