Event 11
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 27: 50,000/100,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 80
Average Stack: 3,710,000
Chris Leong (pictured) likes January at the Borgata. The 2016 Winter Poker Open WPT Champ booked over $800,000 for that win and could be on his way to another six-figure score in the year’s first month.
Leong binked an unlikely double along with an elimination and is now pressing for the chip lead.
Zhenjie Hou opened in the lojack and the button flatted. Jason Rivkin and Leong came in the from the blinds to see a flop of 
. Action checked to Hou, who continued for 550,000. The button folded and Rivkin called. Leong pushed for 4,460,000 and Hou called all-in for 1,120,000 total.
Rivkin called and had the best hand with 
. Leong’s 
was in second place and Hou needed a deuce to complete his wheel 
. The 
turn put Leong on a flush draw and the 
brought it home to give him the pot.
Hou collected a payout slip and Rivkin sent over a large portion of his stack. Rivkin is down to 2,300,000 and Leong is sitting behind a wall of 11,200,000.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 27: 50,000/100,000/20,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 95
Average Stack: 3,125,000
The field is down to 10 tables in the Almighty Million. Tables might be near sub-double digits but stacks are in the territory of that mark in millions. Pascal Pflock (pictured) and Jeff Mahoney currently are the only two players to enjoy that status but more are soon to join them in the upcoming levels.
Pflock is in the middle of his first Borgata cash and holding strong for Team Germany in the Event Center. Seated next to Michael Matrone among others, Pflock is enjoying the culture shock that comes with New Jersey poker. Pflock isn’t the only European left in the field with Sweden’s Michael Tureniec playing below the chip average.
He will enjoy his experience all the more should he make Day 3. A look at the updated counts is below.
Pascal Pflock – 11,200,000
Jeff Mahoney – 10,600,000
Mike Policastro – 8,140,000
Kevin Rines – 6,850,000
Will Givens – 6,820,000
Wayne Lewis – 5,810,000
Michael Amato – 5,400,000
Trung Pham – 5,340,000
Paul Lambrakis – 5,300,000
Miguel Borrero – 5,250,000
Philip Neiman – 5,050,000
Chris Leong – 4,850,000
Jason Rivkin – 4,640,000
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 26: 40,000/80,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 100
Average Stack: 2,970,000
Eight million is the new target for players in the Almighty Million. Jeff Mahoney (pictured) used pocket kings and a bit of luck to send a player to the rail to put his stack over that amount.
An early position player limped in and Mahoney raised to 340,000 from the small blind. The big blind jammed for 2,320,000 and the limper shrunk away. Mahoney dropped in a call with 
and the small blind’s 
needed assistance from the dealer.
The 
board clinched the pot for Mahoney and he is up to 8,460,000. The 100 players left in Day 2 are about to take a short break. The updated leaderboard is arriving once play resumes with Mahoney likely in the lead.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 26: 40,000/80,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 118
Average Stack: 2,515,000
Jason Rivkin (pictured) has a BPO Black Chip Bounty and Six Max final table to his name, among other Borgata triumphs. Rivkin is looking for his first Almighty Stack top-1o appearance and dodged a potential bullet in Level 26.
Rivkin opened to 195,000 in early position and Hop Lay called on the button. Karl Held put calling chips in and the three players saw a 
flop. Held checked and Rivkin bet 265,000. Lay kicked his hand in and Held continued to the 
turn.
Held took the path less traveled and shoved for 2,245,000 into Rivkin. Rivkin took out an earbud and said out loud that he had eight-high. He eventually decided to put his cards in the muck and Held took the pot.
Rivkin is healthy midway through the level with 4,750,000 as he shares a table with Chris Leong.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 25: 30,000/60,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 124
Average Stack: 2,395,000
Table 3 had little time to play any hands near the end of Level 25. That is thanks to a giant pot that broke out with three-way preflop action between Mike Policastro (pictured), Satish Surapaneni, and Charles Furey.
Policastro opened to 155,000 under the gun and Surapaneni called on the button. Furey juiced it up to 455,000 out of the small blind and the other two players called.
The flop came out 
and Furey bet 365,000. Policastro called and Surapaneni spent a minute thinking before raising to 1,000,000. Furey folded in a flash and Policastro took his time before moving all-in for 5,230,000 total.
Surapaneni had 4,120,000 behind and thought hard about his decision. After two minutes, Surapaneni verbally noted that he thought Policastro had a flush draw and then offered choice words about Policastro’s play before mucking his hand.
Policastro dragged the pot and mentioned that if Surapaneni called, all of his chips would be sitting in Policastro’s stack. A few f-bombs got mixed in before the next hand. Table 3 will not break before the end of Day 2 and we’ll keep an eye out to see how this rivalry develops. Policastro is the new chip leader with 7,350,000.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 25: 30,000/60,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 139
Average Stack: 2,135,000
The Day 2 Almighty Million field is down another table in the first few minutes after the dinner break. The stack size to beat as of now is in the neighborhood of five million with Paul Lambrakis (pictured) leading the overall pack.
Lambrakis is a former Fall Poker Open Main Event final tablist and working hard to beat his $83,159 score for his fourth-place finish. In the same series, Lambrakis final tabled the Almighty Stack $300,000 guaranteed. Lambrakis won the stand-alone Almighty Stack in February 2016. He seems to be doing something right.
The leaderboard below is full of Borgata regulars and professionals trying to make their mark with over $200,000 awaiting the winner. More updates to come as we move toward Day 3.
Paul Lambrakis – 5,675,000
Kevin Rines – 5,325,000
Marc Effren – 5,240,000
Will Givens – 5,210,000
Phil Neiman – 5,100,000
Charles Furey – 5,080,000
Joe Dittmar – 4,750,000
Satish Surapaneni – 4,650,000
Michael Amato – 4,250,000
Chris Leong – 3,950,000
Khoi Ta – 3,710,000
Stephen Delli Bovi – 3,650,000
Jesse Cohen – 3,600,000
Anthony Squitieri – 3,120,000
James McKinnon – 2,850,000
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 25: Blinds 30,000/60,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 137
Average Stack: 2,165,000
Phil Neiman
On the first hand after getting moved to table 13, Phil Neiman was in the small blind and Peter Eichhardt opened for 500,000 from the button. Phil got all his chips in with pocket Kings. Peter had and flopped a 3 and picked up a flush draw, but Phil faded all his outs to take the pot. He’s up to nearly 5 million and his opponent headed to the payout desk.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 25: 30,000/60,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 146
Average Stack: 2,035,000
Less than five percent of the overall field in the Almighty Million returns from the Day 2 dinner break. The 146 remaining players have between now and roughly 2:00 am to find a bag to put themselves into Day 3. The leaderboard has shifted quite a bit between the bursting of the money bubble and the start of Level 25. A look at the updated chip leaders arrives shortly.
$1,000+$90 Six Max NLH
$200,000 Guaranteed
Level 9: 400/800/100
Total Entries: 279
The Event 13 Six Max players have returned from their dinner break and play is back underway. There are 279 total entries and there is over $270,000 in the prize pool.
The full list of the final Six Max payouts will be posted shortly when they are finalized.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 24: 25,000/50,000/5,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 161
Average Stack: 1,845,000
Kevin Rines (pictured) picked up pocket aces at a most opportune time and used them to bust Joseph Cheong, moving into the chip lead in the process.
Trieu Hong opened the cutoff to 110,000 and Rines three-bet the action up to 500,000 on the button. Cheong put all of his 2,700,000 in the pot from the small blind and Hong got out of the way. Rines called right away with 
and Cheong’s 
were not looking good.
The 
flop put left Cheong needing the poker-version of a 28-3 comeback to stay alive. The 
turn put a check mark next to Rines’ name and Cheong departed to the payout line the next hand.
Rines is the chip leader with 5,850,000 at the dinner break. All 161 remaining players will have 60-minutes to think about their next move and play gets back underway at 8:10 pm. The new rundown of chip leaders will be posted then.