Event 18 (Day 2)
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 22: 8,000/16,000/2,000
Total Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 40
Average Stack: 933,000
Stephen Song (pictured) is the youngest player remaining in the WPO Championship field at only 22-years-old. Song is outplaying players ahead of years so far in this tournament and is climbing toward the 2,000,000 mark in Level 22.
Song opened the button to 35,000 and Christopher Thompson three-bet to 100,000 out of the small blind. The bet was matched by Song and the flop came out 
. Thompson checked and Song bet 75,000. His bet was called and the 
turn went check-check.
They both checked the 
river and Thompson’s 
was second-best to the 
of Song. Thompson is doing fine on his own with 1,300,000 and Song is at a new peak with 1,720,000.
Table 6 is now broken and the dangerous competitors are spread across the room with Dennis Zollo rejoining Jonathan Little on Table 1.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 18: 3,000/6,000/1,000
Total Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 106
Average Stack: 352,000
Zach Gruneberg entered Day 3 of the Borgata Poker Open full of experience and chips. Gruneberg placed second in the 2016 BPO Championship to Jesse Sylvia and has a chance to make the WPT final table at Borgata for the second time.
The Action Clock is in play today and Gruneberg has experience with the “shot clock” from a previous Season XVI WPT run. We caught up with Gruneberg to ask him about how this run stacks up against his final table finish and how the experience of an online poker background provides an advantage with the Action Clock.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 159
Average Stack: 235,000
Day 2 of the WPO Championship is complete with 159 players returning for tomorrow’s Day 3. AJ Kelsall (pictured) gradually accumulated chips for all of today’s play and wound up on top of the leaderboard with 768,500. Chun Li is right behind him with 755,000. Those players are the only two over that mark.
The Action Clock will be in play from the moment Day 3 starts with the field only three eliminations from the money. The bubble bursts at 156 and all players from that point forward are guaranteed at least $6,129. Everyone has their eye on the $651,928 set aside for first place.
Day 3 starts at 12:00 pm and the accompanying seat draws will be posted as soon as they are available. Below is a look at the top stacks heading into tomorrow.
AJ Kelsall – 768,500
Chun Li – 755,000
Joe McKeehen – 548,000
Nick Jivkov – 529,500
Sean Remz – 512,000
Will Givens – 510,000
Stephen Song – 509,000
Ryan Jones – 489,500
Zachary Gruneberg – 448,000
Erick But – 432,500
Amnon Fillipi – 389,000
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 164
Average Stack: 228,000
Shankar Pillai (pictured) started Day 2 among the chip leaders and is near the same point toward the end of play. Pillai picked up a pot near the bags and is peaking heading into Day 3.
With the board reading 
, the big blind bet 13,500 into a pot of about 15,000. Pillai raised to 30,000 under the gun and the big blind thought for a minute before calling. The big blind checked the 
river and Pillai applied 80,000 chips worth of pressure.
The bet caused the big blind to fold and Pillai showed 
for a bluff to stack up to 430,000. Day 2 is almost at a formal end and Pillai is the table captain seated with Joe McKeehen, Chris Leong, Jose Montes, and Ricky Guan.
A full recap of the day’s action is to be posted once we reach 162 players.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 170
Average Stack: 219,500
The WPO Championship is going to end sooner than expected. Instead of playing into the money, the field will stop at 162, bag for the night, and return for Day 3. Less than a full table is left to be eliminated before that time.
Michael ‘JohnnyDrama’ Haberman (pictured) shouldn’t be among them. Haberman started the day with less than 10,000 and is now over 120,000 thanks, in part, to a side pot won against Amnon Fillipi.
With four players in the pot and the flop reading 
, Fillipi bet 15,500 in the hijack with Sean Shah all-in for just an ante. Haberman called on the button and the other two players folded before the 
peeled the turn. The two players checked that card and the 
river.
Haberman turned over 
and Fillipi mucked. Shah had a flush for the main pot to stay alive. The bags are near and Haberman is sure to be among them after a long climb from dust to a fighting chance.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500
Total Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 179
Average Stack: 208,000
Ness Reilly
Ness Reilly started 2018 off by making her first WPTDeepStacks Final table in the massive 1,366 entry $1,100 WPTD SHRPO NLH Main Event. She would earn nearly $30,000 for her 8th place finish but Reilly was just getting started.
Just a week later she final tabled the $3,500 WPT SHRPO NLH Main Event. She was eventually eliminted in 4th place but collected her best live tournament cash of $182,249.
Reilly then made her way up the East coast and joined the $3,500 BWPO WPT Championship Event on Day 1B. She managed to find a bag and started Day 2 near the bottom of the chip counts with just 10,000.
Reilly doubled up early on and hasn’t looked back. She has chipped up to over 300,000 and will surely be one to keep an eye on as the BWPO WPT Championship field continues to thin down.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 16: 2,000/4,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 179
Average Stack: 208,500
The WPO Championship field is in their final 75-minute level of the night and 23 eliminations stand between the field and the money. If the bubble is to come into play in Level 16, the field will play it out without the use of the Action Clock.
It is yet to be determined if the field can make it to that point, but if it does, the WPO blog will have the updates near the third stage of the WPT Main Event.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 15: 1,500/3,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 205
Average Stack: 182,000
The WPT Championship field narrowed down a few tables during Level 15 and Chase Bianchi (pictured) made them break another one. Bianchi knocked out two players in one hand is among the chip leaders as a result.
The cutoff opened to 8,000 and Matthew Zarcadoolas three-bet to 26,000 in the small blind. Bianchi put in a raise to 63,000 and the cutoff put his last 85,000 in the middle. Zarcadoolas shoved for 225,000 total and Bianchi called with . Zaracadoolas was drawing nearly dead with 
once the cutoff turned over 
.
The 
board shipped the pot over to Bianchi and he zoomed up the leaderboard in the process. Other players to improve their stock in Level 15 include Long Tran (510,000), Ness Reilly (320,000), Ruslan Arstanaliyev (440,000), and current chip leader Chun Lee (680,000), who is pictured below.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 15: 1,500/3,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 225
Average Stack: 166,000
Over 200 players entered on Day 2 and while most of them are out by now, a few are still in with strong stacks in front of them. Two of those players are former Winter Poker Open Main Event final tablists who have strong accolades outside of the Borgata.
He’s “The Champ” for a reason and Joe McKeehen finally gained some traction after some tough sledding on both Day 1s. McKeehen made the final table for the WPO in 2016 and followed that up with a Spring and Summer Poker Open Championship top-three appearance last year. The rare title that eludes McKeehen is a BPO Main Event win and he has a chance to break through this week.
Esther Taylor reached her first WPT final table in January 2015, falling in fifth to Aaron Mermelstein. Taylor first jumped into action on Day 2, deciding not to grind the two Day 1s available to her. “E-Tay” won the Heads Up title in the 2017 Borgata Poker Open and getting to that juncture this week would earn her at least $434,614.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 15: 1,500/3,000/500
Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 225
Average Stack: 166,000
Will “The Thrill” Failla
We catch up to the heads up action on a flop of 
. Will “The Thrill” Failla checks and the player on the button bets 20,000 into a main pot of 21,500.
Failla checks raises all in for 69,000 sending his opponent into the tank. “Whatever you’ve got I have outs” Failla says.
“I don’t like the color of that flop” his opponent says and tosses his hand into the muck. “Pick one” says Failla and his opponent picks the .
“Of course the other one is the same” Failla says turning over the for a flopped set of tens as he drags in the pot.
Will “The Thrill” Failla- 110,500