Event 21
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
End of Level 13: 1000/2000/300
Entrants: 850
Remaining: 259
Average Chips: 82,046
Carmine Tirone has 290,000 on outer table 25.
Interesting development: Alina, meanwhile, has upticked to 250,000 and moved to three, where big stack Ricciardi has also just arrived.
Mike Policastro, on dark table 5, has moved past 200,000 as well and joined the big stacks.
We’ll return at 3:37
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
Level 12: 1000/2000/300
Entrants: 850
Remaining: 288
Average Chips: 73,785
We’re in the middle period: no more re-entries, time to chip up. We’ll have the payout number soon.
Pahuja, foreground, waited and then Pickell dropped in the call.
Lisa Pickell just faced a miserable problem: river shove from Borgatapoker.com ambassador Vinnie Pahuja.
The board had paired on the end. Scare card? Just another move?
Alas, no. Lisa calls and gets shown the effective nuts: queens full.
“I know how slick you can be, that’s the only reason I called!” Lisa complained.
A little, sly smile from the expert.
Pahuja gets a double to nearly 100,000: unwise to give this man chips.
Meanwhile, the dealer had to confirm the blinds, briefly confused.
“Of course you didn’t know… you were too busy screwing me!” Lisa lamented.
“Did I need the river?” Vinnie inquired.
“Yes,” Lisa confirmed, possibly telling the truth.
The good news is she still has game and more than ten blinds to work with.
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
End of Level 10: 600/1200/200
Entrants: 834
Victor Nissim holds steady at 190,000.
Paul Ricciardi pushed past 200,000 briefly but took a small hit, now at 180,000.
Abraham and Ron both have fallen off a little, closer to 150,000.
Michael Vishnevsky, disguised here as a very cute baby, is faring well, while Alex R. looks less enthusiastic. Just showed a semi-bluff, though: nice hand.
We break until 4:50, when registration closes. Still time to join what looks like one of the best turnouts and tournies of the BWPO!
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
Level 9: 500/1000/100
Entrants: 781
This tournament is growing fast! With the guarantee long since crushed, the many survivors of the BWPO apparently want a piece of the pie before it’s all dished out and eaten.
“Heisenberg,” yet another millinophile, is climbing past 100,000, thanks to karma? He found a player’s wad of cash in his tourney seat and returned it. The player then lost his stack to his benefactor, but said, “you deserve it!”
Ron Alina has 160,000. “I’ve knocked out eight!” he whispered.
Abraham Araya on 26 has 185,000.
Comfortable in the lead. It’s Victor Nissim who has the biggest stack though, at present with 190,000.
On the other end of the spectrum, somehow John Stevens has not moved more than 900 chips from starting stack, something of an accomplishment, really. That’s Casie Donaldson on his right.
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
Level 8: 400/800/100
Entrants: 692
On 9 before the break, deciding to yuck it up with registration still open, the table created a seven way pot.
A very wet flop is everyone’s reward for passivity, the 
.
However, one EP caller decides to bravely lead, and is called immediately by Mr. Lima. Joey Galazzo, next to act, now puts in a raise. It’s quite a move with action behind and represents some very strong hands and nutted draws.
You’ve been raised: 5,000 more from Joey.
The raise works on most of the table, including the player who led. However, after some fidgeting, Mr. Lima makes the call.
Heads up. The turn is not a blank, the 
, completing pairs and gutters and reforming the nuts. The dangerous card inspires a check check from both contestants.
On the river 
, Lima leads 10,000. This noticeably aggravates Galazzo, who talks and shifts uncomfortably. It’s apparent he doesn’t really believe Lima has hit the back door flush but doesn’t want to pay him off, either.
Lima valuing Galazzo.
Finally, Joey grabs two blues and begrudgingly drops them in.
Lima doesn’t show the flush, he missed! Oh wait, it’s 
for a goofy call pre, a goofy hand now, and goofy value from Joey.
Lima: Muhahahaha.
Galazzo looks up into the ceiling, a lil’ tilted.
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
End of Level 5: 100/200/25
Entrants: 555
On table 1 – the best of tables – Ralph Macri called an EP open with 
.
The two saw 
, and the action went check, bet, call.
On the turn, the 
improved Marcri to a flush draw along with the nut gutter. Ralph again bet after being checked to, but now his opponent sprung the trap. The opener grabbed a stack of chips carelessly, a stack which amounted to about a 7000 chip check raise.
Macri, interpreting the lackadaisical bet as an all-in, made the call and flipped over his hand, still ace high but drawing.
However, Ralph had missed something significant – the EP opener was not all in and had 20,000 behind!
Problem for Macri, as now we play with our cards exposed.
However, solution: The dealer drops a 
, giving Macri the nut straight, face up.
The hand rates to be over, but now, in one of the all-time most confusing lines of all time, the 0pener announces to Macri, “if you got it, you got it” and ships the 20,000 into the stone cold, face up nuts.
Macri, naturally, makes the call. His opponent was last seen in the re-entry line.
Macri: possibly the best of all time at face-up poker.
Meanwhile, at the darkest of tables, number 5, Ivey Calcese, former poker staff member, is battling it out with the survivors.
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
End of level 4: 100/200/25
Entrants: 460
We’re only on the first break and already 460 plus players have turned out for what is apparently the real Frenzy, a Borgata deepstack. While the Championship players celebrate being in the money, we’re beginning to look at a great tournament.
Remember to use the back entrance on the break and not wander through the championship area. Elephants only, up front.
Mr. Dweck and his extremely large toothpick is back, while The Needle lurks on his left.
Carmine’s powers put the test again, this time against Hitchcock herself. Easy spot though – he’s got TPTK and so does she. No blood.
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
Level 3: 100/200
Carmine Tirone, left, calls out aces for Jane Hitchcock and is right. She doubles.
Meir Barack: “I put him on tilt.”
Meanwhile, a few tables over, a player just busted, but Meir Barack told us the real reason. “I raised him, bet every street, and he folded. I showed him the bluff, and then he called everything.”
Nice sweater, too.
Add Burt Zabotinsky to the millinophile subgroup here at Borgata. This felt grey fedora with pronounced edge stitching looks great.
Raj Mahed felts one as Carmine Tirone prognosticates.
Then, back on Jane Hitchcock’s table, Carmine strikes again. He names another shove and is in the ballpark equity-wise. Watch out for Mr. Tirone today.
$260 + $40 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
$150,000 Guaranteed
Level 1: 50/100
With the FRENZY over and everyone reeling, including the Poker Marketing Department, from its pure insanity, we resume our classic programming: a Borgata Deep Stack!
25,000 in tournament chips, re-entries through level 10, breaks after the 4, the 7, and the 10.
The tournament director is requesting you NOT walk through the center of the room, which is roped off for the Championship. Use the BACK DOORS for re-entry and breaks!!!
Getting ready.