Event 1 (Day 1A)
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 10: Blinds 500/1000/1000 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 446
On 18, where one of the big stacks, Ed Foster, is still holding strong at 140,000, the competition should be very familiar with each other.
Borgata blog favorite, expert shortstacker, and constant online qualifier The Pokermantis looks unusually serious today, here about to take down a small pot.
Nhan Cao, across from Foster and Korotki, had a breakout BFPO2018, moving from cash into tourneys and finding his first Borgata final table in the Almighty.
Consistent deep runner Istvan Szabo and local legend Abraham Korotki are on Foster’s right.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 10: Blinds 500/1,000/1,000 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 444
MD sweating the board with his pocket Kings
After the under-the-gun player in seat 1 moved all-in for 3,200, MD made it 7,000 to go. The player in seat 9 missed the raise and called 3,200, but was then forced to call all 7,000.
On the flop of 
, Seat 9 checked, MD bet 7,000, his opponent raised to 17,000, and MD jammed for 43,700. His opponent called, having him slightly covered.
MD’s 
was well ahead of seat 9’s 
and seat 1’s 
. He had to sweat it, however, when the 
on the turn gave his opponent a lot more outs with a flush draw.
The 
on the river was the best card for MD and secured him the pot, more than doubling up to 104,000. Seat 1 was busted and seat 9 was left short-stacked. He busted out soon after.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 9: Blinds 400/800/800 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 436
Judi Beilan
Today’s Flight A field is noticeably devoid of the fairer sex. We’ve only spotted about half a dozen ladies in the field, for less than 2% of the entries. Here are just a couple of the Ladies in action:
Melissa Burr (Thanks for the cookies!)
Borgata and the World Poker Tour are hosting a Ladies Brunch and Learn on Saturday, January 26th, at 10am before the Ladies event, (Event 15) which begins at 1pm.
They will enjoy brunch with complimentary mimosas while learning the game of poker at Borgata, receiving how-to game instruction from the professional female poker players.
The Brunch & Learn event will feature Loni Harwood, professional poker player with $2.9M in career earnings, and Jessica Dawley, a regular on the World Poker Tour and the current WSOP Ladies Event Champion.
Sorry Ladies, this brunch is sold out, but the Ladies event is open to all Ladies who want to give the game a try. Stay tuned to Borgata’s blog and follow @BorgataPoker on Twitter. There may be some additional “Ladies Brunch & Learn” seminars coming up.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 9: Blinds 400/800/800 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 430
First, Rags on the button, then Weber pitches it from the small blind on table 11.
As the opening day big stacks form, it’s Greg Weber on eleven who appears to have the current lead as action returns in level 9.
Weber has nearly 160,000. Greg has a stellar record in northeast tournaments, including a hefty $471,000 for 2nd in at the BPO2017 WPT Main Event.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 8: Blinds 300/600/600 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 421
Ed Foster (Syracuse, NY)
Still on table 18: seat 3 limped, seat 5 limped, Abraham Korotki followed suit, calling from the button, then Ed Foster (sb) made it 3,600 to go. Gary Bell folded his big blind and seat 3 pushed his short-stack over the line.
Seat 5 got out of the way, as did Abraham, and Ed called, showing a dominating 
. Seat 3 had 
and was in bad shape.
The board fell 
and Ed took the pot with top/top. Seat 3 was felted. Ed’s stacking 127,000 and has taken an early chip lead here in Flight A.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 8: Blinds 300/600/600 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 410
Gary Bell (Brooklyn, NY)
Gary Bell opened for 1,600 under-the-gun, only to have seat 4 make it 4,000 to play. Abraham Korotoki called from the small blind and Gary made it three to the flop.
On the 
board, Abraham and Gary checked it to seat 4, who bet, folding Abraham. Gary raised, seat 4 shoved, and all the chips went in. Seat 4’s AA had been cracked by Gary’s TT, (top set). The 
on the turn gave Gary the full house and left his opponent with only two outs. The 
on the river was not one of them and Gary more than doubled up to about 44,000. His opponent was left with a few chips.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 7: Blinds 300/500/500 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 400
Chris Reslock
Atlantic City’s own Poker GOAT is in action today. Local pro and retired cab driver Chris Reslock is considered by most to be the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in Atlantic City. His lifetime earnings are nearing $2 million. He’s got one WSOP bracelet and 8 WSOP Circuit rings, which ranks him 8th in the world for most rings (the leader is Valentin Vornicu with 12 rings to his credit).
Chris holds 26 titles, including three from Borgata, won playing HORSE and PLO (twice).
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 6: Blinds 200/400/400 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 385
Dan Buzgon is BorgataPoker.com’s newest sponsored pro, and he’s starting the day off well.
On the river with a scary board of 
, Dan jammed for 24,200 after his opponent checked. After giving it some thought, he surrendered and Dan took the pot. He’s now up to about 50,000.
Hard to tell from this picture whether he wanted a call or not. I guess that’s the best kind of poker face!
Dan Buzgon’s All-In Moment
Dan’s announcement on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DBuzgon/status/1085268370742751234
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 6: Blinds 200/400/400 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 368
BorgataPoker.com has been running qualifiers online for a while and has already awarded 46 seats in this Kick-Off. They’ve still got two more satellites to go, running at 7:30pm tonight (Tuesday) and tomorrow (Wednesday).
The Poker Room has also been doing their part to contribute the size of this event. Yesterday they ran a new “Big 2” Qualifier. For $220+$30, ~1 of every 5 players earned seats in Event 1 AND the Almighty Stack (Event 10). There were more than 200 entrants and the final 41 were awarded seats in both tournaments.
There is another live satellite running here in the Event Center tonight at 7pm. For only $125+$25, ~1 in every 5 players will get a seat in the Kick-Off! The same satellite will run Wednesday night as well.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 5: Blinds 200/300/300 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 347
Players are back in action following the break and the pesky green 25 chips have been colored up and removed from play.
A somber tone has settled on the room as news of the passing of Gavin Smith has spread among the players. We haven’t seen much of Gavin here at Borgata in recent years, since he moved to Alaska and started a family, but our memory of him is a vivid one. He was always full of life and having a good time, win or lose.
He did a lot of winning, of course, accumulating more than $6.3 million in tournament earnings in his career, which has been cut short. He was only 50 years old.
Gavin Smith (far left) Mike ‘Little Man’ Sica (far right)
Gavin is pictured here, playing in the 2011 Borgata Poker Open, sharing a table with another of our dearly departed poker friends, Mike ‘Little Man’ Sica. If there is an afterlife, I imagine these two are still enjoying the game they loved to play.