Event 18 Championship

$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 4:  Blinds 200/300/300 BB Ante
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  601

Victor Ramdin

Victor Ramdin joined the WPT Champions Club, before the Club even existed, when he won the 2006 Foxwoods Poker Classic $10,000 Championship for more than $1.3 million.  Over the years, he’s run up more than $4.4 million in earnings.

He’s already on the board for 2019 with a nice score of $45,700 in the $25,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship at the PCA (that was for a 77th place finish out of 1,039 entrants).

With his 7th place finish in Event 12, the $1,000 Six Max a few days ago, he’s also already on the board for the Borgata Winter Poker Open, earning $11,931.

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 4:  Blinds 200/300/300 BB Ante
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  587

Melad Marji

One of the lesser-known Borgata Open Champions in today’s field is Melad Marji.  His win was in the 2012 Summer Poker Open Championship, good for just over $198,000.  Of course that was not a televised or live streamed event, which is why he’s not familiar to most.

The player he beat heads-up to win that championship?  The aforementioned Michael Marder!

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 3:  Blinds 100/200/200 BB Ante
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  568

Jessica Dawley

Jessica Dawley is the reigning WSOP Ladies event Champion and was also one of the instructors for Saturday’s Ladies Brunch & Learn.  The event, intended to get more Ladies into poker, was hosted by the World Poker Tour and Borgata, providing some beginner tournament play instruction.

Following the event, the Ladies Only $100+$20 Deep Stack NLH event was held and drew a long-time high of 159 entrants.

Today, Jessica is back on the felt, looking to get chips in a bag for Day 2.

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 3:  Blinds 100/200/200 BB Ante
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  550

Gianni Arcuri

Yes, there was a player here wearing a Pizza Slice costume, but he’s busted out, courtesy of Gianni Arcuri.  Mr. Slice had pocket sixes and had flopped a set on the 7 6 x flop but Gianni had 54 and was open-ended.  He made his straight on the 8 turn and got all the chips in.  His straight held up and Gianni’s up to about 65,000.

The Slice was felted, but took a re-entry ticket and returned to a new table and seat.

Mr.Slice, aka Brett Butz

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 3:  Blinds 100/200/200 BB Ante
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  525

Players are back in action following an exciting break and the Big Blind Ante is in play.

Two $350+$10 Single-Table Singe-Hand One-and-Done satellite were run.

Brian Murphy

The first was won by Brian Murphy.  He collected $3,500 and is now essentially free-rolling the Championship.  He’s up to about 120,000 in the tournament, so has already tripled his starting stack by the first break.

The second winner was Ory Hen, who had J5 to go with the board of K 5 3 J 9, for two pair.  He also collected $3,500.

Ory Hen

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

End of Level 2:  Blinds 100/200
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  490

Flight B is taking their first break of the day and the field continues to grow.  We’ve got 63 of the 95 tables active here in the Event Center, so plenty of room for more.

Michael Marder

One of the players here in early action is Borgata’s own regular Michael Marder.  Also known as “Mr. DeepStacks” for his many successes in the Borgata DeepStacks series, Michael has two Borgata titles from those series outside of the big Open series’ that take place five times a year.

During 2018, he pushed his live tournament earnings beyond $1.1 million with a 3rd place finish in the WSOP $2,500 NLH event ($223,564) and that came after his 5th place finish in the 2018 WPT BWPO Championship for $181,329.

He capped off an incredible 2018 with another six-figure score last month in Las Vegas.  He finished 11th in the $10,000 WPT Five Diamond Main Event for more than $130,000.

We need to change his nickname from “Mr. DeepStacks” to “Mr. MoneyBags”!

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 2:  Blinds 100/200
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  459

Shawn Cunix

Shawn Cunix’s plan to play every hand may or may not be working out.  He was recently all-in for his last 7,100 on the river against Ray Qartomy.

At the river, the board read and after Ray called, Shawn showed for the full house.  Ray mucked his cards and Shawn took the pot.  He’s still below the starting stack size of 40,000, but he’s certainly having a good time.

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 2:  Blinds 100/200
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  425

Ray Qartomy

With Shawn Cunix and Ray Qartomy sharing space on table 9, it’s going to be an interesting table to watch.  The other players at the table will be challenged to get a word in edgewise.

Among the others seated there are Alan Schein,  Steven Fostoff, Josh Spiegelman, and Alexsei Vandyshev.

Shawn said “I’m going to play every hand, so you can watch until your camera burns out,” directed at the WPT cameraperson who was filming B-roll at the time.

In one hand Shawn wasn’t playing, Aleksei opened for 600, Ray 3-bet to 1,200 from the hijack, Alan called from the cutoff, then Steven made it 6,000 from the button.  Everyone folded but Ray, who called.

They were heads-up to the flop of and Ray checked, Steven bet 2,500, and Ray called.  Turn was the and again Ray checked, Steven bet 11,000 this time, and Ray jammed for 16,200.  Steven snapped, showing for a flopped set of Queens.  Ray tabled for two pair on the turn.  He was at-risk and behind, but the on the river gave him Kings-full and the double-up — back to starting stack.  Steven was left with ~20,000 and took a walk away from the table to ‘recover’ from the 2-out beat he took.

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 2:  Blinds 100/200
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  377

Katie Stone

BorgataPoker.com sponsored pro Katie Stone is off to a good start early today.  In a battle of the blinds, Katie was victorious from the big when facing off against the small in seat 1.

On the flop of , seat 1 bet 1,100 and Katie called.  Turn was the , making both straights and flushes possible, and both checked.  River was the and they checked it down.

Seat 1 showed , but Katie had rivered him with her for top/top.  She took the pot and is up to ~45,000.

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$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Structure Sheet

Level 1:  Blinds 100/100
Flight A Entries:  424 / 219 Advance to Day 2
Flight B Entries:  315

As players continue to arrive for Flight B, let’s take a look at the players who bagged up chips yesterday, locking up a seat on Day 2.  They’re listed below in a searchable and sortable table.

These players can still try again today, since this is a Best Stack Forward event.  If they bag chips again tonight, they’ll take the largest stack into Day 2.

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