BorgataPoker.com
Tuesday January 15th marks the beginning of the 2019 Winter Poker Open and this series will be a big one! There are 20 trophy events with a total of more than $7 million in guarantees. The Kick-Off event guarantees $2 million in total buy-ins and only costs $540+$60 to enter. There are six starting flights over the first three days of the series, with unlimited re-entries and best stack forward, providing plenty of opportunities to get into what is sure to be a massive field.
Last year more than 4,500 entrants created a prize pool in excess of $2.3 million in the Kick-Off event. The trophy and $378,391 went to Jim Roberts. The recent retiree from New Jersey had plans to relocate to Florida, so he may not turn up to defend his title.
James Roberts, 2018 BWPO Event 1 Winner
The pinnacle of the Winter Open is the $3 Million Guaranteed World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship event, which will begin with two starting flights on Sunday, January 27th and Monday, January 29th. For the first time in Borgata history, the finale of this five-day event will not take place until March 13th. Day 4 (Thursday) will conclude when they reach the final six players and those players will have to wait a bit more than 5 weeks, then will be treated to travel and lodging at the Luxor in Las Vegas, courtesy of the World Poker Tour. The final table will play out under the lights and cameras in the new HyperX ESports Arena.
2018 Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event Champion Eric Afriat
The 2018 WPT BWPO Championship saw WPT Champions Club Member (and self-proclaimed poker hobbyist) Eric Afriat claim his second WPT title, beating a final table stacked with poker talent. The win earned him just under $637,000 plus a $15,000 seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions. The field of 1,244 entrants created a prize pool approaching $4 million.
Between and during these two big events are the usual player-favorites including the Black Chip Bounty ($250k GTD), Almighty Stack ($1M GTD), Seniors, Ladies, PLO, HORSE, and Six Max NLH ($200k GTD) tournaments. New to this year’s schedule are a $260+$40 Deepest Stack Double Header NLH event($200k GTD) with 40,000 chips to start and two starting flights and a $1,500+$90 Heads-Up NLH event (64 players max).
Click here for the full main-event schedule. Satellites will be running both live and online for the big events, so check out the Winter Poker Open Microsite for links and additional details.
After a hiatus during September’s Borgata Poker Open, which took place in the temporary Tournament Area outside the Poker Room, Borgata’s Event Center will once again host the 18-day-long Winter Poker Open series. Online registration has closed. On-site registration will be open from 12 noon to 12 midnight on Monday, January 14th in the Poker Room, then will re-open at 8am Tuesday in the lobby of the Event Center, where they will be open daily from 8am to midnight.
The Borgata Blog team of Kaelaine, Tim Kelliher, and Chris Murray will be bringing you the action right here from the first “Shuffle Up and Deal!” until the final trophy is awarded. Follow @BorgataPoker for Twitter updates throughout the series and don’t forget to use #BWPO2019 in your Tweets!
Hope to see you at Borgata for the Winter Poker Open!
@Kaelaine
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 17: Blinds 2,500/5,000/500 ante
Total Entries: 1,244
Players Remaining: 124
Average Stack: 301,000
Chris Horter
Chris Horter was free-rolling this event after winning his seat online at BorgataPoker.com. He won one of the quarterly freerolls the site hosts for players, so his buy-in was $0. For his 128th place finish, he’ll collect $6,399.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 9: Blinds 400/800/100 ante
Entries: 1,144
Players Remaining: 612
Average Stack: 56,000
Sam Taylor
Mike Dentale (sb) and Sam Taylor (utg) got to the river with a board of 
and Mike led out for 5,000. Sam tossed out 45,000 in blue chips, which easily covered Mike’s remaining ~15,000. Mike tanked for a few minutes before eventually calling all-in.
Sam tabled pocket Aces. Mike flashed a Queen before vigorously mucking his hand. He departed the tournament room, but still has the option to re-enter.
After that pot, Sam was up to about 150,000. He earned his seat in this event playing a $400 satellite online at BorgataPoker.com.
Mike Dentale in the tank, considering a call for his tournament life.
$3,300+$200 WPT Borgata WPO Championship
$3 Million Guaranteed
Level 2: Blinds 75/150
Entrants: 399
BorgataPoker.com awarded 12 seats in this event to online qualifiers and through the luck of the draw, two of them are seated at the same table.
Sam Taylor
Sam Taylor and Craig Rubinstein both earned their seats in this event playing $400 satellites online at BorgataPoker.com, meaning they got their $3,500 seats at a discount of more than 88%!
Craig Rubinstein
BorgataPoker.com is always running promotions for new players and deposit matching. Click here for details.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 38: Blinds 800,000/1,600,000/300,000 ante
Total Entries: 2,967
Players Remaining: 5
Average Stack: 59 million
Standing (l to r): Aris Konstantinidis, Guo Cheng, Ricky Lee, & Will Givens; Seated: Jeff Cole
The final five players agreed on adjusted payouts, then ran out a blind hand for the trophy. Here’s how they finished and how much they made:
1st – Aris Konstantinidis $119,025
2nd – Jeffrey Cole $115,221
3rd – Will Givens $115,221
4th – Guo Cheng $102,721
5th – Ricky Lee $95,221
Aris Konstantinidis is from Bayside, NY where he owns a Greek restaurant. He only makes it to Borgata to play a couple of times a year and this time it paid off very well. He gets the win and more than $119,000.
He doesn’t get the trophy, however. Jeff Cole, who plays on BorgataPoker.com as ‘BrianFantana’ (a character from the movie Anchorman) won the blind hand they ran out for the trophy. His Q3 managed to pair with a Queen on the board while everyone else missed.
Jeff’s been playing online since BorgataPoker began and grinds the small stakes games, plus plays live tournaments on occasion. Today’s score is more than his total reported live earnings and is obviously his best finish at Borgata. He only fired one bullet in this event, unlike many other entrants. He’s going to take tomorrow off, then play the WPT WPO Championship on Monday.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2,000,000 Guaranteed
Level 30: Blinds 50,000/100,000/10,000 ante
Total Entries: 4,515
Players Remaining: 45
Average Stack: 2,508,000
All levels are one hour long for the remainder of this event.
Only 45 players remain in the hunt for the 2018 Winter Poker Open Kickoff event title. BorgataPoker.com Ambassador Vinny Pahuja is the chip leader, but there’s a lot of poker talent remaining in this field.
Here’s a reminder what they’re playing for, in addition to the BWPO trophy:
| Place | Payout |
| 1 | $378,391 |
| 2 | $245,967 |
| 3 | $166,753 |
| 4 | $137,168 |
| 5 | $109,971 |
| 6 | $85,138 |
| 7 | $61,489 |
| 8 | $43,752 |
| 9 | $27,197 |
| 10 – 12 | $18,269 |
| 13 – 15 | $13,539 |
| 16 – 18 | $10,524 |
| 19 – 27 | $8,277 |
| 28 – 36 | $6,445 |
| 37 – 45 | $5,794 |
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
End of Level 21: Blinds 6,000/12,000/2,000 ante
Total Entries: 4,515
Players Remaining: 253
Average Stack: 446,000
Jonas Wexler
Jonas Wexler, a BorgataPoker.com online qualifier, got all-in holding 
only to run into Will Corvino’s pocket Kings. The board came Q 6 3 9 7 and was not enough to save Jonas. He left to join the payout line.
Will chipped up to about 950,000.
Will Corvino
That wrapped up level 21 and players filed out for another break.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Level 20: Blinds 5,000/10,000/1,000 ante
Total Entries: 4,515
Players Remaining: 337
Average Stack: 335,000
As the field shrinks, the stacks grow and we’ve got some big ones popping up.
Shaun Palmer
Shaun Palmer’s stacking over 1 million and he’s seated to the left of Michael Marder, who’s got about 700,000.
BorgataPoker.com Ambassador Vinny Pahuja’s stack grew from ~800,000 to about 900,000 after I took his picture but before I got it loaded up.
Vinny Pahuja
Soung Kim has left 900,000 in his rearview mirror and is pushing the 1 million mark.
Soung Kim
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Level 7: Blinds 250/500/50 ante
Entries: 1,195
Satish Surapaneni
Satish Surapaneni has appeared at one of he high-numbered tables just inside the Event Center. He’s one of 46 players who earned their seats in this event playing online at BorgataPoker.com. With more than $548,000 in lifetime earnings, he undoubtedly knows how to parlay that satellite seat into a nice payday.
Starting tonight at 7:30pm, $45 buy-in daily qualifiers for the Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Super Satellites begin. Running Mondays through Saturdays at 7:30pm, from January 18th through 27th, 1 in 10 wins $400 online entry into Super Satellite to the Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship.
$400 buy-in Super Satellites to WPT Borgata Winer Poker Open Championship online schedule:
- Saturday, January 20 at 7:40pm
- Sunday, January 21 at 7:40pm
- Saturday, January 27 at 7:40pm
- Sunday, January 28 at 7:40pm
- ~ 1 in 10 wins $3,500 land-based entry into WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship event
For more information, go to https://poker.theborgata.com/tournaments/major-tournaments/winter-poker-open.html.
$540+$60 Deep Stack NLH
$2 Million Guaranteed
Level 5: Blinds 150/300/25 ante
Entries: 381
Play has resumed following the break and that entry count continues to tick up. This flight has already become the largest of the first three and with eight more levels in the registration period, has the potential to top the first two combined (566 entrants).
BorgataPoker.com has already put 43 players into this Kickoff event, via online qualifiers, and their final $55 satellite runs tonight at 7:30pm, with one $540+$60 seat guaranteed.
Starting tomorrow, daily qualifiers into the Super Satellite to the Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship will be running. For details, go to
https://poker.theborgata.com/tournaments/major-tournaments/winter-poker-open.html