Event 2 (Day 1)
$350+$50+$100 Black Chip Bounty Deep Stack NLH
$250,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
End of Level 13: Blinds 1000/2000/2000
Entries: 1,073
Remaining: 260
Average Chips: 103,000
On table 11, chip leader AZ aka LordMasterZhu from ACR dodged a bullet or two, and it has made all the difference for level 13 play.
AZ was able to get away from AK preflop when Lisa Pickell (
} and Ylon Schwartz (
) got all the money in. That leaves him with 500,000 and the clear lead.
Mike McGuiness has been much less fortunate. He faced unusual action with now short Mike Nihill ripping in 
with no fold equity, and Sal Esposito jamming 95,000 over the 40,000 shove. McGuiness had himself and could not get away.
Bitter moment, but actually, it’s about to get a lot worse for Mike. Normally he would have garbage to get away from, but now he has premiums and they are all losing. Sal stands, collecting a near triple. Bart looks amused.
This was the start of several coolers that has brought Mike back to the felt, including now running into a set, leaving him under 80,000.
Nihill is out. Corbin Avery and Renata Colache remain on Mike’s left, looking for some of the carnage.
Crazy table 13 and Mike will need the coming break to regroup.
Back on 6, Morgan Klein remains more composed, now with a little under 300,000.
Play resumes in ten minutes.
As the players begin to file in for the start of Event 4, the rest of the Event Center is being prepped for Day 2 of the $100 Black Chip Bounty, which will resume play at 12 PM, just five spots from the money.
A full list of the payout structure will be posted before play resumes, but in the meantime, a list of the 59 players that bagged up chips in Day 1 of this event, in alphabetical order, with their new Day 2 seating assignments is listed below.
| CHRISTOPHER | BAUBLITZ | 214,000 | 4 | 4 |
| MATTHEW | BEIER | 183,000 | 6 | 7 |
| JOSEPH | BELARDINELLI | 311,500 | 5 | 5 |
| RICHARD | BOCOLA | 270,500 | 6 | 4 |
| GARY | BOWKER | 75,500 | 2 | 6 |
| MICHAEL | CAMPESI | 90,000 | 3 | 7 |
| JOHN | CERBONE | 134,000 | 5 | 4 |
| MIKE | CHANG | 89,000 | 7 | 7 |
| MICHAEL | DIMAIUTA | 255,000 | 3 | 4 |
| DOUGLAS | DROBBIN | 99,500 | 6 | 2 |
| SAMUEL | ELIACIN | 327,500 | 5 | 6 |
| MALIKA | EVANS | 110,500 | 4 | 2 |
| MICHAEL | FOGLIA | 83,500 | 5 | 1 |
| STUART | GOLD | 109,000 | 5 | 7 |
| ERIC | GREENWOOD | 249,000 | 4 | 1 |
| JOHN | GUERRIERO | 164,000 | 1 | 4 |
| THAI | HA | 434,500 | 7 | 8 |
| SCOTT | HEISER | 327,500 | 4 | 3 |
| DONALD | HIMPELE | 186,000 | 3 | 2 |
| GEORGE | KARMIRES | 160,000 | 6 | 3 |
| JOSHUA | KEARNS | 310,500 | 1 | 3 |
| TIMOTHY | KELLIHER | 384,000 | 3 | 8 |
| GARY | KOSAKOWSKI | 370,000 | 1 | 1 |
| CHRISTOPHER | KUSHA | 189,500 | 3 | 1 |
| GLENN | LAFAYE | 257,000 | 2 | 3 |
| STEVEN | LATHROP | 93,500 | 1 | 5 |
| TIMOTHY | LATOUCH | 280,000 | 2 | 8 |
| DENIS | LAWLOR | 470,000 | 7 | 3 |
| CHRISTOPHER | LEONG | 65,500 | 1 | 2 |
| LOUIS | LEPORE | 395,500 | 4 | 6 |
| RALPH | MACRI | 104,500 | 1 | 8 |
| WILLIAM | MARX | 52,000 | 2 | 5 |
| RASHAD | MAYSAUD | 268,500 | 6 | 1 |
| NICHOLAS | MESIANO | 167,000 | 2 | 7 |
| CHRISTINE | NELSON | 185,500 | 7 | 1 |
| DANIELE | NESTOLA | 296,000 | 2 | 2 |
| JASON | NEUHOF | 114,500 | 4 | 5 |
| JAN | NIKITIN | 90,500 | 4 | 8 |
| JESUS | PALMERONI | 293,500 | 7 | 5 |
| DIONISSIOS | PANAGOPOULOS | 417,500 | 4 | 7 |
| ALYSON | PARKER | 137,500 | 3 | 9 |
| DAVID | PATTERSON | 88,000 | 6 | 6 |
| DANIEL | PLOURDE | 97,000 | 6 | 8 |
| PAUL | RADOCHIA | 309,000 | 3 | 3 |
| LUIS | RODRIGUEZ | 680,500 | 4 | 9 |
| BARBARA | ROGERS | 147,000 | 7 | 2 |
| BARRY | ROSENKRANZ | 202,500 | 7 | 6 |
| THOMAS | ROSS | 96,000 | 2 | 4 |
| TONY | SABBAGH | 277,500 | 5 | 8 |
| RYAN | SMITH | 103,000 | 3 | 5 |
| LEE | SOMMERS | 239,500 | 7 | 4 |
| MARK | TARANTO | 238,000 | 2 | 1 |
| ARMANDO | THEN | 155,000 | 5 | 3 |
| RAGAVAN | THIAGARAJAH | 415,500 | 2 | 9 |
| JOSEPH | TOZZI | 252,000 | 1 | 7 |
| PHILIP | VITALE | 81,000 | 3 | 6 |
| ALLAN | VROOMAN | 207,000 | 6 | 5 |
| TEDDY | WAY | 347,500 | 5 | 2 |
| HOWARD | WOLPER | 81,500 | 1 | 6 |
Again, Day 2 of the $100 Black Chip Bounty Event 2 will be played in the Event Center and will begin at 12 PM.
We the attention focused on the later stages of Event 1, some may forget that there are two other events going on today, one of which will be awarding a trophy. Event 2 ($350 + 50 + 100 Black Chip Bounty No Limit Hold’em) attracted a total of 513 entries, and a prize pool of $174,164. Here are the payouts for the tournament, which is being held in the main poker room at the moment:
Borgata Winter Poker Open
Event 2 ($350 + 50 + 100 Black Chip Bounty NLH)
January 15, 2015
Number Of Entries: 513
Prize Fund: $174,164
Payouts:
- $43,359
- $24,382
- $15,675
- $12,453
- $9,753
- $8,012
- $6,357
- $4,964
- $3,483
10-12. $2,264
13-15. $1,742
16-18. $1,306
19-27. $958
28-36. $871
37-45. $784
46-54. $697
Level 12 (Blinds 800/1,600/200)
Total Entries: 514
Players Remaining: 135
Tim Kelliher (Somerset, MA)
As the money bubble starts to loom in Event 2, a few players are starting to jump out in front of the pack, one of which is Tim Kelliher. The Massachusetts native is currently sitting on a big stack of 265,000 after eliminating a player when they both turned two pair.
A player opened the action with a raise to 3,600 from under the gun only to see both Kelliher and the small blind tag along. The flop brought the {2c}{4c}{10d} and both players checked to Kelliher on the button. He fired out a bet of 8,500 and both players would find a call.
The turn brought the {As} and the small blind quickly pushed forward a tower of t5,000 chips, announcing she was all in. The under the gun player folded and Kelliher double checked his cards before announcing call.
Small Blind: {Ad}{2d}
Kelliher: {Ac}{10h}
The river was a meaningless {9h} and Kelliher would rake in the pot as he climbed his way up the chip counts.
One of the fellow players at the tabled looked at us and joked, “This isn’t fun, all the tables are on that side of the table!”
There are three “main” events running in both the Poker Room and Event Center and all of them are currently on dinner break, meaning for the first time today, there will be an extended break in the action.
Chip counts and leaders from the $2,000,000 GTD Event 1 will be posted shortly, but there were a few players from the Poker Room who posted their chip counts from Event 2, they are listed below:
75k on dinner coming back to bb 1200
— Chris Leong (@ChrisLeongPoker) January 16, 2015
$93K at dinner in the bounty #bwpo
— Michael Melkersen (@melkersen) January 16, 2015
Bled down to about 150k at dinner. Going back to my room to get some gauze #BWPO
— Chris Kusha (@TooBusyWINNING) January 16, 2015
Both Event 1 and 2 will not be concluding tonight, but the Omaha/Stud 8B Event 3 will be playing down to a victor, meaning the first piece of Winter Poker Open hardware will be handed out over the next few hours.
Level 11 (600/1,200/200)
Total Entries: 515
Players Remaining: 90
Satish Surapaneni (New York, NY)
The first thing we saw when we went down to update the Event 2 Black Chip Bounty field was Satish Surapaneni (New York, NY) putting piles of green chips into racks for an upcoming color up and after touring the rest of the tournament tables, we came to the conclusion that Satish is leading the field with just under 100 player remaining heading into the dinner break.
Satish is currently playing just under 200,000 and looks poised to notch his first Winter Poker Open cash of the series and his first score of 2015.
Satish ended last year strong, winning his first Borgata title during the Fall Poker Open and then scoring multiple cashes during the December WSOP Circuit stop at Harrahs.
There are still plenty of strong players remaining in the field though, as Nancy Todd, Chris Kusha and Alex Tsimikalis are all over the 150,000 chip mark and Howard Wolper, Michael Melkerson and Alyson Parker are all over the century mark.
That event will be going on dinner shortly, almost simultaneously with the $2,000,000 GTD Event 2, but live updates will pick up with the bounty event as the field continues to play down to the money.
Level 7 (250/500/50)
Total Entries: 515
Players Remaining: 175
Chip Average: 70,000
Hector Morel looks to be one of the bigger stacks in the Poker Room as the Event 2 late registration period has just ended.
It’s been a while since we updated the Black Chip Bounty Event 2, but the late registration period just ended, so while Event 1 was on a quick break, we took a trip down to the Poker Room to check in on the field.
It was predicted that this “new and improved” structure would bring in a big crowd and it certainly has as there were over 500 entrants for this event.
That number has been cut down significantly, as there are just 175 players remaining.
There are plenty of Borgata notables still in the field including VIP Nguyen, Jerry Mayer, Nancy Martin, Zeke McCurdy, Frank Reina, Michael Melkerson, Roman Valerstine, Satish Surapaneni and Matt Itkin, but one player is leading them all as Hector Morel (Dominican Republic) seems to be one of the bigger stacks in the room with just over 170,000 chips.
Morel was called an “Ace cracker” from another player at his table, as he has apparently cracked pocket Aces twice over the last few levels, including one against the always colorful Mike Dentale.
Morel will look to keep his good Event 2 run going and make his first major tournament score here at the Borgata Winter Poker Open.
Level 2 (50/100)
Nancy Martin (Washington Cross, PA)
Since the last Borgata Poker Open held in November, there have been a few local tournaments that have run since that have been missing something or someone…
That someone is the “Poker Mom” herself Nancy Martin, who was forced to take a month away from the game due to an emergency medical procedure on Thanksgiving day.
The rest of that holiday weekend was filled with players sending their well wishes to Nancy over social media and we are all happy to hear that Nancy is fully recovered and ready to get back to the felt.
Nancy is making her return here in Event 2 of the Winter Poker Open, as she chose not to play in the opening event, opting for an “improved” bounty structure instead of the massive “lottery” field of Event 1.
Nancy, who is on the cusp of passing the $100,000 career tournament earnings mark, is always looking for structures that fit her style of play and this new structure has certainly been met by praise from not only Nancy, but plenty of Borgata tournament regulars.
With extended levels and players busting out of Day 2 of Event 1, we could see this prize pool and field balloon to a massive number, as there are already over 100 players entered, heading into Level 2.
Level 1 (25/50)
With the majority of the coverage from the early portion of the day coming from the Event Center and Day 2 of the $2,000,000 GTD Event 1, we can’t forget about the “new and improved” Event 2 Black Chip Bounty tournament starting up in the Poker Room.
We say “new and improved” because this tournament now boasts a bigger, 25,000 chip starting stack and longer, 45 minute levels.
This improvement to the structure has been met with high praise from players as this is always one of the most exciting and well attending tournaments without a guarantee.
Because of the longer levels, this is now a two day tournament, with Day 1 ending at 18 players to 2 AM, whichever comes last.
Late registration will be open until the end of Level 6, giving players plenty of time to get into the bounty action.
Cards are about to be in the air and a list of notable players will be posted once the field begins to populate.
It’s going to be a busy day here at the Borgata, as there will be three “main” events running simultaneously through most of the afternoon and night, with the main focus being with Day 2 of the $2,000,000 GTD Event 1.
After four massive starting flights, 723 players have bagged chips and will return today at 12 PM for the start of Day 2. We will be playing down to a “live streamed” Final Table of 10 today, so this will be a long grind for players, staff and bloggers.
Official chip counts are still being finalized and will be posted as soon as they are finished being processed, as well as an official payout structure for Event 1.
Now, if 700+ players coming back for a Day 2 session wasn’t enough, there are two more “main” events running in both the Poker Room and the Event Center, starting with a “new and improved” $100 Black Chip Bounty event.
This event has been extended to a two day structure, with longer blind levels and a bigger starting stack and will begin at 11 AM in the Poker Room.
After the first two hectic hours, the first “mix” event of the series will fire up, with the Event 3 Omaha/Stud 8B 8 Handed Rotation tournament starting at 1 PM. That event will most likely be held in the Event Center, but a finalized location will be posted before the event starts.
Event 3 will also be the first tournament to crown a champion here at the Winter Poker Open, as both Event 1 and 2 will not play to a winner until tomorrow.
It’s early in the Winter Poker Open, but we are already off to a fast start and the WPO blog will be bringing you updates from all events throughout the day so you don’t miss a hand of the action.