EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM'

"The struture was ridiculously good and the field was softer than I expected, so I'm happy with my win," said Event #13 Champion. The young and talented tournament player walks away with the Borgata Poker Open trophy and $85,500.

CHAMPION

Jerry Wong (Brooklyn, NY)

1st Place - $85,500

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM'

Joseph Johanssy (Spring Valley, NY)

2nd Place - $48,450

RICH GETTING RICHER

Event #13 - No Limit Hold Em'
Buy-In: $1,000 + $90 Entry Fee

Gordon Eng (Cliffside Park, NJ) was eliminated in 3rd place when his 44 ran into the 88 of chipleader, Jerry Wong. The local tournament player and PPI rep earned $26,648 for his efforts.

EVENT #16 - COLOR UP BREAK

The pace of play in Event #16 is moving along nicely. Over the last level more than 20 people have been eliminated and we are around 95 players remaining. Among those sent to the rail were Steve Dannenman and Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler. When players return from break they will start Level 9 with average chip stack approximately 41,000. Blinds will be 5,000-10,000 with ante of 100.

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM

CHIP COUNTS with 3 players remaining:

Gordon Eng - $485,000

Jerry Wong - $2,280,000

Joseph Johanssy - $610,000

Stephanie Lowe (Rotonda West, FL)

4th Place - $19,950

EVENT #15 LOSER'S BRACKET 4TH ROUND

All Losers Eliminated

Bryan Schlieper def. Boris Kravets
James St. Hilaire def. Nate Sipple
Ross Mallor def. Josh Pollock
Matt Brady def Gavin Smith
Trevor Savage def. Al Riccobono
John Larosa def. Al Barbieri
Jeff Vanchiro def. Jeremiah DeGreef
Tim Finne def. Stephen Foutty Jr.

EVENT #50 - NL HOLD EM (SENIORS)

Stephen Gerisch (Boonton, NJ) has battled back to become one of the chipleaders with only 3 tables left. "I flopped a set of Queens and lost to a flush early in the day, I've been fightin' back ever since."

Martin Berchenko (Woodland Hills, CA) sports his tye-dye shirt with pride while his aggressive style earns him more chips. "I'm from the west coast, I love this tournament," said the co-chipleader.


Number of Entrants: 179
Players remaining: 27
Blinds @ 1,500/3,000/300a

*** Day 1 ends when only 18 players are remaining ***

EVENT #15 WINNER'S BRACKET FINALS

Yaginuma (left) vs. Leah

Jesse Yaginuma and Mike Leah are both undefeated and, after five wins each, are playing to stay alive in the winner's bracket.

The winner is guaranteed second place money ($16,000) and would have to be beaten twice by the loser's bracket champion to lose the title. The first of the possible two matches will happen in early Friday evening.

The Yaginuma/Leah loser drops into the loser's bracket and will play in the 3rd/4th place match and is guaranteed no worse than 4th place money ($6,400).

EVENT #16 - BY THE NUMBERS

The official numbers are in for Event #16. 414 players entered creating a $207,000 prizepool and $59,242 for the winner. Top 45 spots pay.

They've been running hard since 1pm and have approximately 120 players remaining in the field. Still hanging around with chips we found Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Joey "The B" Brooks, and Event #4 final table participant George Walther.

Event #16 $500 + $60 No Limit Hold'em
Entrants: 414
Prizepool: $207,000
First Place: $59,242

1st - $59,242
2nd - $32,084
3rd - $16,560
4th - $14,490
5th - $12,420
6th - $10,350
7th - $8,280
8th - $6,210
9th - $4,140
10th to 12th - $2,691
13th to 15th - $1,967
16th to 18th - $1,428
19th to 27th - $1,139
28th to 36th - $869
37th to 45th - $766

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM'

4 Players left...

Nancy Todd "The Queen of Diamonds" Tyner (Las Vegas, NV)
5th Place - $17,100


Charles Minter (Yardley, PA)
6th Place - $14,250

EVENT #15 HEADS-UP LOSER'S BRACKET

Fourth Round (all losers eliminated)

Bryan Schlieper def. Boris Kravets
James St. Hilaire def. Nate Sipple
Ross Mallor def. Josh Pollock
Matt Brady def Gavin Smith
Trevor Savage def. Al Riccobono
John Larosa def. Al Barbieri
Jeff Vanchiro def. Jeremiah DeGreef
Tim Finne def. Stephen Foutty Jr.


Third Round

Jeff Vanchiro def. Paul Cheung
Josh Pollock def. Tomislov Dabrilovic
Al Barbieri def. Josh Hillock
Steve Foutty def. T Pearson
James St. Hilaire def. Jason Paster
Robert McLaughin def. Boris Kravets
Al Riccobono def. Gene Castro
Gavin Smith def. Russell Crane

ELIMINATED

1 win - 2 losses

Kathy Liebert
Charlie Hook (Summer Open Champ)
Wade Woelfel
Cornel A. Cimpan
Zach Cooke
Paul Han
David Finke
Bill Blanda
Alex Santiago
Ralph Stoia
Jonathan Driscoll
Eric Steinberg
Damiano Coraci
Joseph Bowles
Eric Baldwin
Chris Mitchell

Two & Out

Serban Corniciou
Jason Sackler
Tim Barany
Frank Gu
Vineet Pahuja
Jean-Philipe Matte
Francis Vizza
Thomas Taylor
Jeff Coutroylis
Chris Bell
Natasha Barbour
Byran Pellegrino
Mike Katz
Andrew Batkin
Richard Maurer
SteveFiorentini

EVENT #15 HEADS UP - WINNER'S BRACKET

Finals

Mike Leah def. Jesse Yaginuma

Semifinals

Yaginuma def. Matt Vance
Mike Leah def Will Failla

Quarterfinals

Failla def. Matt Waxman
Yaginuma def. John Fortunato
Vance def. Michael Font
Leah def. Tim Finne

EVENT #15 - FINAL FOUR (WINNER'S BRACKET)

It took longer to post about the Round 3 battle between Jason Young and Mike Leah that the match actually lasted. Leah won the match handily and will move into the final 4 in the winner's bracket.

Those matches are currently underway. The matchups are Will Failla versus Mike Leah and Jesse Yaginuma versus Matt Vance. The winners will move one step closer to the title.

Gavin Smith is currently battling against Russell Crane in the losers bracket and we have a match between Gene Castro and Al Riccobono. The path to the championship is shorter in the winner's bracket in terms of matches played, but the field only grows tougher as they move forward.

EVENT #14 - SEVEN CARD STUD

Heads-Up Play has ended and the Borgata Poker Open has crowned another Champion. Congratulations to our finalists who played two great days of Stud.

CHAMPION
Mike Eckstut wins $13,699

2nd Place Finisher
Travis Williams wins $7,931

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM

Mark Salinaro (White Plains, NY)
7th Place - $11,400

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM

Joanne Dorin (New York, NY)

8th Place - $8,550

EVENT #14 - SEVEN CARD STUD

Hojeong Lee (Brick, NJ)
3rd Place - $4,326

EVENT #15 - ROUND 3

Round 3 of the $1,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em tournament is about to get underway. Will "The Thrill" Failla continues his push from the first spot but the matchup of the round looks to be Jason Young battling against Mike "GoLeafsGoEh" Leah. We are still quite a few matches away from getting a good feel for how it will look towards the end of the tournament, but we are sure to see some of the top names in poker make very deep runs.

Eliminated during the last round from the loser's bracket were Kathy Liebert, Vinny Pahuja and Bill Blanda.

HUNGER PAINS

Event #16 - No Limit Hold Em'
Buy-In: $500 + $60

The moans and groans can be heard across the Event Center, as the remaining 188 players eagerly await the Dinner Break. "Hurry Up clock, I'm starving," yells a short stack on Table 18.

Notables still alive:

Davidson Matthew
Howard Wolper
Dean Schultz
"Joey The B" Brooks
David Baker

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM'

Karen Dinunzio

9th place - $5,700

EVENT #13 CASHES

PAYOUTS

10 Greg Artz (Warsaw, KY) $3,705
11 Irving McKenzie (Salisbury, MD) $3,705
12 David Zeitlin (Brooklyn, NY) $3,705
13 Jack Schanbacher (Pittsburgh, PA) $3,135
14 Mohamed Elkerdawy (Brigantine, NJ) $3,135
15 Manish Patel (Burlington, NJ) $3,135
16 Elmer Lynn (Alexandria, VA) $2,565
17 James Wheeler (Huntington, WV) $2,565
18 Tuan Hoang (Brooklyn, NY) $2,565
19 Steven Karp (N. Miami Beach, FL) $2,137
20 Michael Sica, Jr. (N. Brunswick, NJ) $2,137
21 Todd Terry (Hoboken, NJ) $2,137
22 Amish Patel (Jersey City, NJ) $2,137
23 Blake Bluffington (Arlington, TX)$2,137
24 Ray Shackelford (Fredericksburg, VA) $2,137
25 Dean Hamrick (Plymouth, MI) $2,137
26 Eugene Castro (New York, NY) $2,137
27 Jeffrey Palarino (Pittsburgh, PA) $2,137

GIRL POWER

Event #13 - No Limit Hold Em'
Buy-In: $1,000 + $90

The 1K - No Limit Event has been dominated by the ladies. While Jerry Wong holds most of the chips in play, there's still lots of poker left.

Female Final Table Participants:
Stephanie Lowe
Nancy Todd Tyner
Karen Dinunzio
Joanne Dorin

SENIORS UPDATE

Event #50 - No Limit Hold Em (SENIORS)
Buy-In: $350 + $50
Number of Entries: 179
Players Remaining: 80
Prize Pool: $62,650

OFFICIAL PAYOUTS
1 - $19,296
2- $10,650
3- $ 5,951
4- $ 4,385
5- $ 3,759
6- $ 3,132
7- $ 2,506
8- $ 1,880
9- $ 1,410
10-12 $ 1,222
13-15 $ 1,065
16-18 $ 940

EVENT #14 - SEVEN CARD STUD

John Womack (Lauderhill, FL)
4th Place - $2,884

EVENT #50 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM' (SENIORS)

SNAKE Poker Team members, Jack "The Snake" Deutsch and Alex Brody, pose with friend Mark "Bus" Berschad during a break in the Seniors Event.

"We're retired, so we travel from Biloxi to Borgata looking for the next poker tournament."

EVENT #14 - SEVEN CARD STUD

Chet Destefano

5th Place - $2,523

SEVEN CARD STUD ELIMINATIONS

Event #14

5th Chet Destefeno $2,523
6th Frank Leeser $2,163
7th Sue Byrd $1,442
8th Athony Chong $1,082


FINAL FOUR

SEAT - NAME

1 Lee Hojeong
3 Travis Williams
5 Michael Eckstut
7 John Womack

EVENT #13 - NO LIMIT HOLD EM'

The Final Table
seat 1 - Mark Salinaro
seat 2 - Charles Minter
seat 3 - Joanne Dorin
seat 4 - Nancy Todd Tyner
seat 5 - Stephanie Lowe
seat 6 - Karen Dinunzio
seat 7 - Joseph Johanssy
seat 8 - Jerry Wong
seat 9 - Gordon Eng

EVENT #14 - SEVEN CARD STUD

Frank Leeser (New Castle, DE)

6th Place - $2,163

FINAL TABLE BUBBLE

Event #13 - No Limit Hold Em'
Buy-In: $1,000 + $90
Players remaining: 16


Table 1
Mohamed Elkerdawy
Jack Schanbacher
James Wheeler - 17th place finisher
Gordon Eng
Nancy Todd Tyner
Stephanie Lowe
Tuan Hoang - 18th place finisher
Greg Arzt
Jerry Wong

Table 2
Karen Dinunzio
Irving McKenzie
Joseph Johanssy
"Manny" Patel
David Zeitlin
Joanne Dorin
Elmer "Ray" Lynn
Charles Minter
Mark Salinaro

Event #50 - No Limit Hold Em (SENIORS)

Buy-In: $350 + $50

Number of Entrants: 179

Players Remining: 99

PROS IN THE FIELD

Event #16 - No Limit Hold Em'
Buy-In: $500 + $60
Unofficial Number of Entrants: 414 players

Poker personalities, Kenna James and Bernard Lee, were lucky enough to get seated together on Table 6. Tournament pros, internet whiz kids and Borgata regulars came out for this mid-week tournament. The field size has reached 400+ players with just a few minutes left for Late Registration. Good Luck field.

THE FINAL TABLE AWAITS

Event #13 - No Limit Hold Em'
Buy-In: $1,000 + $90

22 players remaining
Avg Stack: $148,695

Notables still alive:
Charles Minter
Todd Terry
Mike "Little Man" Sica
Manny Patel
Jack Schanbacher

Table 3
Todd Terry and Nancy Todd Tyner

EVENT #14 - SEVEN CARD STUD

Hojeong Lee (Brick, NJ) finally decided to fill his empty seat after showing up an hour late for his first Stud Final Table. Travis Williams remains the dominant chip-leader in this event, while Sure Bird nurses the short stack.

IT'S PACKED...

5 Tournaments currently taking place in the Event Center.
Bring your game to The Borgata.

GETTING STARTED

Event #16 - No Limit Hold Em
Buy-In: $500 + $60

The cards are in the air, still open for late registration.

Known for his tight play and knack for min-cashing, tournament veteran Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler is in today's field.

EVENT #12 - ROUND 1 COMPLETE

It didn't take long, but the 64 players in the Heads Up tournament have completed their first round. With the Double Elimination format, no one is out of the tournament at this point.

Some names moving onto the winner's side of the bracket are Will "The Thrill", Mike "GoLeafsGoEh" Leah, Jason Young, and Trevor "Tremomey" Savage. Matt Brady and Gavin Smith were two of the last tables to finish their match.

Those losing their match once in the loser's bracket will be done for the day.


Gavin Smith playing in Heads Up Double Elimination Tournament

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS

Event #50 - No Limit Hold Em' (SENIORS)
Buy-In: $350 + $50

The back of the Event Center is filled with the most experienced players in the room. From Borgata regulars to seasoned vacationers, the Seniors Event should provide some good poker this afternoon.

Late Registration has ended.
Unofficial number of entries: 177 players

Chris Reslock and Harvey Porcaro healdine today's field.

EVENT #15 - PAYOUTS

It didn't take long, but Bill Blanda was the first one to notch his first loss in the Double Elimination Heads Up tournament. He was just about the most unhappy person in the room as he explained how Mike "GoLeafsGoEh" Leah ran like a god and flopped hardcore. Blanda still has a chance to cash and win the tournament from the loser's bracket.

We have received the official payout numbers for the event. The tournament was capped at 64 players with a $1,000 + $90 buyin. The top 6 will make the money.

1st - $25,600
2nd - $16,000
3rd - $9,600
4th - $6,400
5th - $3,200
6th - $3,200

EVENT #15 - DIFFERENT ANIMAL

The heads up tournament is diffinitely something interesting to see in person. Some players embrace the opportunity to actively engage their enemy is conversation while others still just put their little hoody up and hide their twitches.

Gavin Smith was the last to fill his table yet no one has gone busto yet. One interesting table missed during the draw was the Bill Blanda / Mike Leah matchup. Leah has an early chip leap and Blanda has decided to take a walk to cool down.

Kathy Liebert didn't realize that drawing Will "The Trill" was completely random and not some joke played by the poker gods. She said, "Will is tough to play heads up, he won't play a single hand until the blinds force him to do so." While Kathy was talking, Will took the chance to flash the guns.

32 matches are still going on strong. Each table has it's own clock so there are no fixed levels. We will update as events warrant.

The Kathy Liebert/Will Failla Gun Show


Players scanning the board for Event #15

EVENT #15 - HEADS UP FIELD

64 players entered and the staff pulled their names from a bingo-style drum. It was interesting from the start when Will "The Thrill" Failla had his name puuled first followed by poker legend Kathy Liebert. Gavin Smith headlines the big names heading into town and the rest of the field has some great matches between young and old, flop games and stud, agressive and grinders.

A short list of a few names playing Heads Up today:

Gene Castro
Vinny Puhja
Jason Young
Bill Blanda
Mike "GoLeafsGoEh" Leah
Chris Bell
Tervor "Tremomoey" Savage
Al Riccobono
Matt Brady

Play will kick off in less than 30 minutes. Back with updates as things explode.

EVENT #15 - HEADS UP, THE DRAW

By far one of the most interesting events during the 2009 Borgata Poker Open will be the introduction of the $1,000 + $90 Heads Up Double Elimination tournament. 64 players will pony up their money to battle one-on-one against another player with a chance to take home big cash, a great trophy, and a year's worth of bragging rights.

We will be pulling the names for the match ups in just a few minutes, we'll return shortly with the interesting names in the field and the matchups when it is complete.

THURSDAY POKER

TODAY'S TOURNAMENTS - September 17, 2009

All Borgata Poker Open Events are
located upstairs in the Event Center.

Event #15 - No Limit Hold Em' (HEADS-UP)
Double Elimination
Day 1 starts at 11AM, $1,000 + $90 Entry Fee.

Event #50 - No Limit Hold 'Em (SENIORS)
Day 1 starts at 11AM, $350 + $50 Entry Fee.

Event #16 - No Limit Hold Em'
Day 1 starts at 1PM, $500 + $60 Entry Fee.

LATE BUBBLE BREAK (EVENT #13)

Elkerdawy is All Smiles with the 1k Chip Lead

The 1k tournament goes an extra 40 minutes, as play goes hand for hand more than a dozen times, breaking the bubble to put the remaining 27 players in the money.

Johannsy Joseph does the honor when he calls a 30k all-in with (6 6) to beat (A J).

An unofficial look at the chip leaders as they bag and tag:

Mohamed Elkerdawy 377k
Charles Minter 240k
Gordon Mckenzie 205k

Chip counts will be posted after 9 AM.

Players return at 2 PM to try and take down the $85,500 first place prize.

PRIZE POOL

Place - Amount

1 $85,500
2 $48,450
3 $26,648
4 $19,950
5 $17,100
6 $14,250
7 $11,400
8 $8,550
9 $5,700
10-12 $3,705
13-15 $3,135
16-18 $2,565
19-27 $2,137

EVENT #14 FINAL TABLE & CHIP COUNTS

Seven Card Stud
$350 + $50

Seat - Name - Count
1 Anthony Chong 40k
2 Lee Hojeong 45k
3 Travis Williams 273,500
4 Chet Destefano 66,500
5 Michael Eckstut 114k
6 Frank Leeser 151,500k
7 John Womack 104k
8 Sue Byrd 38k

Prize Pool
Place - Amount

1 $13,699
2 $7,931
3 $4,326
4 $2,884
5 $2,523
6 $2,163
7 $1,442
8 $1,082

EVENT #13 HAND FOR HAND

It's after 2AM and the bubble has yet to break in the 1k and instead of stopping play for the night as was regularly scheduled, it's now hand for hand. Tournament officials want all returning players to come back in the money.

The top 27 players get paid, 28 are left.

Moving on to Level 15 (2k/4k/400 ante).

EVENT #14 FINAL TABLE

Seven Card Stud
$350 + $50

Williams, Seven Card Stud Chip Leader

The final table is set and the bubble breaks when Chet Destefeno's pair of kings knocks out Andrew Esbensen and his pair of twos. Play is done for the night and the 8 players return to play for the $13,699 top prize.

"How am I here?" asks Destefano rhetorically. "I had 14 thousand with 12 players left."

Chip leader Travis Williams continues to build his stack, "I've never made it to day 2 of a tournament and now I have the chip lead," he says with nearly 1/3 of the chips in play. "I'm going to keep letting the hands play themselves, just like I've done all tournament. I've been lucky by hitting most of my draws."

Here's how players at the final two tables went out.

9th Andrew Esbensen
10th Salah Levy
11th Eric Raes
12th John Scheidnagel
13th Anthony Hill
14th Jonathan Israel

Players are bagging and tagging.

TWO TABLES (EVENT #14)

Seven Card Stud
$350 + $50

Thinning the Herd

The Seven Card Stud Tournament continues to fly along and play will continue to a final table of 8.

Table-Seat, Name - Count

1-1 Anthony Chong 35k
1-2 Sue Byrd 32k
1-3 Michael Eckstut 135k
1-4 Anrew Esbensen 66k
1-5 Jonathan Israel 14k
1-6 John Scheidnagel 20k
1-7 Chet Destefano 50k

2-1 Anthony Hill 50k
2-1 John Womack 45k
2-3 Frank Leeser 38k
2-4 Salah Levy 70k
2-5 Travis Williams 136k
2-6 Eric Raes 27k
2-7 Lee Hojeong 110k

EVENT #12 - JUSTIN LEVY TAKES TITLE

John "TooRoothlus" Levy wins Event #12

Once play was down to three handed, there were a few hands folding around before the final fireworks on tournament went off.

Levy had a huge chip lead followed by Avunoori and Kosak. Avunoori open with a raise and Levy called all-in. Kosak got out of the way and Avunoori called after some deliberation. His QQ was ahead of Levy's A4h but the cruel gods of poker pulled an Ace on the turn. Levy's was almost apologetic to the soft spoken Avunoori who quietly built his stack during the day. He will take home $13,524 for his efforts.

Only John Kosak stood in Levy's way and he swore that he would give Levy a battle til the end. The battle lasted exactly one hand, long enough for me to snap the picture below. Kosak was first to act and announced all-in and Levy called. Kosak was behind preflop with KJ but outflopped Levy's A9s.

They Levy was running today, no one around the table was surprised with yet another ace hit the turn and the tournament was over.

This is Levy's largest cash in a live tournament and he was having fun the entire way. Kosak wins $26,203 for 2nd place. Justin Levy adds $$48,283 to his bankroll and a sweet trophy.



John Kosak finished 2nd in Event #12

Bosu Avunoori finished 3rd in Event #12

EVENT #12 - PETER ALSON ELIMINATED IN 4TH

Author Peter Alson battled it out on this tough final table avoiding as many trouble spots as he could. He rarely tangled with Justin Levy's big stack immediately to his right. He instead found himself nearly down to the felt in a hand with Bosu Avunoori. Alson's A4 was way behind the aces of Avunoori, who did the honors on knocking Alson out shortly thereafter.

Alson had a great run to the final table after starting Day 2 second in chips. He takes home $11,834 for 4th place.