The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship is by tradition one of the busiest WPT Main Tour Main Events to take place within WPT’s schedule, and this year’s edition of the tournament did not disappoint. A total of 1,023 contenders entered the event during its Days 1A and 1B, and registration will remain open during the first two levels of Day 2 which means that interested players will have one more opportunity to join the field.
Day 1B of the $3,500 buy-in tournament was played on Monday at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino. As many as 680 entries were drawn to the poker tables at the gambling venue, but only 375 of them made it through the day. They will be joined by the 173 survivors from Day 1A for Day 2 of the major tournament. Action is set to resume today at noon local time.
Shaun McBride bagged and tagged the largest chip stack Monday night. The player had accumulated 224,200 by the time all ten levels of the day were wrapped up. McBride will actually enter Day 2 action as the overall chip leader from the two starting flights, as he is well ahead of Day 1A’s leader Luke Blindert. The latter has 191,000 and will thus resume play second in chips.
Poker Thrill at the Borgata
The Borgata Winter Poker Open is set to run through February 2, when the Main Event winner will be determined. The tournament featured a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, which was exceeded on Monday and is poised to grow further given the fact that registration is still open. The precise amount generated and the number of payouts will be announced once registration for the tournament closes later today.
Aside from the chip leader, a number of other notables jumped in poker action at the Borgata, including two time WPT champion Jonathan Little. The player will enter Day 2 with a nice stack of 148,900. He is vying for a third title, and if he wins one, he will tie with Darren Elias, Gus Hansen, Anthony Zinno, Carlos Mortensen, and Chino Rheem and join the club of the very few players who have captured three WPT Main Tour Main Event titles. Speaking for Elias, he is making yet another attempt to win a record-breaking fourth title after several unsuccessful ones.
Zachary Smiley, John Hennigan, and Tony Sinishtaj were also among the former WPT champions to enter this year’s WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship and to have made it through the starting flights phase.
Daniel Weinman won last year’s edition of the event. He bested a massive field of 1,312 entries to collect a first-place prize of $892,433. What made his accomplishment even more special to him was the fact that he captured the title on his 29th birthday.
