Event 1: Last Level Underway

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)   

Level 16:  Blinds 2k/4k with 400 ante.

This is the last level of the night. 

 Dean Schultz & Andrew Lukovsky

These players started more than 13 hours ago and some of them are getting a littly punchy as the end of the night approaches.

Andrew Lukovsky (Brooklyn, NY) is doing a good job maintaining his poker face as Dean Schultz is clowning around.  Andrew's doing well with about 300k, but is going to have to pick up the pace if he wants that $10k bonus.

Event 1: Registration Closing at 12:15am

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)   

Tab Duchateau has just announced that due to the 'ridiculously long line' at registration right now, they are going to have to cut it off at 12:15am.

Anyone in line by then will still get to register tonight.  Players who bust out after the line is cut off will have to register after it re-opens at 8am Thursday morning.

He recommends arriving as early at 7am to get in line.

Event 1: Leader-Watch

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)   

Pete Skyllas is up to ~500k and still in the lead.

Hobart Adkins

Hobart Adkins (Huntington, WV) is his closest rival with about 470k.

27 tables active leaves 270 players still in the race for 1A.

950 new entries already registered for day 1B.

Event 1: Blinds Up, Shamseddin Down

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)  

Level 15:  Blinds 1,500/3,000 with 400 ante.

Early chip leader Soheil Shamseddin has busted out.  He's headed for the lobby to get in line to register for day 1B.

Apparently the line is ~200 deep right now.

Tournament Director extraordinaire Tab Duchateau says he has to cut off new registrations for day 1B at ~1,500, so they still have space (tables, dealers, and chips) for the 1B re-entries. 

They could get close to that number tonight before registration closes.  They already have 895 new entires for 1B, not counting those standing in line.

31 tables (310 players) remain in the hunt on day 1A.

The average stack is almost 126k.

Event 1: New Chip Leader

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)  

A new leader has emerged on table 1. 

Pete Skyllas

Pete Skyllas (Manhattan, NY) is sitting behind 465k and out in front of the field.

He's sharing table 1 with Michael Marder and Jia Liu, (Brooklyn, NY) winner of the 2012 Borgata Spring Open Championship.

Event 1: Ups & Downs

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)  

About 10 players in the room are over 300k, but I can't find any player who has made 400k yet.  That $10k chip leader bonus is on everyone's mind.

Michael Marder (Sewell, NJ) had about 330k after rivering a flush to bust two players, then busting a third player on a subsequent hand. 

Then his AQ suited ran into pocket Queens and he fell back to about 100k.

Michael was runner-up in the 2012 Borgata Summer Open Championship event, taking home over $110k for his efforts.

Event 1: 39 Tables Remain

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)  

Play resumed after the break and relocate with Level 14, blinds 1,200/2,400 with 300 ante.

There are a total of 39 tables now, with 390 or fewer players remaining for day 1A.

They will play straight through three levels, then call it a night.  That's 2.5 hours more of poker, until about 1am.

Rumor has it that registration, which was scheduled to close at midnight, will stay open until the end of play so that those last-minute bust-outs can get in line and register for day 1B tonight.

Event 1: Movin' On Up

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)   

Another tough table over on 25:

Dean Schultz, (Stow, OH) Guyana Petrossian, (Brooklyn, NY) and Paul Spitzberg (Tenafly, NJ) are sharing that felt.

Dean Schultz & Josh Brikis

Josh Brikis (Pittsburgh, PA) was just one row over and I caught him chatting up Dean Schultz in between hands.  Josh's table has since broken.

After level 13, they began a 15 minute break and began moving the remaining players up from the poker room.

When play resumes, they'll be all together for the first time today.

Event 1: New Chip Leader

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)  

Soheil Shamseddin has dropped back to about 230k.

 Carlos Berenguer

Now Carlos Berenguer (Bloomingdale, NJ) leads the players in the event center with ~385k.

28 tables remain in the event center as they approach the end of level 13.

Event 1: Israelashvilli Stacking Chips

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

Roland Israelashvilli (Forest Hill, NY) is trying to extend his WSOP run-good.  He's doing well so far with over 200k.

Roland Israelashvilli

This summer, he made the final table of the $50k Players Championship, finishing 5th for over $317k.  Then in addition to three other cashes, he went on to finish 25th in the WSOP Main Event, good for another $294k.

Not a bad summer for the jeweler from New York.

Event 1: Tough Table

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

Level 13: Blinds 1k/2k with 300 ante.

As tables break, the remaining tables get a lot tougher.

 Adam Cook, Pierre Deissler, & Wooyang Lin

One tough corner I spotted was on table 7.  Seated there were Adam Cook, Pierre Deissler, and Wooyang Lin, all Borgata tournament regulars.

Unfortunately, Adam busted out before I got this post finished.  I expect we'll see him again for day 1B.

Event 1: Tables Breaking

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

Players are busting rapidly and tables are breaking down here in the Event Center.  Only 33 remain up here.  The Poker Room tables will be moved up here soon, in order to combine the field for the end of the night.

Lee Childs just got his last ~20k chips in with AJ, only to run into pocket Aces on the button.  Lee will be starting over tomorrow with a fresh 25k stack.

Also gone:
Julie Cornelius
Amanda Musumeci
John Hinds
Trevor Savage
Alex Rocha
Dan Buzgon
Vinny Pahuja
Roman Valerstein

Event 1: Cowboys v Giants

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

You would think that the room would be filled with New York Giants fans, given our proximity to New York, but I had a hard time finding any players remaining in the main event sporting Giants gear.

Dave Grandieri - Rooting for the Cowboys

A very brave Dave Grandieri (Danbury, CT) is proudly wearing his Dallas Cowboys jersey.

I did find some Giants fans over in event 28, the $150 Black Chip Bounty tournament.

Giants Fans -- playing Event 28

The game is underway on four giant screens here in the Event Center, but neither team has scored yet.

Event 1: Day 1B Players Read This!!!

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Event Center Packed on Day 1A 

With a huge field expected Thursday, Borgata tournament officials are recommending that players register tonight for Day 1B.

More than 600 players have already registered for Day 1B and considering that there were 1,559 entries for Day 1A, the Event Center and Poker Rooms will be packed and lines could be long in the morning.

The Event Center registration desk will be open until midnight before reopening at 8 am.

Officials caution that anyone arriving late for the 11 am start could be disappointed as seating is limited.  Even though there are 170 poker tables (90 Event Center/80 Poker Room) on property, there's a chance that the tournament will be capped.

Borgata will do everything it can to get all players into the field and by registering tonight it will help make that happen.

Late entry and registration will be open until ~3:30 pm.

Event 1: Back to Business

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

Post-dinner play is underway!

Level 12:  Blinds 800/1,600 with 200 ante.

Event 1: Another Big Stack

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Carlos in Contention

Anyone in the 200k-250k range is definitely a big stack, which is were Soheil Shamseddin (Houston, TX) is after cresting at 315k.

One of the biggest stacks we find in the Event Center belongs to Carlos Berenguer (Bloomingdale, NJ) who's at 275k.

On one of the final hands before dinner break Berenguer had two pairs and not only dodged the flush draw but hit a boat on the river.

Event 1: 58 Tables

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

With 58 tables left (40 Event Center/18 Poker Room)  there are ~570 players remaining.

The average stack is 68k (43 BB) as play resumes with Level 12 (800/1,600/200 ante).

The field will play five more levels tonight with bag and tag scheduled for ~1 a.m.

At some point during the evening the players in the Poker Room will be moved upstairs to the Event Center.  It will then be a dash for the cash as players go for the $10,000 bonus for the end of Day 1A chip leader.

Dinner break continues with play resuming at 8:30 p.m.

Event 1: Dinner Time!

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

The dinner vouchers have been distributed in the Poker Room and at the end of level 11, the survivors were sent on a one-hour dinner break.

18 tables remain and will resume play at about 8:26 pm.

Event 1: Bloggers are NOT a Curse

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

No Curse for Kessler

A lot of players believe in the "Blogger Curse," where a blogger showing up means chip stacks go down.  That's clearly not the case for Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler here at Event 1 of the Borgata Poker Open.

Kessler stops by press row on his way to dinner break to let us know that he's slowly increased his stack since he's gotten media attention.  Two different photographers snapped pictures as he went from 60k to more than 100k on break.

"I didn't win any big pots," says Kessler who has nearly $2.5 million in career tournament earnings, and is off to a good start in this event.

After raising one pot, and the big blind tank-folds, Kessler says, "I've only played five hands," just to to send a message of how he's been playing.

Event 1: Big Pot, Big Suckout

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

Three players got to the turn with a board of K T 5 K.

Ryan Pollack (South Jersey) gets all in with pocket Tens (Tens-full).

Dean Chen (Ellenville, NY) is all-in with AK (trip Kings).

A third player folds pocket Aces (Aces-up).

Dean Chen

Then a crushing 4-outer Ace hits the river, giving Dean Kings-full to take the pot, busting Ryan in the process.  (The third player would have taken it all with Aces-full, if he had not folded on the turn.)

Dean chipped up to about 220k.

Event 1: Straight to the Top

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Cha-Cha Chips Up

Steve Cha (New York, New York) admits he made a debatable call on the flop, but his gutshot gutter ball ends up paying dividends

Cha and his opponent are all in for a 280k pot and Cha's straight hangs on against a flush draw that bricks on the river.

"It was a gift from God," says one player who barely had his opponent covered and is now one of the big stacks in the room.

Event 1: Blinds Up, Times Up

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Level 11 (600/1,200/200 ante) is underway and players have their eye on dinner break. 

In addition to blinds going up, this is the first level that is 50 minutes long (up from 40 min).

That puts the dinner bell at 7:25 when players will get a one hour break.

********Player Update******

Derrek Marmen (Baltimore, MD) stops by media row to tell us that chip leader Soheil Shamseddin (Houston, TX) is "human."

Marmen gets a double up from 40k to 80k, taking a bite out of Shamseddin's stack which now drops less than 300k.

Event 1: Poker Room Update

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)

Only 22 tables are still active in the Poker Room.

Among those I spotted some more familiar faces:

Al 'the Perisan Diversian' Navid
Robert Melo
Esther 'e-tay' Taylor
Jia Liu
Kirkor 'Coco' Tekneci
Lonnie Heimowitz

Lonnie Heimowitz (Monticello, NY) has the dubious distinction of being 5th in the ranking of players with the most WSOP cashes withOUT a WSOP bracelet.  He has 34 cashes and trails Tony Cousineau, (53) Tom McCormick, (42) Chad Brown, (37) and Marco Traniello (36).

Event 1: M-Rod Quadruples

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)  

After three players entered the pot for 3k, Mario Rodriguez (Jersey City, NJ) decided he was priced in and shoved his last 5k.  Everyone called.

The flop came K 9 2 with one club and was checked around.

Turn was the 7♣ and was again checked around.

River was the 8♦ and they checked it down.

Mario showed 8♣2♣ for two pair to claim the pot, quadrupling up to ~20k.

Mike Dentale and Mario Rodriguez

Mike Dentale (Brooklyn, NY) who has recently been seen on ESPN during coverage of the 2012 WSOP Main Event, turned up to help Mario celebrate his survival in the hand.  Mike will be playing (again) on day 1B tomorrow.

Event 1: Another Feature Table

$500 + $60 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) 

Brooks (left) and Dannenmann (right)

One of our feature tables just got a shake up as one former Borgata event winner, Steve Dannenmann (Severn MD), has been replaced by another in Phil Neiman (Flushing, NY).

Still at this tough table is 2012 Borgata Summer Poker Open winner, Melad Marji, and Joey "the B" Brooks, both of Atlantic City.  Sandwiched between those two is Danny Beaudrot (Lindenhurst, NY).

Marji won nearly $200,000 in June for his first live tournament win and largest cash ever.

 (l-r) Brooks, Beaudrot & Marji