Wednesday, September 19

TODAY'S EVENTS (EVENT CENTER)


11AM: Event 25 - $200 + $30 Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 GUARANTEED

• Players start with 25,000 in tournament chips 
• Levels 1-8: will last 20 minutes each | Levels 9+: will last 30 minutes each
• Players may Re-Enter through Level 8
• 1-Day event

12PM: Event 23 - $3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

• Day 3 Levels will last 75 minutes each 
• Day 3 ends when 27 players remain
• 5-Day event with two starting days
• Structure

6 PM: Event 53 - $125 + $25 + $25 Green Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry)

• Players start with 10,000 in tournament chips 
• This is a Bounty tournament.  Players must have their Bounty chips clearly displayed on table in order to remain active in tournament
• Levels will last 20 minutes each 
• Players may Re-Enter through Level 6
• 1-Day event

WPT BPO: Young Leads Heading into Day 3

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Young & Andrews

Orson Young (Oceanport, NJ) is the chip leader with 728k (182 BB) as he's one of six players with more than 500k.  His big hand of the day came just after the dinner break when his opponent open shipped 170k on a J 4 4 flop while Young had pocket kings.

"I was very fortunate that he decided to put in all his chips with ace high when he didn't have to," says Young who faded his opponents A Q to go from 400k to 650k.

Young's girlfriend Cherish Andrews is also a big stack with 495k (7th overall) and both are hoping not to start Day 3 at the same table. "It's happened before," says Andrews, "it's very stressful."

With 175 players remaining, both Young and Andrews are looking for deep runs as the money bubble looms withthe top 110 get paid.

"There's going to be pressure as chip leader, said Young, who finished 27th (~$19,000) in last year's Championship Event.  "I was a short stack on Day 4 and the first to bust, so I'd like to make it to Day 4 with chips."

Andrews is also glad to be in good position to make a run at the $818,847 top prize. "I'm excited to have chips to play with," she says, "I'm usually a short stack."

Players return at noon with an average stack of 202k (51 BB) as blinds will be 2k/4k/400 ante.

Event 24 Recap

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry) 

Hoa Nguyen (Fairfax, VA) dominated the final table on his way to $31,842 and a Borgata Poker Open trophy.  Nguyen beat WSOP bracelet holder Greg Ostrander (Webster, NY) heads up when he hit a flush while holding J♣ 10♣ to win the tournament.

"I'm happy," says Nguyen, who knocked out 6 of the final 9 players. "The cards went my way and I kept getting hands at the final table."

Ostrander also saw the cards fall his way as he was a heavy underdog with only a 2.5% chance to win against Doug Hunter. But Ostrander cracked Hunter's aces by going runner-runner two pairs.

"I played pretty well," said Ostrander, who watched Hunter finish 7th.  "The only hand I sucked out on was the one that was out of control." Ostrander had the chip lead with six players left, but watched the winner go on a heater.

First, Nguyen had pocket aces against Lyle Diamond (4th) and Chris Farley (5th) to get a true triple-up to 1.5 million.  He then knocked out both players on the next hand with pocket 4s to take his stack to close to 2 million of the 4.5 million chips in play.

Nguyen used pocket 4s again, this time to knock out David Battaglia in third place, but says it's by no means his favorite hand.

"They were short stacks," said Nguyen, who now has more than $450,000 in career tournament earnings. "That's why I called."

The day began with 304 entries who put the $121,600 in total buy-ins.

The field featured Jacob Ferro who finished 10th, after he won Event 18 (Deep Stack Semi-Turbo) for $22,263. Other recognizable names who made the money included: Rick "Rocket" Petroy (18th) Charlie Townsend (19th), and last woman standing Marsha Wolak (27th).

 Final Table Results
 
1st Hoa Nguyen (Fairfax, VA) $31,842
2nd Greg Ostrander (Webster, NY) $17,690
3rd David Battaglia (Buffalo, NY) $10,970
4th Lyle Diamond (Brick, NJ) $8,846
5th Chris Farley (West Deptford, NJ) $6,841
6th Greg Glassman (Brooklyn, NY) $5,780
7th Doug Hunter (Richmond, VA) $4,659
8th Jeff Lee (Fort Lee, NJ) $3,480
9th Jason Estock (Wilmington, NC) $2,359
10th Jacob Ferro (Syracuse, NY) $1,553

Event 24 Winner - Nguyen

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)  

Hoa Nguyen (Fairfax, VA) 

$31,842

Blinds 30k/60k/5k ante

 

Hoa Nguyen finishes steam rolling the final table when he uses J♣ 10♣ to hit a flush against Greg Ostrander's A♣ 4♦ to win the title.

Flop: 6♣ 4♣ 9♠

Turn: K♣ (Nguyen flush)

River: J♠

"I'm happy," says Nguyen, "the cards went my way and I kept getting hands at the final table."

Nguyen is an IT guy who plays poker part time and knocked out 6 of the 9 final tablelists.

Event 24: 2nd Place - Ostrander

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry) 

Greg Ostrander (Webster, NY) 

$17,690

Greg Ostrander finishes runner up while holding A♣ 4♦ against Hoa Nguyen who hits a flush while playing J♣ 10♣.

"I've had a real good summer," says Ostrander, who won his first WSOP bracelet this year.  "I give all the credit to my wife Lisa, who gives me all the support to do this," says Ostrander, who has been playing professional poker since 2004.

Ostrander is a former police officer and fashion model.

Event 24: 3rd Place - Battaglia

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)   

David Battaglia (Buffalo, NY)

 $10,970

David Bataglia moves all in for roughly 1 million chips with Q J against the pocket 4s of Hoa Nguyen.

After the 4s hold, Battaglia, a poker pro, gives a shout out to his cousin Paul who celebrated a birthday last week.

Nguyen now has 3.2 of the 4.5 million chips as he begins heads up play against Greg Ostrander.

Event 24: 4th Place - Diamond

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry) 
     

 Lyle Diamond (Brick, NJ) 

$8,846

Lyle Diamond, who was crippled the hand before by Hoa Nguyen, is on the rail after Nguyen finishes the job.  Nguyen flops a set of 4s to take Diamond's last 400k and knock him out in 4th place.

Chris Farley is also eliminated on the hand as he was down to one grey (5k) chip.

Nguyen now as nearly half the chips in play with 2.1 million, but Greg Ostrander (1.3 million) and David Battaglia (1.1 million) are one double-up away from being on top.

Event 24: 5th Place - Farley

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry) 

Chris Farley (West Deptford, NJ) 

$6,841

After a three-way all in, Chris Farley is left with one grey (5k) chip and is on the rail one hand later.

The key hand has Farley, Lyle Diamond and Hoa Nguyen all in preflop and Nguyen is way ahead with AA.  The other two players both have AQ, and the aces hold.

It's a true triple-up for Farley who has 545k, just 5k less then Farley.  The hand cripples Diamond down to 400k.

Farley was married last month to Amy and says the payday will help defer the costs of the honeymoon.

Event 24: 6th Place - Glassman

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry) 

Greg Glassman (Brooklyn, NY) 

$5,780

Greg Glassman ships his last 200k with AQ and doesn't win the flip against the pocket 8s of Hoa Nguyen.  

Glassman is a professional jazz trumpet player in New York.

Event 24: 7th Place - Hunter

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)   

 Doug Hunter (Richmond, VA) 

$4,659

The most improbable hand of the tournament comes at Doug Hunter's expense and his emotions range from anger to apologetic.

With nearly 400k, Hunter opens to 80k and gets a call from Lyle Diamond.  Greg Ostrander moves all in for 390k and Hunter snap calls before Diamond folds.

Hunter: A♦ A♣

Ostrander: Q♣ 10♥

Flop: K♣ 8♣ 2♣ (Hunter 97.5% favorite to win the hand)

Turn: 10♦ (Ostrander picks up outs and has a 10% chance to win)

River: Q♦ 

Hunter can't believe Ostrander hits runner-runner, two pairs, to win the hand and he explodes into a controlled tirade.

"How do you do that to me, how!," he yells at the cards.  Hunter then proceeds to twist is sunglasses until they shatter into several pieces.  

After collecting himself, Hunter apologizes to the table and make it clear his anger is directed at the cards, not Ostrander or the dealer.

Ostrander is just as apologetic as he feel bad about delivering the beat saying, "I was just trying to make a move, I usually don't get that lucky."

"That's how my life is," says Hunter, who is left with 10k in chips and busts two hands later.  Ostrander now has the chip lead with a little more than one million.

Event 24: 8th Place - Lee

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)  

Jeff Lee (Fort Lee, NJ) 

$3,480

Jeffrey Lee gets his last 180k all in with AK against the AJ of Lyle Diamond, but Diamond hits a jack on the flop to get the elimination.

Lee says this was his first cash of the series after "bricking" the first 15 events he's played.

Despite busting on the last level of the night on Day 1B of the Championship Event, cashing in this tournament is a nice consolation prize.   The $3,480 he won in this tournament covers most of the $3,500 he paid to play in the Championship.

Event 24: 9th Place - Estock

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)   

 Jason Estock (Wilmington, NC) 

$2,359

Jason Estock has mixed emotions on his elimination by Hoa Nguyen

"I was excited to play the final table, but 9th is kind of a bummer," says Estock.  "I'm going to wonder whether or not shoving king-10 with 12 big blinds was correct." 

Event 24: 10th Place - Ferro

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Jacob Ferro (Syracuse, NY) 

$1,553

It's blind on blind crime when Jacob Ferro shoves his last 10 big blinds from the small blind and Greg Ostrander calls from the big.

Ferro: K 2

Ostrander: A 7

Ferro doesn't catch up and is out in 10th place.

It's been a good series for Ferro, despite busting in Day 2 of the Championship Event.  Ferro won Event 18 (Deep Stack Semi-Turbo) for $22,263, but would have rather still been playing in the Championship.

"I got in just before registration closed," says Ferro who started with 40 big blinds.  "Within an hour I had a bunch of chips and rode it to the end."

Event 24: Final Table

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)  

Seat-Name-Chip Count

1 Greg Ostrander (Webster, NY) 300k
2 David Battaglia (Buffalo, NY) 725k
3 Hoa Nguyen (Fairfax, VA) 440k
4 Chris Farley (West Deptford, NJ) 400k
5 Doug Hunter (Richmond, VA) 350k
6 Jason Estock (Wilmington, NC) 350k
7 Greg Glassman (Brooklyn, NY) 690k
8 Lyle Diamond (Brick, NJ) 825k
9 Jeff Lee (Fort Lee, NJ) 210k
10 Jacob Ferro (Syracuse, NY) 300k

Event 24: 11th-18th Places

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)  

Position-Name-Amount

11 Dennis Melandro (Rockville Center, NY) $1,533
12 Harvey Gluckman (Basking Ridge, NJ) $1,533
13 Vito Sparacio (Lansdale, PA) $1,180
14 Laurence O'Halloran (Colonia, NJ) $1,180
15 Franklin Lacava (Marco Island, FL) $1,180
16 Jonathan Lessin (Oceanport, NJ) $1,003
17 Andrew Anderson (Salisbury, MD) $1,003
18 Rick "Rocket" Petroy (Pittsburgh, PA) $1,003

Event 24: 19th-27th Places ($885)

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)  

Position-Name

19 Charlie Townsend (Dagsboro, DE)
20 Irving McKenzie (Salisbury, MD)
21 George Leandrou (Glen Cove, NY)
22 Ira Marcus (Coral Gables, FL)
23 Edward Cybulski Laurel Springs, NJ)
24 Marvin Lewis (Bayside, NY)
25 Salvatore Busacca (Colts Neck, NJ)
26 Joe Mosca (Bronx, NY)
27 Marsha Wolak (Sarasota, FL)
 

Event 24: 28th-36th Places ($708)

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry)

Position-Name

28 Jaren Chang (Melville, NY)
29 Iam Mack (Garden City, NY)
30 Anthony Damato (Cherry Hill, NJ)
31 Nishiwaki Masazumi (Tokyo, Japan)
32 Michael Shasho (Ramsey, NJ)
33 Michael Pszczola (Staten Island, NY)
34 Peter Kaemmerlen (Fairport, NY)
35 Gerald Rodman (Hillsdale, NJ)
36 Earl King (Colts Neck, NJ)

WPT BPO: Bag & Tag

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

175 players bag and tag for the night with Orson Young still on top with 728k (182 BB).

Two former champions are still alive as defending champion Bobby Oboodi is at 74k (19 BB) and 2010 winner Dwyte Pilgrim has 330k.

Day 3 resumes at noon with an average stack of 202k (51 BB) as blinds will be 2k/4k/400 ante.

End of Night Big Stacks

Orson Young 728k
Batter Hutter 604,500
David Heck 567,800
David Diaz 541,900
Stephen Reynolds 510,800
Cherish Andrews 495,300
Brian Lemke 456,800
Toddy Terry 448,800

Notable Stacks

Ofir Mor 414,600
Allen Cunningham 391,200
David Pham 365,000
Dwyte Pilgrim 330,000
Tony Dunst 304,000
Lee Childs 226,200
Vinny Pahuja 174,800
Darren Elias 100,500
Bobby Oboodi 73,800
Barry Greenstein 57,700

WPT BPO: Four More hands

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Blinds 1.5k/3k/300 ante

The clock has been paused with 10 minutes left and dealers have been instructed to deal four more hands.  Once the hands are completed players will bag and tag for the night.

~180 players remain with an average stack of 197k (66 BB).

WPT BPO: More in the 500k Chip Club

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

 Barry Hutter

Michael Hickman

Stephen Reynolds

WPT BPO: Feature Table Loses Affleck

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

 Terry, Hinds & Childs

Matt Affleck is gone from a table that still features Todd Terry, John Allan Hinds and Lee Childs.

Here's a recap of the action via Twitter:

John Allan Hinds ‏@JABistro
263k at break, one more lvl to play tonite. Coming back to 1500/3000/300. Busted Affleck AQ>KK aipf #greensteined #WPTBorgata

Todd Terry ‏@toddbterry
320K. Got lucky to double up to 100K TT > AA aipf. Then AA > AKo to get to 200K. #WPTBorgata

WPT BPO: Tweet Counts

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Chip Counts Tweeted During the Last Break

Todd Terry 320k
Mukul Pahuja 310k
John Allan Hinds 263k
Jerry Payne 161k
Lee Childs 154k
Jesse Cohen 145k
Michael Marder 125k
Jason Paster 105k
Dave Zeitlin 82k
Allison Schultz 70k
David Stefanski 64k
Jake Toole 55k
Trevor Savage 44k

WPT BPO: Last Break of the Night

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

The 203 remaining players are their last break of the night.  The average stack is 174k (58 BB) as blinds are moving up to 1,500/3k/300 ante.

WPT BPO: Straighten the Heck Out

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

David Heck

David Heck (Colts Neck, NJ) is another player that's hit the 500k mark.

After raising preflop with AK, Heck and one player see a flop of Q J 10, giving Heck the nut straight.

Heck bets 50k and his opponent calls. The turn is a brick, Heck bets 70 and the player calls.  Same story on the river, brick, bet, call.

Heck's opponent also flopped a straight as he shows 9 8 for the bottom end.  Heck scoops the 430k pot and is up to 520k, while the other player drops to 100k.

WPT BPO: Gross Beat, Cherishing Chips

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Queen Andrews Cracks Aces

Shortly after Orson Young (Oceanport, NJ) took the chip lead with 650k, his girlfriend, Cherish Andrews (St. Thomas, PA), hits a big hand of her own.

Andrews 5-bet shoves with pocket queens and is in bad shape against the pocket aces of Jeff Gross (Baltimore, MD).  She hits a queen on the turn to score the knockout and Andrews takes her stack to 500k.

Gross takes the beat and stride and tweets

Jeff Gross ‏@Jgross5
Just got knocked out of #WPTBorgata 430k pot at 1200/2400 all in pre flop AA to QQ, queen on turn! Ouch Cherish, good luck rest of way

***************************

Texting and tweeting updates to each other is unnecessary for Young and Andrews as their tables are side-by-side.  Both are near the top of the chip counts as there are only a few stacks in the 500k+ range.