Event 15 (Day 1A)
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 5: Blinds 200/400/400 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 122
Sean VanTassel
The second break is complete and Flight A of the Championship is back underway. We picked up a few more players over the last 15 minutes and the field is creeping up on 200.
After four hours of play, everyone is chasing Sean VanTassel at the top of the counts. He returned to the only triple-digit stack and his 105,900 is setting the pace. At a glance, it looks like three-time Borgata champ Ryan McKnight has the second biggest as he nears 100,000 midway through the day.
Ryan McKnight
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 4: Blinds 200/300/300 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 118
Matt Glantz
Level 4 has just about run its course and the Championship will be taking their second break when it runs out. We have a nice group of players in the poker room and it sets the tournament up nicely for tomorrow’s even bigger flight.
The Championship even drew Matt Glantz to a different part of the poker room. The cash game mainstay is usually playing in the back room but the big events will get him into a tournament. Glantz added six more WSOP cashes this summer with three final tables, two of those in $10,000 Championship events. Two of his biggest career tournament cashes came from final table appearances in the tough WSOP Poker Players Championship in 2008 and 2011.
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 4: Blinds 200/300/300 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 113
Asher Conniff
2015 was a very good year for east coast grinders.
Two of the biggest poker titles of that year were the WPT World Championship and (naturally) the WSOP Main Event. Asher Conniff won the opening event of the 2015 Borgata Spring Poker Open and finished off the series by winning the WPT World Championship, the last of its kind. A few months later, Joe McKeehen went deep in the WSOP Main Event and booked a seat at the November Nine final table. When the time came to play that out, he walked away with the WSOP Main Event title.
Both players continue to prove their success was not a fluke. McKeehen had another big summer that included four major final tables including three third-place finishes in a WPT and two WSOP events.
Joe McKeehen
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 3: Blinds 200/300/300 BB Ante
Entries: 108
Darren Elias
Darren Elias, 2014 BPO Championship winner, has arrived and joined the field. He landed in the seat to the right of Almighty Stack final tableist Nick Platis.
When asked about the Big Blind Ante, which is in play for this first time today in a Borgata Championship event, they both agreed it’s a thumbs-up. “It’s great. It really speeds up the game… makes it easier for the dealers” said Darren. Nick agreed, adding that at some point late in the event, such as at the final table when getting short-handed, it should revert to individual antes.
“[The BB Ante] affects the play too much when short-handed,” Nick explained. The player in the big blind has too much invested and can have their entire stack or most of it in and be pot-committed without voluntarily putting any chips in.
At least for today, the Big Blind Ante is a big hit!
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 3: Blinds 100/200/200 BB Ante
Entries: 101
Two Borgata Open Champions have ended up seated at the same table, right next to each other, thanks to random seat assignments.
Olivier Busquet & Mike Dentale
Both Olivier Busquet (2009 BPO Championship winner) and Mike Dentale (2015 FPO Championship winner) participated in the invitation-only Tournament of Champions yesterday. Mike had an early exit, but Olivier finished 4th and earned his seat in this championship.
The rest of their table is no cake walk either. They’re sharing the felt with Gary Tavella, who won the $1M GTD Kick-Off event, Michael Marder, (holder of the record for second-most tournament cashes at Borgata) Arthur Peters, Carlos Matos, and Wayne Lewis.
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 3: Blinds 100/200/200 Big Blind Ante
Entries: 88
Level 3 has begun and this event is using the Big Blind Ante format where the player in the big blind posts the antes for the table. The amount is always the same as the big blind, regardless of the number of players at the table. This has also eliminated the need for the green 25 chips, so that’s one less color-up we have to deal with.
The Championship event is playing nine-handed and since we’re in the poker room, they’re also using the shuffle machines. Combined with the big blind ante, this will speed up the game, at least on the dealer’s side of the table.
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
End of Level 2: Blinds 100/200
Entries: 88
It’s slow going in the first two levels, with stacks so deep and players in need of coffee. Good thing it’s time for the first break of the day!
Players have 15 minutes away from the game before play resumes.
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 2: Blinds 100/200
Entries: 84
Players continue to arrive and take their seats here in the Poker Room. This field will grow slowly throughout the day as players don’t feel the urgency. That 30,000 starting stack now represents 150 big blinds.
Not everyone can afford to pony up $2,700 to play in the Championship event and for those players, we’ve got satellites running all day today, and even Monday morning!
Three satellites will be running today at Borgata:
1 PM – Event 32 – $270 + $30 Championship Qualifier NLH (~1 in 10)
4 PM – Event 33 – $540 + $60 Championship Mega Qualifier NLH (~1 in 5)
7 PM – Event 34 – $270 + $30 Championship Qualifier NLH (~1 in 10)
Since registration remains open into Day 2, there will be another satellite running Monday evening, for a Day 2 start:
6PM – Event 36 – $270 + $30 Last Chance Championship Qualifier NLH (~1 in 10)
There are also online satellites running at BorgataPoker.com. Click here for details.
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 2: Blinds 100/200
The Championship event always brings out the big guns and a few of them were in their seats as the first card hit the felt this morning.
Matt Glantz
Matt Glantz is one we only see in the big event and given that he has more than $6.8 million in career earnings, he doesn’t need to grind through the huge fields of the preliminary events. He’s coming off a big month of June at the WSOP, where he cashed six times. Three of those were final tables for five-figure scores.
Dan Howe
Dan Howe may not be a household name because he’s mostly playing the big cash games, but he’s just back from Vegas after a deep run and cash in the WSOP Main Event. We only see him in the Championships because the rest of the time he’s playing cash and those results are not reported. So although he doesn’t have million in tournament earnings, he’s got what it takes. He made the final table of the 2013 Borgata Poker Open Championship, finishing 7th for $132,615.
$2,500+$200 Championship NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 1: Blinds 100/100
Luigi Santoro
Luigi Santoro booked his best live cash of nearly $49,000 a week ago when he made the final table of the Summer Poker Open Kick-Off event. HIs 6th place finish was quite an accomplishment given that there were more than 2,200 entrants in that event.
Perhaps he can parlay his deep run in the Kick-Off into a deep run in the Championship!