Final Table

The final table is set. Working on chip counts.

Seat 1 Alan Colon
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja
Seat 3 Mark Herm
Seat 4 Alex "Screwball" Nepomnyaschiy
Seat 5 Barry Leventhal
Seat 6 William Phipps
Seat 7 Boris Kravets
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos
Seat 10 Allen Bari

1:50pm - First real action has Jeremy Schoenberger doubling off Mark Herm. AT versus 99. Herm has been swimming upstream since his battle with Leventhal.

2:00pm - Leventhal's railbirds are losing their minds. No judgment calls from me. But he is wearing a Shockey jersey. Just saying.

2:05pm - No real action at the table but the battle of the railbirds started heating up but ended quickly when "Shockey" fell out of the stands. Leventhal is alive and kicking well but his railbird's day is over.

2:10pm - Blinds are now at 40k/80k/10k with the average chip at exactly 1,725,000. God bless ten handed math.

2:15pm - First elimination at the final table. Boris Kravets pushed as a shorty and was called by Paul Kitsos. Kitsos proves the presto is gold. Kravets collects $22,425 for 10th.

2:30pm - Things all of sudden got very tense. Nepomnyaschiy and Leventhal were involved in a hand and Phipps starts talking about the two soft playing each other. Both are warned by the TD but the chatter kept going between the three. Eventually all three were warned but things escalated. Leventhal was given a 10 hand penalty and ended up standing toe-to-toe with Phipps before leaving the area. Leventhal's railers were also given a warning.

2:33pm - Phipps takes the opportunity to almost felt Mark Herm. T2d for Herm, AKo for Phipps. Ten on the flop was outdone by a King on the turn. Herm doesn't have enough for the blinds.

He pushed his last 95k was knocked out by Schoenberger. After a great run, Mark Herm takes home $34,500 for 9th place.

2:50pm - Leventhal is back after his penalty. Things have calmed but we will see what happens once he starts slinging chips. Alex Nepomnyaschiy has been very quiet and is the shortstack at the table. This is a big change from his 20+ vodkas and slam dancing action near the end of day 2.

3:10pm - Things have slowed back down with no one willing to tangle with the big stacks and everything calmed down. Players are now on a 15 minutes and we're working on chip counts. 8 still remain.

3:20pm - Current chip counts at the break:

Seat 1 Alan Colon - 1,200,000
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja - 2,800,000
Seat 4 Alex Nepomnyaschiy - 1,100,000
Seat 5 Barry Leventhal - 2,400,000
Seat 6 William Phipps - 1,500,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger - 1,600,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos - 2,100,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari - 4,000,000

Blinds are 50k/100k/10k

3:50pm - Leventhal and Nepomnyaschiy had a significant hand that didn't really push many chips around but was interesting. Nepomnyaschiy folded AQ face up to a re-raise from Leventhal after tanking for a decade. Leventhal showed AK. Yesterday's version of Alex would be signing his prize sheet right for 8th right about now.

4:00pm - Possible misstep by Schoenberger by not catching the biggest tell in the world on Leventhal. While headsup, Shoenberger was contemplating calling a 600k river bet when Leventhal thought he heard a call and said "You got me" and started to show his cards even though there was no call. Floor and dealer confirmed there was no call. Either Schoenberger missed that piece of information or wasn't buying it because he ended up folding. Leventhal then mucks face up showing his airball bluff.

4:20pm - Alan Colon just doubled up off Allen Bari with AK versus KQ. Not much dancing going on at this point.

4:30pm - Blinds are now 50k/100k/15k with average stack just shy of 2,200,000. We've been 8 handed for two hours.

5:00pm - Classic deepstack final table. Flops are few and far between, railbirds are getting anxious and things will start to heating up prior to the upcoming dinner break.

5:30pm - Players on a dinner break. Most excitement I've had over the last 3 hours has been trying to figure out who is getting my dinner money.

6:20pm - Current chip counts:

Seat 1 Alan Colon - 1,600,000
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja - 1,400,000
Seat 4 Alex Nepomnyaschiy - 1,200,000
Seat 5 Barry Leventhal - 2,600,000
Seat 6 William Phipps - 500,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger - 1,400,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos - 3,300,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari - 5,400,000

Blinds staying 50k/100k/15k

6:35pm - Didn't take long for the first player to hit the rail after the break. William Phipps was severely short but caught AK. Allen Bari called with T9 and caught a 9. Phipps finishes in 8th for $51,750.

7:00pm - Players are getting a little chippy as they realize the end could come at any time. Railbirds are taking catnaps waiting for the next big action. TD's are probably tired of seeing all our faces for the last 70+ hours. I'm afraid to go on a hunt for RedBull lest I miss some action.

7:20pm - Big pot between Jeremy Schoenberger and chip leader Allen Bari. Schoenberger and Bari get all the chips in preflop with ATh versus QQ. Bari hit a set on the AKx one heart flop but Schoenberger went running hearts to pick up a huge pot.

8:00pm - New blind level is 60k/120k/20k. I've found a brand new way to entertain myself as these guys continue to push chips around to each other. And just like a good bluff, you have to use it at the right time. Suddenly moving out of my seat towards the table will have the entire stands full of railbirds get up and move forward. The dealer feels special getting all that attention when he is just collecting the blinds.

8:15pm - Barry Leventhal is out. Action folded around to Alex Nepomnyaschiy on the button who came in for 500k. Leventhal pushed in for an extra 860k. Nepomnyaschiy tanked and eventually called. His JJ survived again Leventha's AQ. Barry Leventhal will collect $69,000 for his 7th place finish.

8:20pm - Approximate chip counts in the middle of play:

Seat 1 Alan Colon - 2,000,000
Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja - 1,700,000
Seat 4 Alex Nepomnyaschiy - 3,200,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger - 1,600,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos - 3,200,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari - ~7,000,000

8:30pm - At the beginning of the day Barry Leventhal promised to tip the dealers 10% of whatever he won. True to his word, he came straight back to the tournament room and deposited $6,900 into the dealer toke. Good man.

Anti-climatic hand between Schoenberger and Kitsos. Kitsos called Schoenberger's allin and they both turned up AQo with Schoebergers Qd freerolling the flush on the turn. Blank on the turn and chopped up.

8:35pm - Alex Nepomnyaschiy has decided to give himself a nickname. From hence forth until we've gone completely loopy, he will be called Alex "Jedi Master" Nepomnyaschiy.

8:40pm - Things are popping along again. Alan Colon open shoved with KTc and was snap called by Paul Kitsos with QQ. Colon doubled up when his saving King hit the turn. Action is picking up but it still took us 5 hours to go from 8 players to 6. The "Jedi Master" is starting to pick up his chatter now that we are 6 handed.

8:50pm - Alan Colon's KT luck has run out. In the SB he pushed in 1,700,000 with KT and was eventually called by Vinny Pahuja in the BB with 88. The eights held up and Alan Colon is out 6 place finisher getting $86,250.

9:00pm - Break time. Next level is 70k/140k/25k. Approximate chip counts at break:

Seat 2 Vineet Pahuja 3,800,000
Seat 4 Alex "Jedi Master" Nepomnyaschiy 3,200,000
Seat 8 Jeremy Schoenberger 3,250,000
Seat 9 Paul Kitsos 2,100,000
Seat 10 Allen Bari 5,500,000

10:00pm - Things got a little strange and then techno issues kicked in. Between all that happening the tournament ended and we have a 2008 Borgata Summer Open Main Event winner.

Allen Bari outlasted Vinny Pahuja to take down the title, add $500k plus to his bankroll and add some fine jewelry.

New comer Jeremy Schoenberger finished 3rd followed by Alex "Jedi Master" Nepomnyaschiy in 4th and Paul Kitsos in 5th.

Standby for the followup post and live interviews. Congratulations to Allen Bari.

Jason Stuken out in 11th

Jason Stuken is out in 11th and our final table is set. Stuken was knocked out by Alan Colon.

Mark Herm with a big set back

Barry Leventhal puts a big dent in Mark Herm. The two have been battling the last two days while Herm has been button raising Leventhal's BB at just about every occasion. Leventhal has been not been happy and smooth called the button raise this time. Two queens on the flop and they both got the money in. JJ for Herm and KQ for Leventhal. Mark Herm has some work to do to make Royersford, PA proud.

Hoa Minh Nguyen out in 12th

Hoa Minh Nguyen goes out in 12th in another crazy hand. Nguyen pushed in middle position and Barry Leventhal in the SB did not see the push. His verbal call was forced and he was calling the all-in in the dark. Nguyen's A3 was outflopped by Leventhal's K-crap and things continue to run strange.

Hoa Minh Nguyen adds $22,425 to his near $400,000 in career winnings.

Michael Glick out in 13th

Michael Glick from Bala Cynwyd, PA dropped out in 13th as a shortstack with 97o versus Vineet Pahuja monster stack A8. Glick wins $17,250 for 13th.

10th through 12th will collect $22,425.

There are three monster stacks at the moment. Vineet Pahuja, Allen Bari and Mark Herm.

Benny Bianco out in 14th

Benny Bianco's sweet run has come to an end. Near the end of Day 2 he didn't have enough to post his blind plus ante but went on a heater. He made a move with 66 and ran into Mark Herm's AQ and lost the race. Benny goes out in 14th for $17,250.

Karim Bevans out in 15th

Karim Bevans spent most of this tournament with the chip lead or close to it but goes out in 15th. He lost a bizzare monster pot earlier to Allen Bari (AK versus A3 allin on the river, both unimproved) and was eventually eliminated by Bari's JJ v AQ.

Bevans collects $17,250

Guy Maxtone Graham out in 16th

Guy Maxtone Graham is out in 16th in an odd hand. With plenty of chips in front he re-raised all-in with just south of 700k with A7. Mark Herm in the BB re-pushed with AK, early raiser folded and slick held up giving Herm around T2.3 million.

Guy pockets $12,075 for 16th.

Joseph Hammerman out in 17th

Joseph Hammerman is out 17th place finisher. Losing with AJ versus AQ from Paul Kitsos in a button versus BB hand. Joseph adds $12,075 to his bankroll.

Benny knocks out Allen

Benny jets from ultimate shorty to near 1 mil in chips (leave me alone for the Jets line, I'm redbull deficient). After picking up chunks from other players unwilling to go along with his pushes, twice showed AK and JJ to preflop folds, he finally got the big pot he needed. Brian Allen pushed his stack in with KQ and Benny called from the BB with Aces. At one point late yesterday he was down to 20k and now has just south of 1 million.

Brian Allen gets $12,075 for 18th

Action Action

Ben Bianco doubles up his very first hand when he shoves AJ from the cutoff and gets called by Jeremy Shoenbergers bb with K8

Three hands later, Hoa Nguyen raises $125k preflop with Bianco Shoving his last $350k in chips. Hoa tanks and folds.

On table 1 Vineet tangles with Karim in a hand that gets to the turn with Karim eventually folding, and netting Vineet a $450k pot.

Running of the Bulls

The start of day two is here, and most of the players are in there seats. I met Alex from Bensonhurst this morning and he said that he didn't remember any of yesterdays action from about the last hour. He was 21 vodka and redbull's in when he started his antics and wore the table, and room, pretty thin.

While Al was on his own quest this morning looking for a redbull, he noticed Jason Stuken playing some three card poker about a half hour before go time.

Most of the players were milling around the poker room as I walked in and were just waiting for the bags to come up and their seats assigned.

The action starts right now and we will bring the updates

Final 18

Here are your final 18 for the 2008 Borgata Summer Open. Listed with chipstack and starting seat assignment.

1. Vineet Pahuja - Hicksville, NY - 1,925,000 - Table 1 seat 8
2. Karim Bevans - Gaithersburg, MD - 1,710,000 - Table 1 seat 4
3. Mark Herm - Royersford, PA - 1,640,000 - Table 2 seat 4
4. William Phipps - Union City, NJ - 1,465,000 - Table 1 seat 7
5. Allen Bari - West Orange, NJ - 1,415,000 - Table 1 seat 9
6. Paul Kitsos - Manhassett, NY - 1,230,000 - Table 1 seat 1
7. Alex Nepomnyaschiy - Staten Island, NY - 955,000 - Table 1 seat 2
8. Michael Glick - Bala Cynwyd - 855,000 - Table 1 seat 5
9. Boris Kravets - Elizabeth, NJ - 825,000 - Table 1 seat 6
10. Jeremy Schoenberger - Glassboro, NJ - 810,000 - Table 2 seat 9
11. Hoa Minh Nguyen - Fairfax, VA - 780,000 - Table 2 seat 3
12. Barry Leventhal - Brooklyn, NY - 780,000 - Table 2 seat 7
13. Guy Maxtone Graham - New York, NY - 760,000 - Table 2 seat 2
14. Jason Stuken - Stamford, CN - 615,000 - Table 2 seat 8
15. Brian Allen - Hicksville, NY - 495,000 - Table 2 seat 1
16. Allan Colon - Oceanside, NY - 450,000 - Table 2 seat 5
17. Joseph Hammerman - Bedminster, NJ - 415,000 - Table 1 seat 3
18. Benedetto Bianco - Franklin Square, NY - 140,000 - Table 2 seat 6

Payouts for the last 18:

1 - $500,250
2 - $289,800
3 - $143, 175
4 - $120,750
5 - $103,500
6 - $86,250
7 - $69,000
8 - $51,750
9 - $34,500
10 through 12 - $22,425
13 through 15 - $17,250
16 through 18 - $12,075

Level 23

Level 22 ended with some fireworks between Mike Kalfa and Mr. Bensonhurst. Kalfa had been showing down nothing but monsters and was in another pot with AKh. Mr. B (who has been big leaguing every decision, every hand) decided to put his tourney life on the line with ducks. A deuce hit the flop but Kalfa picked up a wheel draw and a flush draw on the turn. A useless King on the river and he was crippled. Mr. B also picked up his first official warning when he decided to do combo chicken dance-mosh with the player in seat 4.

We're down to 19 players. ~91k average stack and the blinds are 15k/30k/5k.

Update: That didn't take very long. Two short stacks were battling on separate tables trying to add $2k to their bankroll, the difference between 18th and 19th. Table 1 shorty found a late double up then quadruple up to squeak into the final 18.

Last 18 show up tomorrow at 11am and play down to the $500,000+ payday for first.

Now I think I saw the craps tables sitting right outside the poker room.

Level 22 update

The TD's tell me we've been sitting on 21 players for well over 90 minutes. I missed a chunk of action due to an overabundance of vanilla gelato and red bull.

This might take awhile to get down to 18. The average chip stack is around 820k and the blinds are at 12,000/24,000 4,000 ante. The TD's are keeping a close eye on Mr. Bensonhurst who is in full TV personality mode with chatter and antics. I thought he was about to go on uber-tilt but dialed it back down and still seems to be in full control of his facilities.

My main decision when we get to 18 is whether to play craps while drinking heavily or play craps heavily while drinking. My inner-degenerate is beginning to itch.

3 more players and we call it a night

At 9pm we are sitting at 21 players, only 3 til we hit the magical number of 18 when everyone leaves the table for the night. Action has slowed down a bit with the deep stacks and slow structure. We do have one live player who wished it to be known that he was on his 19 vodka for the day. Pretty impressive from my point of view. When pressed for his name all that anyone could come up with was Screwball from Bensonhurst.

The guy has been having a great time and playing some solid poker to reach the final 22.

Payouts from 19th to 27th are $10,350

DOWN the stretch they come

With 23 left and it being only 8:30 here on the right coast, it seems tonight will be an early night when they finally halt play at 18.

Alvin Delgado went out when his pair of Jacks were run down by the nutter flush.

Stacks have seem to have changed location since I came back from dinner and I will gather chip amounts for the remaining players.

The Bubble Burst

Nick Frangos was the unfortunate bubble boy missing on his nut flush draw when his opponents set of nines became a boat on the turn. Southpark Ned finished in 42nd.

28th through 36th will bank $8,625. Here come the pushing from the shorties.

Update at break 2

Following the second break we're only 9 from the money and SouthPark Ned is beginning for his table to get broke. The rest of his table completely agreed but they are stuck at table 2 which will last the night.

There were some bizarre moves over the last two levels. One player decided he wanted to go broke just short of the money with top pair only to hit his three outer on the river. Table 4 was the action table and some poor lemur had the clock called on him when he didn't even realize he had a hand. He about pissed himself when he realized the action was on him. Riggs wrote earlier about the guy who blew his shot at the big payday and staked his tourney life on the all powerful 95o.

Riggs is no longer worrying about his man-crush. Lacey Jones (seen here with Dr. Pauly) is sitting at the media table so we're back to good ole' fashioned hetero fun. Perticelli just spent 30 minutes getting her interview and it should be good to go as soon as he edits out all his stuttering.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

Brian Gillman sitting on just under 500k in chips makes a middle position raise with 9 4 of spades. Joseph "betco" Hammerman reraise to 90k with QQ. Gillman repops to $190k and Hammerman calls.

The flop comes 9 high with two spades. Gillman shoves and Hammerman calls. Gillman doesn't improve and Hammerman scoops a pot worth over $1,ooo,ooo and takes the chip lead for the tournament.

Mouths are open as some agree and others disagree with the move by both players.

Wither way Hammerman takes a huge lead and players at that table will certainly be letting him walk in the blinds for some time.

Matt Stout is out

Just after the break Matt "allinat420" Stout is out when his KK ran into chipleader Karim Bevans and his A7d.

Down to 54 players already and the shortstacks are looking at the payout board between every hand like it might change. Southpark Ned is the closest but the entire room just had a reprieve from him when they decided it was time to test the fire alarm system. I've never been so glad for flashing strobe lights and blaring sirens.

At the break

Yesterday seemed to be a pretty calm day considering the $1.7 million prizepool that was on the line.

The room was very well behaved with only a few exceptions and the staff is running a fine game. Only one serious incident involving an older gentleman losing his mind and calling a female player at his table a few choice words that deserved a thrashing. Between the floor staff and the other players at the table, it took about 2 seconds for grandpa to be humbled into silence. 1am this morning he was still steaming and doesn't seem to have untilted starting Day 2.

Today tensions are running much higher. The floor is being called often to make decisions as the remaining 90 players try for the $500k first place money. Plenty of gross suck outs and a lot of cursing. A bottle thrown or two but the staff is keeping everyone in line. More importantly I'm pretty sure every cocktail waitress is flirting with me since Riggs professed his undying love for Diggstown. He still hasn't stopped smiling.

"Little Nicky" is still cruising along, running his table from the 5 seat, while Matt Stout has been doing battle with the 10 seat who sounds like Ned from South Park. From what I can tell, Ned hasn't stopped talking once since the first hand and it's like sandpaper to my ears.

I've been in the house for nearly 24 hours and only have one double shot to show for it. I can't use booze as my excuse for waking up on the floor of my hotel room. That blame falls squarely on Sasquatch falling asleep in the room at 5 this morning and making sounds like world class chain saw. I run goot.

Standby for Riggs interview. They spent 40 minutes talking about all things poker, unfortunately he did not ask which was his favorite cartoon cameo.

Adam Gerber, Brian Gillman and the break

Brian Gillman is sitting on over $450k in chips taking small pots and stealing BB's like its his job.

At his table just before break, 2 players get into it when one shoves all in with QQ. The BB tanks for 10 minutes as the break starts, and the original shover asks if he can go to the bathroom. He leaves the table to find the floor, and the rest of the table starts to yell a little about the hand being dead because he left.

The guy comes back and and states that the dealer told him to find the floor person to ask. The floor personnel shows and calls it a live hand with the BB still yet to act.

The BB finally calls, and opens up KK. The flop comes 9 T J. The turn brings a 4, and the river comes a Q. Obviously some very short lived expectations of having a winning hand from the guy holding the Q's is squashed when the dealer auto shoves the pot to the guy with the K's as the river gave him the straight.

Coming back on break and things are looking good. Lots of movement as they try to get down to 18 players before the end of the day.

Adam Gerber is sitting on $235k as he doubled through with, surprisingly enough, the best hand as it went all in preflop.

Live Update

"Little Nicky" Frangos took a sick beat early on with his AQ versus AJ preflop but turned around later to double back up with running hearts for the nutter flush. Much cursing was heard by the two seat.

No long after and he doubled again. The money went in on the QJx flop two hearts. A8h versus QJo and the river heart is good again.

90 minutes into Day 2 and we are down from 131 to 100.

Riggs will be back later with his James Woods man-crush interview.

Aaron Dugay

After a succession of hands Aaron is now sitting on just over $330k in chips. His stack grew when he fired 3 bullets with air into a pot totaling about $120k on the river and his opponent folded. The opponent was apparently a guy who liked to limp and shove ragged flops and did this in three consecutive hands. The very next hand, Aaron picked up QJ and fired out $12k. The same guy, and 3 others called. The flop came Q x x and Aaron fired out another $12k. The "offender" shoved all in and Aaron instantly shoved back (out of turn) and the rest of the table looked surprised as he acted out of turn. The rest folded, and and the villain showed Q 5. Aaron's Jack played and he doubled up to the $330 mark.

C'MON!!

Alvin Delgado raises to $11k from the high jack with 99. The BB calls and the flop comes 4 6 9

With 37k in the pot, Alvin raises to $50k deciding that he wanted to take it down right there. (he only had $14k behind him)



The BB calls and Alvin puts his last $14k in before the turn comes and with him last to act. The BB calls and shows 23os... Alvin shakes his head and then turn brings a K and the river bricks a 7, giving Alvin a nice $160k pot.

Movement

Wayne Templeton started the day with $100,600 in chips. In three hands played he worked that up to $120k by stealing a limped pot and some blinds. Then, he got into a hand where he flopped two pair from the cut off. He was called by the big, and after some betting action on the turn, he had to fold when the King hit the river giving the board a 4 card straight. He intimated to me that his opponent like to chase a lot and figured him for the Ace with a small kicker which he thought he might have paired on the flop.

Wayne is sitting at just around $80k now and is looking for a double up.

Matt

Matt Stout doubles up in a hand where he raised up from the small with Q rag (spades) in an obvious steal attempt and the BB calls.

Flop comes Jxx two spades. Matt bets, BB reraises, and Matt shoves catching the gin card on the turn. Matt now has $74k in chips

Start of Day 2

Day 2 of the Borgata Summer Open Main Event is scheduled to restart at 11am and most of the players were here early preparing to play down to the final 18. There are 131 players starting the day with an average stack of T132,000 and blinds at 1500/3000/500.

"Little Nicky" Frangos is sitting above par at 199,000, 2008 World Series of Poker Event 17 bracelet winner Jason Young is still around with 127,700 and Matt "ALL IN AT 420" Stout (would make Dr. Pauly proud) is alive and smoking with 74,000.

Cards will be in the air shortly and Riggs will keep you up to date.

End of Day 1

131 left at the end of day one... The plan is to play down to two tables by tomorrow night.

The average stack is $132k and players are on edge. Lots of arguments, lots of bad beats, and tons of just silly suckouts.

Tomorrow starts at 11am and we will be back at that time...

Random Observations

Just a few observations from the last two hours:

- I've already given up hitting the smoking area during the breaks. It's fun to listen to the chatter but the broke players have begun attacking my stash of Cowboy Killers. At $500 a pack in the casino I can't afford to give them away anymore.

- Mr. Jimmy Woods is out. Apparently Oscar nominations are not enough to save you from pushing with the ass-end into the nuts. Now we have something in common besides neither of us having won an Oscar.

- Noodles of the World. Bacon rolls and BBQ pork. Sometimes life is just too good.

- I have even more respect for the guys like Pauly who do the live reporting jobs. Being color-blind is a definite hinderance to gathering chip counts.

Live updates

Players head to a 15 minute break after level 1o. Level 11 brings $800/$1600 blinds with a $300 ante.

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James Woods is out... At table 2 he shoved his bottom end into the Nut straight for 89k and that was that. Eric Seigel, who was also in the hand got away from it with top two (AT).

It was just annouced that they will be playing to the end of level 13 which will take us down to just about 1am.

We are down to just about 200 players with an average stack of 84k.

Finally in the house

Better late than never, I fought my way through ridiculous Sunday afternoon Philly traffic, lousy roast beef sandwich and a massive hangover to make it to the Borgata to witness some outstanding donkery. The lemurs are out in force, we're watching players in a huge deep stack event play the game like it's a super turbo. T50,000 to start, 25/50 blinds. People still busted out on the first hand.

I'm starting to remember how much fun you can have just spending a little time outside smoking when the players are on break. They all have a bad beat story and giving it up to anyone who will listen. I won't. My own bad beat story for the day was nearly dumping a 2 gallon tub of Coke just outside the rail. My cat-like reflexes were the only thing that saved me from complete embarrassment.

The upside is having the media table sitting directly outside of the cocktail pickup area. Riggstad has spent most of the day saying "omigod omigod omigod". I don't even look up anymore when he does it. I can never tell whether he's saying it about a cocktail waitress or if he's swooning over Jimmy Woods 20 feet away. He has a horrid man crush. (We're still arguing over which was his best cartoon cameo. I say Family Guy, he says the Simpsons)

I'll spend the next few hours walking around to get a feel for the tournament as it goes along. I've already seen enough to fill up 3 days worth of posts and I'll try to slim it down. Once that is done I can hit the conveniently located craps table just outside the poker room.

Live Updates

Note to all: We are scheduled to start coverage as soon as we work some technical issues out. Our Apologies... IT

Dinner break in one hour and James Woods is down to 118k. Aaron Dugay is sitting on 131k in chips and rolling a nice little table in front of us. Play seems to have slowed down a bit with most of the short stacks trying to avoid going out before dinner break. Larry Goldstein is sitting on over 120k when he scooped three big pots. The first one was an all-in he called from the BB holding AK. The victim was a shorty in the sb who made his move with just over 15k in chips, and holding J5os. Larry avoided the gutter ball on the flop and he continued to surf the rush over the next three hands.

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Down to 270 with some movement in chip stacks. James Woods is sitting somewhere near the 200k mark and is holding more than his own.

There are a ton of cashers from the 500k guarantee here seemingly parlaying their efforts from the event in May to play in this. all seem to be above the high water mark of about 80k in chips.

Not so many beats as of yet, but is usually the case as the victims normally take off like they have been cattle prodded and never get to tell anyone other than their friends. The dinner break is coming up soon and we hope to have the broadcast up by 8pm.

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As I walk around the room to see who is doing well, and who isn't, you get the feeling of doom and gloom more so than anticipation and excitement. Thats how these deep stacks go.

Everyone starts out with 50k in chips in this event and you see guys with 40k looking around at the guys with 70k and thinking and acting like short stacks. The more experienced players are playing their stacks as they should be while the less experienced look desperate trying to get back to even, but unwilling to chance almost anything.

I watched one guy throw his Ipod against the floor early on when his AA went busto against KK when the inevitable K ball hit the river. Fun times are sure to be had here over the next few hours, and days, as more craziness is bound to ensue. We'll keep you updated.



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We have the payouts for the event and with a $5k entry and its no joke...

Among the field are Adam Gerber, James Woods, Larry Goldstein, Alvin Delgado, Mark Reynolds, and Schuyler Twaddle.

The payouts:

1 - $500,250
2 - $289,800
3 - $143, 175
4 - $120,750
5 - $103,500
6 - $86,250
7 - $69,000
8 - $51,750
9 - $34,500
10 - 12 - $22,425
13 - 15 - $17,250
16 - 18 - $12,075
19 - 27 - $10,350
28 - 36 - $8,625



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Well away we go.... Here at the Borg and they currently have 342 players, with more registering. The field will probably hit the 350 mark which is an increase from last year.

In the field is James Woods (yes, the actor), who will be starting shortly after registering late. Larry Goldstein is also in the field having arrived from Vegas just 4 hours ago.

Look for updates as we get them...

Borgata Championship Coverage

The Borgata Summer Open Championship will be broadcast on Live Poker Radio. The $5000 Buy-In + $200 Entry No Limit Hold'Em tournament will start on Sunday June 22nd at 11 A EDT and our coverage will be sporadic on the first day.

However, we will have our live blog going all day long.

Join the entire LivePokerRadio crew for coverage of the Borgata Summer Championship here.

We will post the links to all audio here on the blog.

Thanks for listening to LivePokerRadio.Com