Day 2 of the 2011 World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open is in the books and with just 170 players of the original 1,313 remaining, the money bubble is starting to appear on the horizon. The top 100 finishers in the $3,300 + $200 will be paid at least $8,386, with the winner receiving a healthy $922,441 paycheck. Team PokerStars member David Williams is sitting behind the largest chip stack heading into Wednesday; at 727,100 chips, he has over 80,000 more than his nearest competitor.
Throughout the day, in addition to trying to win the event, Williams had his own friendly competition going on with friend and fellow Team PokerStars player, Vanessa Selbst. The two were amongst the chip leaders going into Day 2, with Selbst having the edge on Williams, 198,675 to 153,850. Selbst had a great run for most of the day, jumping ahead of the field and remaining at or near the top for a long time.
Her big hand was described in a tweet:
“Wow I just won a ridiculous pot maybe 400k or so with 33 on 6326J two people called huge raise on turn and decent bet on river. 510k now.”
As Williams began to chip up, he began to let all of his Twitter followers know exactly for whom he was aiming:
“400,000? Who me? #wptBorgata #ChasingVanessa”
“606k! Rawr. @VanessaSelbst what you got? #wptBorgata”
Then, in response to a fan who said he didn’t like Vanessa Selbst, Williams tweeted, “I think she is the best tournament player alive and she’s a cool person. I only wanna bust her when it’s HU. #sorry”
And then later directly to Selbst, “I’ve always said you are the best and believe it. Although I wouldnt [sic] mind busting you earlier lol. #honesty”
Williams grabbed the chip lead by the dinner break and never looked back. As for Selbst, she had a good day overall, but fell sharply from her high point of the day, finishing with 315,200, still good for the top quarter of the field.
David Williams rose to prominence in 2004, when he finished second to Greg Raymer in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. His story during the ESPN broadcast attracted attention, as he was just 24-years old at the time and competing at the final table with his poker mentor, Marcel Luske. Since then, he has made numerous deep runs in both WSOP and WPT events. He has won one WSOP bracelet (2006 $1,500 Seven Card Stud) and one WPT title (2010 $25,000 WPT Championship). All told, David Williams has won over $8 million on the live tournament circuit, placing him 24th on the all-time money list, 20th if buy-ins over $50,000 and invitational events are excluded.
The 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open will resume play on Wednesday at 11:00am EST. The field will be whittled down to the final six on Thursday and the televised final table will be played on Friday, starting at 3:00pm.
2011 Borgata Poker Open Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. David Williams – 727,100
2. Maurice Hawkins – 646,500
3. David Jones – 643,400
4. Nashaat Antonius – 594,700
5. Miguel Perez – 553,800
6. Andrew Blake – 534,000
7. Roman Valerstein – 517,200
8. Ricky Hale – 514,500
9. Eric Haber – 496,400
10. Hans Schreiber – 489,400
