The Borgata Winter Poker Open’s first event, a $500 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack tournament, drew an astounding 1,472 players on Wednesday. This was an all-time attendance record for a Borgata tournament and marks one of the largest events ever held on the East Coast of the United States.
The humongous field also set another record for the Borgata Winter Poker Open. The $736,000 prize pool was the largest for a kickoff event of any Borgata tournament schedule. The previous record was for the Borgata Winter Poker Open in 2007, when 1,370 players came out to build a $685,000 prize pool for the first event.
Even with some of the poker world’s elite away from the United States, the field still held massive challenges for its participants. 2002 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Robert Varkonyi and 2005 WSOP Main Event runner-up Steve Dannenmann headed a contingent of pros that also included bracelet winners Jason Young, Mike Sica, and Chris Reslock. Also joining the fray at the Borgata were Alex Bolotin, Matt Glantz, Eugene Todd, Olga Varkonyi, and David Zeitlin.
Several players gave their reasons for the turnout at the Borgata. Josh Brikis, a pro poker player who finished in the top 25 in the 2009 CardPlayer Player of the Year race and considers the Borgata to be his home turf, stated, “There isn’t another stop on the poker tour that I get more excited for than a Borgata event. This record turnout is no surprise, as (the Borgata) is the nicest, safest casino with a world-class staff.”
Todd added in his comments regarding the first event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open over his Twitter account: “These deep stacked tourneys that they run have great value and the players are really bad.”
On Thursday afternoon, 209 players returned from the massive starting field, but only 120 would be able to walk out of the Borgata with something to show for their efforts. The final table of the $500 Deep Stack event wasn’t reached until 3:00am, when the last woman standing, Gina Cannone, was knocked out on the bubble.
Bolotin, with roughly three million in chips, was one of the shorter stacks at the final table and everyone was looking up at chip leader Sean Lee’s massive stack of ten million. The final table played out over the next four hours, with Bolotin dropping out of the fray in sixth place. Lee continued to hold the lead after Bolotin’s departure, but he faced significant challenges from Joshua Lawson (12.3 million) and Alex Rocha (7.9 million). With the blinds climbing, however, it was anyone’s tournament to win.
Rocha made the first move, doubling up through Lee to take over the chip lead. When Rocha knocked off Leonardo Palermo in fourth place, he extended that lead to over a 2:1 advantage over Lawson and Lee. Within a half hour of Palermo’s departure, Rocha was able to defeat his two opponents and capture the first championship at this year’s Borgata Winter Poker Open early Friday morning:
1. Alexander Rocha – $150,850
2. Joshua Lawson – $94,236
3. Seungwan “Sean” Lee – $57,113
4. Leonardo Palermo – $$47,832
5. Ryan Wood – $39,265
6. Alex Bolotin – $31,768
7. Brian Mooney – $25,343
8. Robert Hanley – $19,275
9. Shawn James – $13,207
There is plenty of action remaining at the 2011 Borgata Winter Poker Open, with more than 50 events left on the schedule. The Championship Event is a $3,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament that features a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million. It begins on January 31st and crowns a champion on February 4th.
