The World Poker Tour got back in action over the weekend as the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event saw its two starting days contested on Sunday and Monday. Players are still allowed to register through the first break on Day 2, so we won’t know the official tournament figures for a little while yet, but so far, 1,120 players have signed up.. Leading the 588 Day 1 survivors into Tuesday is Jean “Prince” Gaspard with 216,900 chips.
Gaspard is one of those guys whose record casual fans will look at and say, “Wow, I didn’t realize he was so accomplished.”
According to TheHendonMob.com, Gaspard has over $2.3 million live tournament earnings. His largest cash came just this past summer, when he won the 2016 World Series of Poker $10,000 Dealers Choice 6-Handed Championship for $306,621, the first gold bracelet of his career. Gaspard also won a WSOP Circuit event in 2009, the New Orleans & Bayou Poker Challenge Championship Event, for $211,722.
Gaspard told WPT.com that he took the week off before the Borgata Winter Poker Open so that he could come in fresh.
“I’ve been ready, and I told my friend I was going to bag up 200K,” he said. “Obviously you’ve got to run a little bit good. I played well, and I didn’t run bad. The one spot where I did run bad in a pot, usually I allow that to stay in my mind, but I erased it right away.”
As mentioned, there were 1,120 registrations in the two starting flights. The tournament allows for unlimited re-entries until the start of Level 11, which should be around 2:15pm today. Thus, it is very likely that likely that last year’s field of 1,171 players will be eclipsed. With the entry totals as they stand right now, the guaranteed prize pool of $3 million has already been surpassed.
Day 2 is about to start at the Borgata in Atlantic City as the players prepare for the continued long grind to the final table.
2017 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open – Day 1A Chip Leaders
Olivier Busquet – 185,000
James Dorrance – 181,000
Joel Gola – 177,000
Frank Calderone – 175,700
Michael Hahn – 162,000
Stephen Deutsch – 160,100
Lily Kiletto – 150,500
Randolph Pearson – 148,000
William Horan – 145,100
Adam Geyer – 142,800
2017 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open – Day 1B Chip Leaders
Jean Gaspard – 216,900
Shankar Pillai – 209,200
Ryan Smith – 185,400
Asher Conniff – 180,400
Abe Aboukhalil – 177,700
Adnan Mohammad – 152,700
Tony Tran – 144,500
Aaron Overton – 143,800
Nicholas Immekus – 143,700
Barry Leventhal – 140,600
2017 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open – Combined Day 1 Chip Leaders
Jean Gaspard – 216,900
Shankar Pillai – 209,200
Ryan Smith – 185,400
Olivier Busquet – 185,000
James Dorrance – 181,000
Asher Conniff – 180,400
Abe Aboukhalil – 177,700
Joel Gola – 177,000
Frank Calderone – 175,700
Michael Hahn – 162,000
