On March 21st, the Borgata in Atlantic City will host a $500,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack poker tournament. The buy-in is $1,650 and the contest awards 30,000 chips to each player. The event has received so much interest that a total of two starting days are planned, with a winner being crowned on March 24th.
The Venetian in Las Vegas is most often associated with deep stack tournaments. In fact, the Las Vegas casino hosts its Deep Stack Extravaganza quarterly, recently wrapping up a highly successful event to open 2009. The tournament in Atlantic City will make its home in the famed Borgata Poker Room, an 85 table venue that’s one of the largest in the world. The tournament’s full schedule is as follows:
Day 1A – Saturday, March 21st at 11:00am ET
Day 1B – Sunday, March 22nd at 11:00am ET
Day 2 – Monday, March 23rd at 11:00am ET
Day 3 – Tuesday, March 24th at 11:00am ET
The Borgata, which last hosted a World Poker Tour (WPT) event in September, is offering players the chance to win their way into the Deep Stack event without coughing up $1,650 to do so. The satellite schedule looks like this:
Friday, March 6th at 11:00am: $200 buy-in
Sunday, March 8th at 11:00am: $200 buy-in
Sunday, March 15th at 11:00am: $380 buy-in
Friday, March 20th at 4:00pm: $380 buy-in
The $200 buy-in satellites dole out one entry into the $500,000 Deep Stack tournament for every 10 players. One entry into the half-million dollar event will be given out for every five players in the $380 buy-in satellites. This isn’t the first Deep Stack tournament to take place at the marquee New Jersey casino. In fact, the Borgata hosted its inaugural Deep Stack event last May. Borgata Director of Marketing Ray Stefanelli told Poker News Daily, “Having introduced our first ever $500,000 Deep Stack poker tournament last May and seeing the popularity and success that a deep stack tournament had in drawing amateurs and poker pros alike, we are excited for the upcoming event in March.”
The Borgata recently lost its second WPT tournament, the Winter Poker Open. However, it instead ran a $3,000 buy-in Main Event with $3 million in the prize pool. In the end, Steve “thorladen” Weinstein emerged victorious from the pack of 1,017 players. The tournament was actually chopped four-handed, with Todd Terry, Robert Merulla, and Robert McLaughlin, and Weinstein (all East Coast natives) splitting the massive prize pool.
Stefanelli told Poker News Daily what makes poker at the casino unique: “Borgata is committed to offering a comprehensive poker program through innovative gaming initiatives and first-class service, including deep stack tournaments and events. This year’s $500,000 Deep Stack tournament, for example, starts with 30,000 in chips, has two starting days, and offers a championship-style event structure.” The tournament’s blind levels will run for 50 minutes each and a total of 11 will be played on each starting day. A ten minute break is given at the end of every other level and redraws occur when the field reaches 27, 18, and 10 players. The blinds start at 25-50 and antes kick in at Level 5.
Sunday through Thursday, the Borgata plays host to $100 buy-in poker tournaments that kick off at 11:00am ET. On Fridays and Saturdays, the price tag jumps to $300 (the Friday installment takes place at Noon ET). Monday through Thursday, the $100 buy-in tournament repeats at 7:00pm ET for night owls. Its Texas Hold’em Bad Beat Jackpot stands at $135,000, requiring four deuces to go down in smoke to a superior hand. Two weeks ago, the Jackpot ballooned to $306,000 and was hit when four sevens lost to four tens on a board of 10-7-2-10-7. Michael Richard pocketed $122,000 for the bad beat in the $800 pot, which occurred at a $2/$5 No Limit Hold’em table.