In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open wrapped up Day 2 on Monday. At the head of the class was online poker pro Thayer Rasmussen, who held 904,500 chips, which was about 70,000 more than his next closest competitor. Day 3 occurs on Tuesday and a champion will be crowned on Thursday. The victor will receive $1,424,500.
Rasmussen has had a ton of success online, winning the Ultimate Bet $75K Guaranteed and the PokerStars $25K Guaranteed. He’s also won the PokerStars $100 turbo and logged a final table appearance in the $250K Guaranteed on that site. Over the weekend, he made the final table of the WCOOP Second Chance, finishing sixth and cashing for $33,000. On the World Poker Tour, he reached the televised final table of the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship during Season VI, cashing for $131,170. He has seven lifetime World Series of Poker cashes for nearly $70,000 total.
Here are the top ten chip stacks after two days of play:
1. Thayer Rasmussen: 904,500
2. Ryan Young: 837,700
3. Andrew Knee: 697,900
4. Adam Gerber: 610,000
5. Sang Kim: 570,800
6. Michael Binger: 521,800
7. Robert Toft: 521,800
8. Farid Ebrahim: 517,400
9. Daniel Heimiller: 509,900
10. Solomon Eisenberg: 505,100
Other chip stacks from names you might recognize include:
21. Brandon Cantu: 377000
22. Mark Seif: 373800
34. Robert Mizrachi: 262500
54. Cliff Josephy: 151100
56. Joe Sebok: 145200
59. Nam Le: 139400
Ryan Young is a World Series of Poker bracelet holder. He took down a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the 2007 WSOP for $615,955. He has one WPT cash to his name, a $14,754 payday from last season’s Borgata Poker Classic.
Michael Binger is perhaps the most accomplished player remaining in this field. He’s had success on the WPT circuit, notching four cashes for a total of $108,000. He’s most well-known for finishing third in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Jamie Gold and Paul Wasicka finished first and second, respectively. Binger took home over $4 million for his showing; Gold pocketed $12 million.
Brandon Cantu won the Bay 101 Shooting Star event during Season VI of the WPT for $1 million. He ran through a final table that included Full Tilt Poker pro Jennifer Harman, two-time WSOP bracelet holder John Phan, Steve Sung, Mike Baker, and Noah Jefferson. Cantu won a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event in 2006 for his first WSOP bracelet, defeating a field of 2,776 entrants in that tournament.
Cliff Josephy is one of the top online poker pros in the world and an instructor for poker training site PokerXFactor.com. “JohnnyBax” won $192,000 and his first WSOP bracelet by taking down a $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud tournament during the 2005 World Series, solidifying himself as a top-tier player not just in Hold’em, but in other games as well. Online, he’s made the final table of the Super Tuesday on PokerStars twice in the last two months, cashing for a combined $100,000.
Nam Le is also a WPT champion, having won the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament during Season IV. Team PokerStars Pro member Chad Brown was at that final table, as was Bodog poker pro David Williams. He was just signed to be an ambassador of the Asian Poker Tour and recently won the APT Macau High Rollers event for $474,358.
Day 3 of the Borgata Poker Open kicked off this morning at 11:00am ET with the 69 survivors from Day 2 battling it out.
