After a stop out in California earlier this month, the Season XV schedule of the World Poker Tour chugs eastward, setting its wheels down in Atlantic City and, in particular, the Borgata for its eponymous Borgata Poker Open.
The Borgata Poker Open is being contested for the 14th time as a featured part of the WPT circuit and it has had just about as many changes to its tournament format in that time. When first contested in 2003, the buy-in was $5000 and only 235 players came out for the freeze-out tournament (Noli Francisco was the first-ever champion at a final table that also featured runner up Charlie Shoten, David Oppenheim and 2016 Poker Hall of Fame nominee Carlos Mortensen). Only two years later in the midst of the “poker boom,” the buy-in was kicked up to $10,000 and 515 runners came to the line (Al Ardebili would be the person made a millionaire in winning the tournament). After 2006, however, and Roy Winston’s victory over a 560-player field, the participation rate began to fall.
This was also the time when the “re-entry” tournament began to take hold and, in 2009, it was brought to the Borgata Poker Open. That year was the first that featured rebuys for its players (at a “reduced” rate of $3500 per entry) and the players came out in droves with the rubber band off their bankrolls. In that 2009 event, 1018 entries were eventually recorded (with Olivier Busquet winning the championship) and the Borgata has gone on to set records for player entries in WPT events (1313 entries for the WPT Borgata Poker Open in 2011 is the best the tournament has ever done).
“We are proud to return to Borgata again for Season XV, and the WPT Borgata Poker Open represents the first of two stops this season at this premier East Coast venue,” said WPT Chief Executive Officer Adam Pliska prior to the start of the tournament schedule. “Borgata is home to some of the largest WPT fields in history and many of the WPT’s most prestigious champions, one of whom is legendary two-time World Poker Tour winner Daniel Negreanu. Other past champions include Season XIII Hublot WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno and Darren Elias.”
The Borgata also seems happy to welcome back the WPT and the players to its grounds. “We are excited to welcome the World Poker Tour back to Borgata for the 14th edition of the WPT Borgata Poker Open,” said Joe Lupo, the Senior Vice President of Operations for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. “The WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship event has consistently drawn more than 1,000 entries for each of the past seven seasons, and we look forward to hosting another world-class WPT event.”
This year’s event will be quite similar to last year’s battle. Two Day Ones will be played (Day 1A today, Day 1B on Monday) with an initial $3500 entry fee ($200 juice). There will be unlimited re-entries up to and including Level 10 for each starting day, at which point registration (or re-entry) will be locked. Depending on how much the field wants to gamble, it is very likely that the tournament will crack the 1000-entry mark and, with some loose wallets and/or some unfortunate breaks, another 500 entries would push the prize pool well over $4 million.
While not stating what Day 1 they will take part in, plenty of professionals should be on the ground for the festivities. Loni Harwood, Allen Kessler, Matt Affleck, Asher Conniff and former champion Zinno have been taking part of some of the preliminary action, but there should be hordes of other people who will invade the Jersey Shore for the tournament. Defending champion David Paredes is expected to be a part of that horde, looking to defend his championship.
The remainder of the schedule for the WPT Borgata Poker Open has the final table being played out on Friday. That final table will not only be taped for broadcast during the Season XV schedule, it will also be streamed online with a 30-minute delay. The final table will stream on both WPT.com and on Twitch.tv.