On Wednesday, the final six players of the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open will be determined. The field was narrowed down to 27 players late Tuesday night after starting with 516. Dan Heimiller set the pace with 2.8 million chips, comfortably in front of the next closest stack, Vivek Rajkumar’s 1.7 million chips. Online poker prodigy Thayer Rasmussen was in third with 1.4 million.
Heimiller has cashed three times in World Poker Tour events. He finished 25th in the World Poker Challenge during Season II for $9,802. During Season III, he landed in 20th in the World Poker Open for $24,020. In Season IV, he recorded a 38th place finish at the Legends of Poker event. He’s had more success on the World Series of Poker felts, capturing a bracelet in 2002 by virtue of winning a $2,000 buy-in combination Limit Hold’em and Seven Card Stud tournament for $108,300. He made the final table of Event #52 of the 2008 WSOP, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event, finishing in third and cashing for $275,695. He has 32 lifetime WSOP in the money finishes.
Rajkumar has eight WSOP cashes to his name for a grand total of $161,884. He recorded three cashes during the 2008 World Series of Poker, led by a $26,470 payday for 24th in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em, which was Event #1. Right behind him is Rasmussen, who made the televised final table of the WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship during Season VI, cashing for $131,170. He also logged a 58th place finish in the WPT Championship during Season VI for $39,570. He has seven lifetime WSOP in the money finishes for a grand total of $68,375.
Others who made the final 27 include Steve Dannenmann, who is best known for finishing second to Joe Hachem in the 2005 WSOP Main Event. Dannenmann has recorded one WPT in the money finish, taking 33rd in the Bellagio Cup III for $25,820; his WSOP finish was worth $4.25 million. He enters play with a chip stack of 627,000.
Mark Seif also has a sizeable stack in the Borgata Poker Open at just over one million. Seif has made two televised WPT final tables, finishing fourth in the Legends of Poker during Season I and also landing in fourth in the World Poker Challenge during Season V. His lifetime WPT earnings exceed $330,000. Seif is a two-time WSOP bracelet holder, winning both pieces of hardware during the 2005 tournament series.
Another WSOP Main Event final table veteran, Michael Binger, is among the chip leaders at the Borgata. Binger holds 718,000 chips entering today’s play. He took third in the 2006 Main Event (which was ultimately won by Jamie Gold), banking $4.1 million, and has made two WSOP final tables since then. Binger has logged four WPT cashes for a total of $108,000.
Finally, Ted Forrest will look to take home his second WPT title this week at the Borgata. He enters Wednesday’s play with 607,000 chips. Forrest won the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament during Season V for $1.1 million. He is fresh off a final table appearance at Foxwoods, where he finished sixth and pocketed $103,360. In total, he has nine WPT cashes for a grand total of $2.3 million. In WSOP play, he’s amassed an impressive five bracelets, the most recent of which came in 2004. He won his first bracelet in a Limit Seven Card Stud tournament during the 1993 WSOP. The Full Tilt Poker pro continues to be one of the top players in poker fifteen years later.
The action got underway this morning at 11:00am ET and will play down to the final six contestants. The televised final table, called by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, takes place on Thursday.
