The 567 survivors from Days 1A and 1B of the 2013 World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event combined on Tuesday for Day 2 and, as expected, the field was trimmed down in a hurry. Just 160 made it to bedtime with chips, led by Scott Herz and Joe DiMartino with 519,300 and 517,100, respectively.
The table draws for Day 3 were just recently published and while every table will see its own story unfold, there are couple that should be interesting to watch as the players try to advance to the top 100 and the money. Table 7 sets up for some big stack showdowns as both the fourth and fifth place players, Yung Hwang and Russell Crane, will be seated with 494,900 and 467,500 chips, respectively. Matthew Haugen is also at the table with 338,600 chips, along with two other players over 200,000.
Table 12 is chock full of players with similar stacks. Jeremy Druckman is the big stack there with 344,100 chips, but most of the rest of the table is all clumped up. Cuong Phung (298,000), Chris Reslock (271,500), Matt Matros (257,600), Ana Marquez (255,500), and Sameer Aljanedi (245,000) add to the fun at an extremely competitive table.
Then there is Table 4. This one is intriguing because not a single player at the table has more than 240,000 chips. The big stack is Jeffrey Einsidler, but with 237,500 chips, he’s only a big stack in relative terms. Five other players have over 200,000 chips, while two have below 100,000.
A lot of notable names were not able to make it past Tuesday’s action, including Dwyte Pilgrim, Kathy Liebert, Matt Affleck, Eric Baldwin, Faraz Jaka, Tony Dunst, Victor Ramdin, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Will Failla, Noah Schwartz, JC Tran, and Shannon Shorr.
The aforementioned Kathy Liebert, who was recently supplanted atop the all-time women’s tournament money list by Vanessa Selbst, saw her tourney end in heart breaking fashion. After watching Alex Bolotin raise pre-flop to 6,000, Liebert three-bet to 16,000. The two kept raising each other until all their chips were in the middle, Liebert covering Bolotin slightly. It looks like Bolotin was trying to steal the pot, as he had just 2♦-4♥, while Liebert held A♣-K♦. The flop came down A♥-A♦-8♦ and it looked like Bolotin’s ouster was just a formality. The 3♣ fell on the turn and then, to Liebert’s horror, the 5♥ hit on the river, giving Bolotin a wheel and the improbable win.
Liebert was down to just 4 big blinds after that and even though she got her chips with the best of it right after being crippled, she got sucked out on again to end her tournament.
Play will pick up shortly for Day 3 as the field will be narrowed to the final three tables.
2013 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Scott Herz – 519,300
2. Joe DiMartino – 517,100
3. Yung Hwang – 498,900
4. Patrick Chan – 494,900
5. Russell Crane – 467,500
6. Samuel Taylor – 464,500
7. Tim Reilly – 455,500
8. Nick Mitchell – 444,700
9. Robert Tepper – 437,200
10. Josh Templeton – 405,500
