Well, what do you know? Day 2 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event got off without a hitch. It was looking a little dicey a couple days ago as the blizzard that was approaching the northeast United States prompted New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to shut down all road travel starting at 11:00pm the night of Day 1C. Fortunately, the southern New Jersey area did not get hit nearly as hard as expected and Day 2 had no problems getting going. 487 players made it through the starting flights to Tuesday’s action and after another eight levels, just 136 remained.
Justin Lunin-Pack is the chip leader heading into Day 3 with 837,500 chips, just slightly ahead of Timothy Bishop, who had 804,000. After those two there is a drop off of 100,000 chips to She Lok Wong, who has 705,500, and after Wong, there’s an even bigger gap, as Rachel Kranz has just 550,000. The field gets denser from there, though it is interesting that there is still nearly a 400,000 chip spread between first and tenth place.
One of Lunin-Pack’s biggest hands of the day came during level 15. According to WPT.com, there was about 140,000 in the pot and the board read A-T-5-A-3. Michael Wang checked, Lunin-Pack bet 60,000, and after some thought, Wang called. Wang never showed his cards, as he mucked after Lunin-Pack revealed pocket Tens for a full house.
Lunin-Pack almost finished Day 2 in a neighborhood completely by himself. If it wasn’t for a gigantic hand by Timothy Bishop just before time expired, it would have been Justin Lunin-Pack looking down into a canyon where everybody else resided. WPT.com did not have the details of the beginning of the hand, but at the end of it, the board read Q-8-2-9-6 with about 370,000 chips in the pot. Bishop had gone all-in for 217,000 and Matt Itkin, one of the chip leaders entering the day, was carefully pondering his decision. While still thinking, Itkin flipped over his cards, revealing Q-8, in order to try to get a reaction out of Bishop. After another minute, he made the call and Bishop showed pocket Eights for a set, beating Itkin’s two pair. Bishop tweeted that he thought he might have the lead at that point, but as we know, he was just short, though probably more than happy with second place.
With 989 players, the prize pool for the tournament ended up at $3,165,789 with a first place prize of $712,305 (just as I predicted…I’m a wizard!). The money bubble will burst on Wednesday as the tournament marches ahead.
2015 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Justin Lunin-Pack – 837,500
2. Timothy Bishop – 804,000
3. She Lok Wong – 705,500
4. Rachel Kranz – 550,000
5. Aaron Massey – 507,000
6. David Eldridge – 500,000
7. Shawn Cunix – 476,500
8. Daniel Wach – 448,500
9. Richard Munro – 446,000
10. Sean Ripp – 445,000
