2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open

We heard a player yell out "Yes!" while shooting up from his chair, and after hustling over to take a look, we found Damon Ferrante excitedly comparing his stack to another.

The final board read , and Ferrante's gave him the immortal nuts with a heart flush. His downed opponent held the , and after both players got it all-in before the flop, the worst hand vaulted into the lead with the jack on the flop.

A heart on the turn made things interesting, however, and another on the river compelled Ferrante to jump for joy.

After a bit of accounting, Ferrante's stack was deemed to be the larger of the two, and with that he sent a crestfallen opponent to the rail with a runner-runner tale to tell.

For a local player like Ferrante, who has seven cashes on his Hendon Mob résumé, all occuring in Atlantic City, New Jersey, today's Day 1A of the Borgata Winter Poker Open provides a chance to shine on his home turf. With his most recent win, Ferrante inched a little closer to adding an eighth Atlantic City cash to his career record.

Player	Chips	Progress
Damon Ferrante	93,400 93,400	93,400

Tags: Damon Ferrante

After 16 levels of play here at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Day 1A of the Winter Poker Open’s first event has come to a close. Event 1 here in Atlantic City is a $500 No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry event, and with a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million, more than 1,000 players took their shots (and in the case of players who re-entered, quite a few shots) at a massive score.

A total of 1,212 entries were recorded on Day 1A, and tournament officials expect the house to be packed tomorrow, as Day 1B and Day 1C are played concurrently. Add in the recent conclusion of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where many of poker’s brightest stars were in attendance, and tomorrow’s action should be thrilling from start to finish.

That was the case here today as well, with hundreds of local grinders, home game heroes and even online qualifiers flocking to the Borgata to try their hands. There were a few notable names in the house though, as defending WPT Winter Poker Open Main Event Champion Andy Hwang, actor and poker enthusiast James Woods, and tournament veteran Men “The Master” Nguyen all fell short.

At the end of the day, it was Torrey Korsog who emerged as the chip leader, as his 372,000 stack just nipped Johnson Nguyen and Roger Wellman, who each held 361,000 at day’s end. For the honor of claiming the chip lead, Korsog was awarded a cool $2,000 from the Borgata, while Nguyen and Wellmann split a $1,000 prize.

Korsog is an experienced tournament player, having taken down a $600 NLHE event at the 2013 Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza III. He earned $68,312 for that win, and with the most chips in the room here today, he is well on his way to another big cash.

The other big stacks include Randy Pfeifer (345,500), Robert “Uncle Krunk” Panitch (319,300), Erik Lefkowitz (297,200), Mike Ortiz (276,500) and John Fava (265,000).

A total of 201 runners survived the day, bagging and tagging to return on Day 2, but this event’s unique format allows any of these players to come back tomorrow and try to build a bigger stack. When Day 2 begins, the biggest stack an individual player has built is theirs to keep, so we expect to see a few familiar faces in the field tomorrow.

Check back in at 10 a.m. local time to follow all the action, as the game’s most feared professionals show up with fresh tans to take on New Jersey’s best. Day 1B and Day 1C will be played simultaneously, and tournament officials expect more than 2,000 players to show up, so the action will be fast and furious from the start. The PokerNews live reporting team will be here for the duration, bringing you all the bad beats and bustouts in real time, so check in early often to follow the progress here at the Borgata Winter Poker Open.

Tags: Andy HwangBorgataErik LefkowitzJames WoodsJohn FavaMen NguyenMike OrtizRandy PfeiferRoger WellmannTorrey Korsog