WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship
Day 2 Completed
2019 Borgata Poker Open
WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship
Day: 2
Jonathan Jaffe Leads Final 145 in WPT Borgata Poker Open; Victor Ramdin Sits in Second
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
The second day of the 2019 WPT Borgata Poker Open has now drawn to an end and after the last chance saloon had closed for business it was Jonathan Jaffe leading the final 145 runners.
Jaffe played under the radar for most of the day and it was not until close to nights end that he really started catapult near the top, ending the day with 1,035,000. Right behind the chipleader in the ranks is Victor Ramdin, who lead for almost all of the day after finding a few early pots. Ramdin was a favorite to bag the lead by days end but fell just short after doubling up a few short-stacks during the latter stages.
The biggest stacks to start Day 3 are Arian Stolt (848,000), Jean Gaspard (835,000), Justin Liberto (818,000), Jerry Maher (808,000), Uke Dauti (806,000), Nick Pupillo (782,000), and Michael Stashin (743,000).
Some of the well-known pros and Borgata regulars to find a bag are Ami Alibay (720,000), Ryan Hughes (614,000), Ryan Olisar (594,000), Femi Fashakin (591,000), Scott Baumstein (567,000), Andy Frankenberger (566,000), Aaron Mermelstein (411,000), John McGuinness (399,000), Timothy Little (380,000), Lucas Braga (379,000), Bryan Piccioli (372,000), and Maurice Hawkins (372,000).
The plan today was to hit the money and stop after 16-levels of play were completed. Once the designated amount of levels were completed, it was decided that the tournament was to play until the money was hit. This continued until for about half an hour into the 17th level before the bubble popped. Unfortunately for Philip Chin he was the last player eliminated on the night when his pocket nines ran into the aces of Mike Meskin. Once Chin took an exit in 146th place all players were then guaranteed at least a min-cash of $5,797.
There were many players to take a shot but fail to secure their spot into the third day and that list includes Mike Haberman, Greg Fishberg, Juan Carlos Ramirez Parodi, Shannon Shorr, Ken Aldridge, Kitty Kuo, Mukul Pahuja, Jessica Dawley, Jake Schwartz, Michael Del Vecchio, Jeff Gross, Paul Volpe, and Jeff Madsen.
All remaining players will return tomorrow at noon to battle it out until the final three tables of eight. Play will resume on level 17 with blind levels of 3,000/6,000 and a big blind ante of 6,000. There will be a 15-minute after every two levels of play and a dinner break after six levels. The tournament has implemented an action clock into play, meaning every player has 30-seconds per turn to act before their hand is folded. Every player was given nine 30-second time extension chips that can be used during any hand.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you all of the action as the day unfolds, so stay tuned!
| Table | Seat | Player | Hometown | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Jonathan Jaffe | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 1,035,000 | 173 |
| 1 | 2 | William Jennings | North Palm Beach, FL | 315,000 | 53 |
| 1 | 3 | Haim Toorgeman | Kenner, SO | 260,000 | 43 |
| 1 | 4 | David Paredes | Brookline, MA | 350,000 | 58 |
| 1 | 5 | Patrick Eskandar | Gulfport, MS | 295,000 | 49 |
| 1 | 6 | Femi Fashakin | Orlando, FL | 591,000 | 99 |
| 1 | 7 | Michael Mcguinness | Brick, NJ | 275,000 | 46 |
| 1 | 8 | Tony Dunst | Las Vegas, NV | 314,000 | 52 |
| 1 | 9 | Ravi Raghavan | Northbrook, IL | 128,000 | 21 |
| 2 | 1 | Tuan Pham | Estero, FL | 631,000 | 105 |
| 2 | 2 | Jackob Datashvili | Forest Hills, NY | 377,000 | 63 |
| 2 | 3 | Nicholas Pupillo | Gilbert, AZ | 782,000 | 130 |
| 2 | 4 | Matthew Mendez | Sicklerville, NJ | 518,000 | 86 |
| 2 | 5 | Thomas Reynolds | Raleigh, NC | 57,000 | 10 |
| 2 | 6 | Ian O'Hara | Coconut Creek, FL | 270,000 | 45 |
| 2 | 7 | Matthew Marafioti | Toronto, Ontario, ON | 134,000 | 22 |
| 2 | 8 | Scott Baumstein | Ft, Lauderdale, FL | 567,000 | 95 |
| 2 | 9 | David Santucci | Gibsonia, PA | 57,000 | 10 |
| 3 | 1 | Tomasz Zakrzewski | Woodside, CT | 86,000 | 14 |
| 3 | 2 | Jonathan Little | Las Vegas, NV | 280,000 | 47 |
| 3 | 3 | Curt Kohlberg | Boston, MA | 158,000 | 26 |
| 3 | 4 | Alex Findlay | Miami, FL | 236,000 | 39 |
| 3 | 5 | Jason Min | Flushing, NY | 245,000 | 41 |
| 3 | 6 | Arian Stolt | Montclair, NJ | 87,000 | 15 |
| 3 | 7 | Benjamin Morgan | Columbus, OH | 250,000 | 42 |
| 3 | 8 | Connor Daum | Manahawkin, NJ | 70,000 | 12 |
| 3 | 9 | Shiraz Hasan | Middletown, DE | 233,000 | 39 |
| 4 | 1 | Ronald Lee | Brooklyn, NY | 225,000 | 38 |
| 4 | 2 | Derek Bowers | Alliance, OH | 705,000 | 118 |
| 4 | 3 | Sam Rashid | Valrico, FL | 206,000 | 34 |
| 4 | 4 | Anthony Ibrahim | Oakton, VA | 214,000 | 36 |
| 4 | 5 | David Stefanski | East Lyme, NY | 351,000 | 59 |
| 4 | 6 | Adrian Gallardo | Tustin, CA | 323,000 | 54 |
| 4 | 7 | An Huang | National Harbor, MD | 251,000 | 42 |
| 4 | 8 | Joseph Couden | Tamarac, FL | 195,000 | 33 |
| 4 | 9 | Ryan Hohner | South Plainfield, NJ | 365,000 | 61 |
| 5 | 1 | Dejuante Alexander | Houston, TX | 166,000 | 28 |
| 5 | 2 | Jason Wade | Hamilton, LA | 138,000 | 23 |
| 5 | 3 | Vladimir Peck | Jersey City, NJ | 88,000 | 15 |
| 5 | 4 | Scott Efron | Boca Raton, FL | 159,000 | 27 |
| 5 | 5 | Lokesh Garg | Las Vegas, NV | 181,000 | 30 |
| 5 | 6 | Vanessa Selbst | Brooklyn, NY | 318,000 | 53 |
| 5 | 7 | Kevin Lutz | Bellmawr, NJ | 184,000 | 31 |
| 5 | 8 | Brandon Caputo | Orlando, FL | 83,000 | 14 |
| 6 | 1 | Donald Maloney | Glendale, AR | 327,000 | 55 |
| 6 | 2 | Steven Cho | Derwood, MD | 344,000 | 57 |
| 6 | 3 | Scott Matte | Syosset, NY | 88,000 | 15 |
| 6 | 4 | Daniel Daconti | Mount Laurel, NJ | 35,000 | 6 |
| 6 | 5 | Nicholas Salimbene | Brick, NJ | 474,000 | 79 |
| 6 | 6 | Liping Zhang | Doylestown, PA | 91,000 | 15 |
| 6 | 7 | Jeremy Maher | Warren, NJ | 808,000 | 135 |
| 6 | 8 | Joseph Liberta | Berlin, NJ | 125,000 | 21 |
| 6 | 9 | John Pannucci | Parsippany, NJ | 113,000 | 19 |
| 7 | 1 | Dong Ji | Potomac, MD | 480,000 | 80 |
| 7 | 2 | Aaron Sacks | Ridgewood, NJ | 260,000 | 43 |
| 7 | 3 | Mike Meskin | Belmont, MA | 224,000 | 37 |
| 7 | 4 | Thomas Tolbert | Ypsilanti, NJ | 110,000 | 18 |
| 7 | 5 | Ranjeet Pawar | Edgewater, NJ | 267,000 | 45 |
| 7 | 6 | Jean Gaspard | Evanston, IL | 835,000 | 139 |
| 7 | 7 | Vincent Palma | Tonawanda, NY | 296,000 | 49 |
| 7 | 8 | Uke Dauti | Stanhope, NJ | 806,000 | 134 |
| 7 | 9 | Jahzeel Esquivel | Port Chester, NY | 69,000 | 12 |
| 8 | 1 | Natalie Bereznyak | Rumson, NJ | 183,000 | 31 |
| 8 | 2 | Scott Anderson | Candor, NC | 92,000 | 15 |
| 8 | 3 | Andrew Frankenberger | New York, NY | 566,000 | 94 |
| 8 | 4 | Giuliano Lentini | New York, NY | 151,000 | 25 |
| 8 | 5 | Lucas Drolet | Cap-De-La-Madeleine, QC | 324,000 | 54 |
| 8 | 6 | Joseph Gossweiler | Florham Park, NJ | 158,000 | 26 |
| 8 | 7 | Annand Ramdin | Bronx, NY | 1,016,000 | 169 |
| 8 | 8 | Minho Choe | Laurel, MD | 283,000 | 47 |
| 9 | 1 | Ryan D'Angelo | Deerfield, FL | 330,000 | 55 |
| 9 | 2 | David Coleman | Livingston, NJ | 525,000 | 88 |
| 9 | 3 | Myung Keun Shin | Mount Prospect, IL | 70,000 | 12 |
| 9 | 4 | Omar Saeed | Scarsdale, NY | 32,000 | 5 |
| 9 | 5 | Kevin Albers | Hartland, MI | 629,000 | 105 |
| 9 | 6 | Michael Wang | Livingston, MI | 45,000 | 8 |
| 9 | 7 | Maurice Hawkins | Wellington, FL | 372,000 | 62 |
| 9 | 8 | Tyng Low | Flushing, NY | 305,000 | 51 |
| 10 | 1 | Jonas Wexler | Collingswood, NJ | 848,000 | 141 |
| 10 | 2 | Qi Hu | Nepean, CAN | 563,000 | 94 |
| 10 | 3 | Shuntak Yeung | Matawan, CA | 68,000 | 11 |
| 10 | 4 | Peter Vitantonio | Wickliffe, TX | 441,000 | 74 |
| 10 | 5 | Bin Weng | Mineola, NJ | 308,000 | 51 |
| 10 | 6 | Michael Testa | Toms River, NY | 491,000 | 82 |
| 10 | 7 | Kenneth Stacy | Bristol, VA | 96,000 | 16 |
| 10 | 8 | Peter Zarriello | New Egypt, NY | 743,000 | 124 |
| 10 | 9 | Abraham Faroni | Philadelphia, PA | 293,000 | 49 |
| 11 | 1 | Ryan Van Sanford | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 365,000 | 61 |
| 11 | 2 | Michael Stashin | Massapequa, NJ | 70,000 | 12 |
| 11 | 3 | Aaron Mermelstein | Miami, FL | 411,000 | 69 |
| 11 | 4 | Samuel Ganzfried | Miami, FL | 499,000 | 83 |
| 11 | 5 | John Parker | Las Vegas, NV | 214,000 | 36 |
| 11 | 6 | Timothy Domboski | Florissant, CO | 96,000 | 16 |
| 11 | 7 | Ronald Wilson | Hanover Twp, VA | 118,000 | 20 |
| 11 | 8 | Cliff Josephy | Muttontown, NY | 149,000 | 25 |
| 12 | 1 | Scott Stewart | Lakewood, NJ | 219,000 | 37 |
| 12 | 2 | Aaron Massey | Chicago, IL | 168,000 | 28 |
| 12 | 3 | Johanssy Joseph | Nanuet, NY | 329,000 | 55 |
| 12 | 4 | Jonathan Cantor | Columbia, MD | 160,000 | 27 |
| 12 | 5 | Jerry Humphrey | Gibsonia, PA | 154,000 | 26 |
| 12 | 6 | Mitchell Mantin | Atlantic, NJ | 148,000 | 25 |
| 12 | 7 | Nikolaos Platis | Long Island City, NY | 276,000 | 46 |
| 12 | 8 | Charles Phillips | Charlotte, NC | 494,000 | 82 |
| 12 | 9 | Ren Lin | Augusta, GA | 461,000 | 77 |
| 13 | 1 | Arianna Son | Henderson, NV | 44,000 | 7 |
| 13 | 2 | Paul Chang | Arlington, VA | 174,000 | 29 |
| 13 | 3 | Michael Linster | Bensalem, PA | 336,000 | 56 |
| 13 | 4 | Kenneth Einiger | Las Vegas, NV | 89,000 | 15 |
| 13 | 5 | Chun Li | Sylvania, OH | 171,000 | 29 |
| 13 | 6 | Trung Vu Tran | Houston, OH | 734,000 | 122 |
| 13 | 7 | Justin Liberto | Fallston, MD | 818,000 | 136 |
| 13 | 8 | Timothy Little | Hyattsville, MD | 380,000 | 63 |
| 13 | 9 | Bryan Piccioli | Las Vegas, NV | 372,000 | 62 |
| 14 | 1 | Guo Chen | Philadelphia, PA | 286,000 | 48 |
| 14 | 2 | Stephen Stokes | Montpilier, PA | 52,000 | 9 |
| 14 | 3 | Marcos Exterkotter | Gardena, CA | 368,000 | 61 |
| 14 | 4 | Shankar Pillai | Jamaica, NY | 430,000 | 72 |
| 14 | 5 | Kevin Blewitt | Tampa, FL | 364,000 | 61 |
| 14 | 6 | Greg Himmelbrand | Oakland Gardens, NY | 688,000 | 115 |
| 14 | 7 | David Farah | Fairfield, NJ | 670,000 | 112 |
| 14 | 8 | Jack Kashishian | Edgewater, NJ | 224,000 | 37 |
| 15 | 1 | Lucas Braga | Ocean, NJ | 379,000 | 63 |
| 15 | 2 | John Hinds | Ft Lee, NJ | 304,000 | 51 |
| 15 | 3 | Alfred Gillette | Scranton, PA | 461,000 | 77 |
| 15 | 4 | Michael Azzaro | Yonkers, NY | 314,000 | 52 |
| 15 | 5 | Jerry Payne | Centerville, OH | 70,000 | 12 |
| 15 | 6 | Amirouddine Alibay | Blainville, QC | 720,000 | 120 |
| 15 | 7 | Michael Liang | Alexandria, VA | 207,000 | 35 |
| 15 | 8 | David Laury | Millville, NJ | 375,000 | 63 |
| 16 | 1 | Ryan Olisar | Naperville, IL | 594,000 | 99 |
| 16 | 2 | Stephen Press | Ridgewood, NJ | 318,000 | 53 |
| 16 | 3 | David Prociak | Kissimmee, FL | 349,000 | 58 |
| 16 | 4 | Zhen Cai | Lake Worth, FL | 297,000 | 50 |
| 16 | 5 | Robert Mclaughlin | Washington, DC | 239,000 | 40 |
| 16 | 6 | Juan Rodriguez | Freeport, NY | 700,000 | 117 |
| 16 | 7 | Asher Conniff | Brooklyn, NY | 309,000 | 52 |
| 16 | 8 | Ryan Hughes | Phoenix, AZ | 614,000 | 102 |
| 17 | 1 | Alexander Rocha | Tavares, FL | 160,000 | 27 |
| 17 | 2 | Jaspal Brar | Edmonton, AB | 331,000 | 55 |
| 17 | 3 | John Mcguinness | Toms River, NJ | 399,000 | 67 |
| 17 | 4 | Matthew Holmquist | White Plains, NY | 273,000 | 46 |
| 17 | 5 | Matthew Iles | Atco, NJ | 308,000 | 51 |
| 17 | 6 | Matthew Gambino | West Babylon, NY | 124,000 | 21 |
| 17 | 7 | Jacob Corda | Birmingham, AL | 18,000 | 3 |
| 17 | 8 | Peter Hong | Bayside, NY | 354,000 | 59 |
End of Day Chip Counts (full)
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,035,000 | 974,400 |
|
1,016,000 | -234,000 |
|
848,000 | -242,000 |
|
835,000 | 75,000 |
|
818,000 | 298,000 |
|
808,000 | -162,000 |
|
806,000 | 710,900 |
|
782,000 | 142,000 |
|
743,000 | -60,000 |
|
734,000 | 687,200 |
|
720,000 | 720,000 |
|
705,000 | 644,400 |
|
700,000 | -105,000 |
|
688,000 | 188,000 |
|
|
670,000 | 670,000 |
|
631,000 | 593,400 |
|
629,000 | -1,000 |
|
614,000 | 584,500 |
|
594,000 | 19,000 |
|
591,000 | 271,000 |
|
567,000 | 567,000 |
|
566,000 | 426,000 |
|
563,000 | 424,300 |
|
525,000 | 409,000 |
|
518,000 | 346,700 |
Meskin Sends Chin Out as the Bubble Boy
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Philip Chin moved all in from the hijack for 96,000 and Mike Meskin shoved his 100,000 stack all in from the cutoff. The two tabled their hands and Chin was at risk of elimination.
Philip Chin: 
Mike Meskin: 
The flop came down 
and Chin needed a nine or runner diamonds to stay alive. A 
peeled off on the turn and Chin only had two outs to stay alive. The 
river was not one as he was sent out, claiming the WPT Borgata Poker Open bubble boy status while Meskin scooped in the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
208,000 | 148,900 |
|
|
Busted |
Hand-for-Hand Play Continues
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
The final 146 are still currently playing hand-for-hand until the money bubble pops. Once the tournament hits the money all players will be bagging up for the night.
Albers Stacks One Near the Bubble
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Michael Stashin opened to 13,000 from the hijack and the cutoff player moved all in for 150,000. Kevin Albers shoved over the top from the big blind and Stashin folded as the two that remained tabled their hands.
Opponent: 
Kevin Albers: 
The board ran out 
and Albers took down the pot, sending his opponent out the door just shy of the money.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
803,000 | 633,000 |
|
|
630,000 | 529,900 |
Level: 17
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 6,000
Break Time
Level 16
: 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante
The remaining 148 players will now be taking a quick 10-minute break.
Dunst Scoops as the Bubble Looms
Level 16
: 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante
The flop showed 
and there was around 40,000 in the pot. Two players checked to Tony Dunst on the button who bet 18,000 and instantly was check-raised to 55,000 from the first opponent in the big blind position.
The player in the cutoff check-raised all in over the top for 190,000 total and Dunst called for his remaining 129,000 stack. The big blind player folded and the two remaining tabled their hands.
Tony Dunst: 
Opponent: 
The board ran out 
and Dunst held on for the pot, doubling through his opponent late in the night.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
360,000 | 270,000 |
Assorted Chip Counts
Level 16
: 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,250,000 | -20,000 |
|
|
760,000 | 200,000 |
|
|
520,000 | 70,000 |
|
295,000 | 210,000 |
|
285,000 | 5,000 |
|
170,000 | 15,000 |
|
|
90,000 | -10,000 |