Event 14: $15,400 $5 Million Guaranteed WPT World Championship Day 1a | 2014 Borgata Spring Poker Open

04-21-2014 17:59 UTC-4

Sir Lance-alot

[user253757]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

After losing an earlier confrontation of premium pocket pairs, with his failing to crack , Lance Steinberg took another crack at the same opponent.

Steinberg's last 14,000 went into the middle before the flop on the strength of , while his nemesis was racing with overcards in .

Flop:

With top set Steinberg put a hammerlock on the hand, but the gave his opponent a four-flush to provide the requisite sweat.

River:

The board paired to solidify Steinberg's double, but he had other ideas, telling the vanquished player "we're not even yet."

Player	Chips	Progress
Lance Steinberg	31,000

Tags: Lance Steinberg

04-21-2014 17:53 UTC-4

Moorman Doubles and Then Wishes He Hadn't (Kind of)

[user272102]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

Chris Moorman got his last 30,950 all in pre-flop with against the of Jordan Cristos and would double up when the board came .

Moorman would joke with the table after the hand "I don't know if I even wanted to win that pot. I would have been fine coming back tomorrow."

One look at his table (chip counts below) and you might think that Moorman was being serious.

Player	Chips	Progress
Scott Seiver	195,000
Todd Terry	72,000	6,000
Lawrence Greenberg	71,000	-39,000
Tony Gregg	70,000	20,000
Jonathan Little	67,000	2,500
Chris Moorman	64,000	31,500
Jordan Cristos	45,000	45,000
Steven Silverman	21,000	-29,000
Shawn Cunix	13,000	-3,700

04-21-2014 17:36 UTC-4

Player	Chips	Progress
Tom Dobrilovic	132,000	-23,000
Micah Raskin	124,000	29,000
Anthony Zinno	67,000	2,200
Todd Terry	66,000	3,575
Jonathan Little	64,500	-500
Roland Israelashvili	58,000	13,100
David "ODB" Baker	53,000	4,000
Justin Young	43,000	500
Paul Volpe	35,800	-7,200
Shawn Cunix	16,700	-4,400

We didn't catch the hand, but we did see a player standing up and leaving the table and a pile of chips being added to the already large stack of Scott Seiver who had flopped a set of tens to send his unlucky opponent to the rail. Seiver has past success in this event having won it in 2011. With nearly $9.5 million in lifetime tournament winnings, Seiver with a stack is probably not a sight his opponents want to see.

Player	Chips	Progress
Scott Seiver	195,000	55,000

Tags: Scott Seiver

04-21-2014 17:28 UTC-4

Check Out the Counts

[user253757]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

Here are a few updated counts from around the room.

Player	Chips	Progress
She Lok Wong	109,000	70,000
Joe Kuether	105,000	24,000
Christian Harder	82,000	10,000
Tom Marchese	71,800	-9,700
Brian Lemke	71,000	-11,000
David Paredes	69,500	-1,500
Jean Gaspard	61,500	-4,500
Alexey Rubin	52,000	4,500
Noah Schwartz	29,600	-18,900
Greg Merson	17,500	-11,300
Jeff Madsen	11,500	-56,500

04-21-2014 17:21 UTC-4

Mano a Mano

[user253757]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

Having played a hand to the turn before we arrived, Tom Marchese went toe-to-toe with 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Greg Merson with a three-bet to force him off the pot.

The board read by fourth street and Merson was holding the button when Marchese led into him for 3,500.

Merson casually moved a stack forward, making it 7,100 to play, and after a long moment to contemplate his spot, Marchese put the champ to the test, three-betting to 13,500.

Having been played back at, Merson quickly laid his hand down before entering into a professional discussion with his neighbor and nemesis.

Player	Chips	Progress
Tom Marchese	81,500	10,500
Greg Merson	28,800	11,775

Tags: Tom Marchese Greg Merson

04-21-2014 17:08 UTC-4

Recent Eliminations

[user272102]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Jake Schindler	Busted
Matt Stout	Busted
James Carroll	Busted
Nick Schulman	Busted

04-21-2014 17:08 UTC-4

Mo' Money for Makhija

[user253757]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

The final board read and an 11,000-chip pot was waiting to be claimed when we saw Amit Makhija fire out a bet of 7,000.

"If it takes more than two minutes, call the clock on me..." said his opponent to nobody in particular.

Finally, the man decided to respect a feared pro and laid his hand down.

Player	Chips	Progress
Mohsin Charania	42,000	42,000

Tags: Moshin Charania

04-21-2014 16:56 UTC-4

Borgata Regular Tom Dobrilovic Leading the Way Early On

[user272102]

Level 5 : 250/500, 75 ante

A regular sight at the tournaments here at Borgata is the broad smile on the face of Tom Dobrilovic. It's usually after he's won a big pot but he'll flash a grin at you even after taking the worst of it. Dobrilovic is off to a great start here with over three times the starting stack. Dobrilovic is no flash-in-the-pan as he has over a million dollars in lifetime tournament winnings. He has no six figure paydays on his resume though and would love to change that this week.

"I was going to buy in anyway, but I won a seat," Dobrilovic told us on the way to his seat. He's probably hoping to make a deep run and win much like another local, Anthony Zinno, did recently at a World Poker Tour televised event at Borgata.