[user253757]
Cards Are in the Air in Event 17 Here at the Borgata Winter Poker Open
Event 17 is the $100,000 Guaranteed Big Stack No-Limit Hold'em Re-Entry Saturday Series. The tournament cost $400 per entry and with the Winter Poker Open's turnout numbers so far, we expect the $100k guaranteed prize pool to be generated rather easily. Expect several top pros to use this event as a tune-up for the upcoming World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event, while also trying to make a five-figure score to pad their bankroll.
Players will start the tournament with 20,000 in chips, and levels will last 30 minutes throughout. It's scheduled to play down to a winner today, and with the size of the fields we've seen in some of these events, that really means tomorrow morning.
[user253757]
Ari Engel Won't Have a Better Hand at the Borgata... Ever.
If enough hands are dealt out over the course of a long tournament series, strange sights will inevitably be seen.
Ari Engel has likely played more than a million hands in his long poker career - between his countless online sessions while earning over $2 million on the virtual tournament felt, and a seven-year live career spent travelling the global circuit - but his latest hand here today ranks as one of the best.
Literally.
Engel just doubled up in Event 17 ($100,000 Guaranteed Big Stack NLHE Re-Entry), turning his last 16,000 into nearly double the starting stack while making the prettiest sight in all of poker.
After the dealer fanned a flop of neatly across the felt, Sonny Chau decided to set the short-stacked Engel all-in holding . Chau figured to be in decent enough spot with top-top, but when Engel snapped and showed down the , even Chau had to pay his respect in the presence of royalty.
"Did you see that?," he asked as we hovered around the coronation. "The royal flush..."
We sure did see that Sonny, and it was something to see no doubt. Judging by the awe in your voice as you ran down the hand, we suspect that despite the dent to your chip stack, there's a small part of you that's glad you saw it too.
[user253757]
Registration for Re-Entries Has Ended for Event 17
We are now playing Level 8 in Event 17 ($100,000 Guaranteed Big Stack NLHE Re-Entry).
The re-entry period ended after Level 6, so from here on out play is for all the marbles.
Blinds currently sit at 300-600 with a 75 ante, and the room looks to be full of tables so an estimate of 400+ players left in contention would appear to be accurate.
Action folded to the small blind, who shoved all in for 41,000 into Simon Taberham's 1,200 big blind.
"Are you late for dinner or something?" Taberham asked. It seemed the player was making it a habit of shoving for a ton of big blinds on the regular. We went to check on another table, and when we turned back around, Taberham had made the call.
Taberham:
Opponent:
The board ran out , and Taberham had the winner with a pair of kings.
"What's he have?" the small blind asked. The dealer informed him that a pair of kings was the winning hand. "Nice call," the small blind said.
Dennis Phillips opened for 7,000 from the hijack, and Roque Azpurua moved in for 37,700 from the small blind. Phillips thought for a bit before making the call.
"Please tell me you have ace-king," he said. Azpurua shook his head, turning over . "Well then let me take my chips back," Phillips joked, showing .
Chris Edwards in Event #17 at the 2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open
Chris Edwards just got all in with against an opponent with on a board of . He spiked a on the river to finish his short-stacked opponent off, and he's now sitting on a stack of 502,300. That may be the top stack in the room.
William Givens caught an opponent trying to bluff him.
William Givens, in the big blind, fired 16,000 on a flop of . His opponent check-raised to 51,000. Givens came back with 116,000. His opponent shoved all in for about 200,000, standing up. Givens made the call after about 30 seconds.
Givens:
Small blind:
Givens was miles ahead, and his opponent needed runner-runner. One of the worst cards for Givens arrived on the turn: , giving the small blind a combo draw. A fell on the river, though, and Givens has one of the biggest stacks in the room.
Joseph "Mush" Galazzo opened for 17,000 in early position, and Simon Taberham made it 45,000 to go from middle position. Action folded back to Galazzo, who put Taberham all in for 120,000 or so. Taberham called.
Taberham:
Galazzo:
Galazzo flopped the nut flush, and that was all she wrote for Taberham.
Steve Levy, who has over $500,000 in recorded live tournament cashes, is the overwhelming chip leader with 45 players remaining. He has around 1.4 million, and no other player appears to be anywhere near that.
![[user253757]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
neatly across the felt, Sonny Chau decided to set the short-stacked Engel all-in holding 
. Chau figured to be in decent enough spot with top-top, but when Engel snapped and showed down the 
, even Chau had to pay his respect in the presence of royalty.
, and Taberham had the winner with a pair of kings.
.
. His opponent check-raised to 51,000. Givens came back with 116,000. His opponent shoved all in for about 200,000, standing up. Givens made the call after about 30 seconds.
, giving the small blind a combo draw. A 
fell on the river, though, and Givens has one of the biggest stacks in the room.
, giving Rawlins a flush and sending the third-place finisher of the 2008 Main Event to the payout desk.