Shin Han defended his big blind from a raise to 40,000 from Sunil Sebastian on the button. The flop came , and Han bet out 50,000. Sebastian made the call, and the turn was a . Sebastian called another bet, this time 30,000. On the river, Han fired 40,000, only to see Sebastian raise to 150,000. Han thought briefly before making the call, showing for the nut flush. His opponent mucked.
After four players saw the flop for the minimum, Tony Marchitelli bet 31,000, and Eric Natishvili was the only caller on the flop. The turn brought a , and Marchitelli fired again for 56,000. This time, Natishvili raised to 132,000, and Marchitelli mucked his hand.
The first orbit of this Sit-and-Go tournament has been relatively uneventful - which is to be expected with everybody holding 100 big blinds to start play - and while a few pots have been played to the flop, the play has been conservative to say the least.
None of the eight players eligible for this $1 million payday wants to be the first sent home, so we expect things to stay friendly - until the cards create a collision of course.
To conclude our coverage of the Borgata Winter Poker Open, we're on hand to cover a special event run by the Borgata: New Jersey's Next Poker Millionaire (NJNPM).
NJNPM is a one-table sit-n-go contested by eight players who qualified online. As for the prize structure, let's just say it's slightly top-heavy. The champion will claim a gaudy prize package of a World Poker Tour Alpha 8 super high roller seat worth $10,000, a WPT World Championship seat worth $15,000, two WPT entries to Borgata events worth $3,500 each, 52 tournament entries to the Sunday 50k worth $10,400, a bundle of live tournament entries at the Borgata worth $8,000, and $859,600 in credit to the player's online account.
The rest of the runners will have to console themselves with the following prizes: