Today at 11 a.m. local time the final event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open kicked off, and even with the WPT Main Event Championship final table being played out at the same time, we expect Event 22 to bring out the best from the Borgata’s regular grinders and local heroes.
Event 22 is a $230 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry Event, with players starting with generous 25,000 stacks rather than the standard 15,000. With the re-entry format lasting through the end of Level 6, players who bust out early on can simply pony up an additional buy-in to fire another bullet.
This means the prize pool will swell throughout the early stages of the tournament, and based on previous events with similar buy-ins, a five-figure score for the eventual winner is to be expected.
As the last chance for players who flocked to the Borgata Winter Poker Open in search of success on the felt, there is a good chance several recognizable names will be in attendance, so stay tuned to see if your favorite player decides to take a shot.
The coverage of Event 22 will be intermittent during the first few levels of play, as the WPT Main Event final table absorbs much of the poker world’s attention, but PokerNews will provide status updates on a regular basis. When the WPT Champions Cup is finally claimed, the full focus of our Live Reporting team will shift to Event 22, so expect a steady flow of hand recaps and other updates when the big show comes to a close.
With the WPT Main Event Championship recently concluding, PokerNews has shifted its reportorial focus to the final tournament of the Borgata Winter Poker Open: Event 23 ($230 Deep Stack NLHE Re-Entry).
The tournament is playing Level 22 at the moment, with blinds set at 10,000-20,000 with a 3,000 ante. The average stack sits at exactly 500,000, but many players appear to be grinding short stacks at the moment, while Larkin and a few others hold towers of gold T25000 chips with which to work.
Richard Marchese's tournament just came to an end after his failed to run down the tabled by Walt White.
The flop brought a bit of drama to the proceedings though, coming to give Marchese an up-and-down straight draw and spade flush outs, but the turn () and the river () were the definition of blanks, sending Marchese to the rail with an eighth place finish.
Marchese may have busted on this hand, but the real dagger for him came when he flopped trips holding on the board. Although he flopped a monster, Alan Colon held a heart flush draw with , and while the turn () failed to deliver, the river came () to dash Marchese's hopes of a win here tonight.
Victoria Larkin opened to 130,000 on the button, and Ron Rhoads jammed for 305,000 from the small blind. Alan Cohen called from the big, and Larkin call as well. The two active players checked it through to the river, and the final board was .
"King high," Larkin said.
Rhoads slapped down, but Cohen had already tabled for the best unpaired hand of the three, and the "Rocket" was out of fuel in seventh.
Victoria Larkin is by far the most experienced player at the final table, as the Syracuse-based tournament grinder has traveled across the country for the last few years, always in search of the next score.
As a young woman playing in the "man's world" that poker has traditionally been, Larkin is accustomed to players discounting her abilities simply because they don't know any better.
Alan Colon thought as much in an earlier hand against Larkin, but he soon found out that good players like her usually have the goods.
The action started when Colon opened for 165,000 from under the gun, and Larkin called from the button along with Esteban Rodriguez from the big blind.
The flop rolled out and both Colon and Rodriguez checked over to Larkin, who paused for a beat before betting 350,000. Rodriguez showed respect and quickly folded his hand, but Colon was stubborn and decided to interrogate Larkin to try and find a read.
"You makin' a move here?" he asked from across the table. "You might be makin' a move on me..."
Eventually, as is true in most long tank-jobs, Colon was merely posturing and his cards soon went sailing into the muck.
"Stop thinking I'm making moves..." said Larkin as she tabled for top pair. "I'm more than capable of making moves, but not at this hour."
With the win, Larkin moved into the chip lead after sitting as the short stack just a few orbits before.