Laz Hernandez Leads $3 Million Guaranteed WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Day 1a
After nearly two weeks of relatively anonymous fields dotted by the occasional well-known pro, a slew of notable names and faces descended on the Borgata for the $3 Million Guaranteed WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship. Ironically, at the end of Day 1a, it's one of the anonymous faces who bagged up a massive chip lead.
Laz Hernandez, who has one recorded cash for $1,536, bagged 258,175, more than 70,000 clear of second-place stack John Racener (186,250). Rounding out the top five were Calvin Lee (169,050), Randy Pfeifer (150,100), and George Lampert (146,000). Other notables bagging solid stacks include Matt Brady (145,200), Steve Levy (144,250), Bob Panitch (140,000), Jordan Cristos (125,000), and Noah Schwartz (124,325).
Hernandez, who was reportedly down to about 3,000 early, won two huge hands to vault to the top of the counts, and he seemed to only keep climbing from there.
Notable players not bagging stacks for the day included Vanessa Selbst, Jonathan Little, Cliff Josephy, Chino Rheem, Men Nguyen, Kevin Eyster, and Roland Israelashvili.
had prevailed to earn him a 100,000 pot - despite not pairing either of his hole cards.
, and Glantz flatted that bet before all hell broke loose.
held by the tilting shover and Nguyen's dominated 
. Of course, no drama is complete without a little sweat, and the flop came 
to give Nguyen an up-and-down straight draw. The turn (
) and river (
) were bricks for everybody though, and with that Hawkins began his earlier announcement.
it was a veritable shove-fest, as Roland Israelashvili and Paul Martino both joined Menard with all-in bets. The short-stacked Israelashvili made his move with just 
, while Martino bluffed the flop with his big slick 
.
, and the turn (
flop. Berger thought for a bit before folding, and Eyster immediately pushed his remaining 7,000 or so forward. Gagliano snap-called.
for the turn, rendering Eyster's flush draw meaningless. A six completed the board, and Eyster was ousted.
by the turn and Roland Israelashvili had bet 11,200 into a pot containing more than 14,000. According to Nick Guagenti - who was out of the hand and thus free to fill us in - the pot was played six-handed to the flop, and four-handed to the turn.
to keep the ladies in the lead, and Sabat earned the double up to move back above the starting stack.
