Event #10: $400 Almighty Stack NLH Day 1e | 2019 Borgata Poker Open

09-12-2019 12:58 UTC-4

Aces and Kings and Jacks -- Oh My!

Kaelaine Minton

Level 6 : 400/800, 800 ante

Up front on Table 9, three players got all their chips in the middle:

Sirous Jamshidi had the biggest stack and biggest pair, . Anthony Maggio had and Lloyd Bruer had the shortest stack and , at risk for his tournament life.

The board ran clean, until Maggio said "King!" and the appeared like magic on the river. After dragging both main and side pots, he chipped up to 180,000. Jamshidi was down to only 15,000 (19 big blinds). Bruer was busted and headed for the door. He still has the option to re-enter this flight or Flight F at 6pm tonight.

Player	Chips	Progress
Anthony Maggio	180,000
Sirous Jamshidi	15,000 -85,000	-85,000
Lloyd Breuer	Busted

Tags: Sirous Jamshidi Anthony Maggio

Level: 6

Blinds: 400/800

Ante: 800

09-12-2019 12:42 UTC-4

Grabel Makes BPO Debut

Kaelaine Minton

Level 5 : 300/600, 600 ante

Kevin Grabel has had a slow year, with only one reported tournament cash, but he's been tearing up the felt for years, accumulating more than $872,000 in tournament earnings.

Back in 2016, Kevin Grabel made history when he won both the Big Stax XVI 300 and Big Stax XVI 500 events for prizes of $78,450 and $43,000, respectively. With the two wins, Grabel became the first player to win back-to-back titles at Parx Casino in Big Stax events. He defeated fields of 1,548 entries and 1,184 entries, respectively.

His best live cash of $89,115 came right here at Borgata in the 2014 Spring Poker Open $560 Deep Stack NLH event when he finished third out of 2,483 runners. He also has one Borgata Open title from the inaugural Super Stack Elevator NLH event (a tournament that has been retired from the schedule) during the 2015 Summer Poker Open. First place in that event was good for $21,915.

Tags: Kevin Grabel

09-12-2019 12:22 UTC-4

Flight E Surpasses Previous Flights

Kaelaine Minton

Level 5 : 300/600, 600 ante

Players are back from their break and settling in for another two hours of play before the next one.

With 449 entries, this flight is already the largest of the first five, surpassing Flight C's 402 entries before the first break.

Level: 5

Blinds: 300/600

Ante: 600

09-12-2019 12:05 UTC-4

First Break of the Day

Kaelaine Minton

Level 4 : 200/400, 400 ante

Four levels have come and gone in Flight E and that means it's time for the first 15-minute break of the day.

09-12-2019 12:02 UTC-4

A Round of Early Chip Counts

Kaelaine Minton

Level 4 : 200/400, 400 ante

Lots of familiar players and Borgata regulars on the felt early today and that's only going to continue as this flight will likely fill the room. Here's a sampling of some of those already on the felt.

Player	Chips	Progress
Leon Motola	100,000 100,000	100,000
James Lillis	100,000 100,000	100,000
Sirous Jamshidi	100,000 100,000	100,000
Ta Wey	100,000 100,000	100,000
Dennis Novosel	100,000 100,000	100,000
Bart Dowling	100,000 100,000	100,000
Rob Calabrese	100,000 100,000	100,000
Jon Gottlieb	100,000 100,000	100,000
Adam Agaev	100,000 100,000	100,000
Howard Wolper	100,000 100,000	100,000
April Molola	100,000 100,000	100,000
Leonardo Palermo	100,000 100,000	100,000
Kevin Grabel	100,000 100,000	100,000
Andrew Klein	100,000 -200,000	-200,000
Tony Campagna	100,000 100,000	100,000
Lee Kirsch	100,000 100,000	100,000
Michael Bonita	100,000 100,000	100,000
Sean Cameron	100,000 100,000	100,000
Lloyd Breuer	100,000 100,000	100,000

09-12-2019 11:42 UTC-4

Short Seeks Redemption One Year Later

Kaelaine Minton

Level 4 : 200/400, 400 ante

Chris Short made the final table of this event last year, during the 2018 BPO, eventually finishing 7th for $33,571.

His exit took a bad beat, as he got his last chips in on the turn with a queen-high board, holding pocket kings against a player with ace-queen and only five outs.

A third queen still appeared on the river, giving his opponent trips and the pot. Short came up short of the title, but left with his lifetime best live cash.

Player	Chips	Progress
Chris Short	120 120	120

Tags: Chris Short

Level: 4

Blinds: 200/400

Ante: 400

09-12-2019 11:21 UTC-4

Two-Time Almighty Winner in Action

Kaelaine Minton

Level 3 : 200/300, 300 ante

Greg Fishberg has won two Almighty Stack NLH events here at Borgata, although both took place outside of the regular Open series.

Since its introduction, the Almighty Stack was such a hit, Borgata started holding them as stand-alone events. During February of 2017, Fishberg defeated a field of 1,139 entrants to take the $400 Almighty Stack title and $70,000*. Then one year later in February 2018,, he came out on top of a field of 1,317 runners to claim first place again and $95,007.

Those were his third and fourth Borgata titles, so Fishberg is a four-time Borgata titleist and he's due for number five. This event could be it!

*Indicates Adjusted Payout.