Event #1: $600 Deepstack Kick-Off Day 1d | 2020 Borgata Winter Poker Open

01-16-2020 14:49 UTC-4

Rivera More than Doubles Upon Arrival

Kaelaine Minton

Level 8 : 400/800, 800 ante

Eric Rivera arrived and took his seat a bit late, during the previous level. Soon after sitting down, he was involved in a three-way confrontation and flopped a straight with straight-flush redraw. He was up against a player with the nut-flush draw and another with an over-pair to the board.

All the draws failed to come in and Rivera's hand held, more than doubling his starting stack!

Player	Chips	Progress
Eric Rivera	63,000 38,000	38,000

Tags: Eric Rivera

01-16-2020 14:52 UTC-4

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Chad Holloway

Level 8 : 400/800, 800 ante

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01-16-2020 15:09 UTC-4

Datashvili Hiding in the Low Tables

Kaelaine Minton

Level 8 : 400/800, 800 ante

Among the familiar faces seated just inside the Event Center, we found 2019 Summer Poker Open Championship winner Jackob Datashvili. Last Summer, he came out on top of a field of 514 entrants in that $2,700 buy-in event to claim first place, $276,129, and his first Borgata title.

He's struggling here in the early levels, down to about half what he started with, currently sitting on about 16 big blinds.

Some other familiar faces sharing the entry-area tables, with chip counts:

Player	Chips	Progress
Bart Dowling	130,000
Phong Nguyen	37,000
Lexy Gavin	32,000
Joel Gola	30,000
Jackob Datashvili	13,000
Joe Reddick	10,000

01-16-2020 15:20 UTC-4

Break #2

Kaelaine Minton

Level 8 : 400/800, 800 ante

End of Level 8 and time for the second break of the day. There are still four more levels of Late Registration for this flight.

Level: 9

Blinds: 500/1,000

Ante: 1,000

01-16-2020 15:45 UTC-4

Gleason Gets His Seat Online

Kaelaine Minton

Level 9 : 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Jersey resident Tom Gleason won his seat in this event playing online at BorgataPoker.com, so he's already ahead of the crowd.

Last Winter, he managed to navigate the field of more than 5,100 entrants to cash in this event, but his last and only trip to the winner's circle at Borgata was back in 2012 (Summer Poker Open Big Stack Bounty NLH). He's come close, however, and scored his best career cash of $72,354 in this event during the 2016 Summer Poker Open, finishing 4th out of 2,368 runners.

Player	Chips	Progress
Tom Gleason	33,000 33,000	33,000

Tags: Tom Gleason

01-16-2020 15:53 UTC-4

Flight D Tables Breaking Down

Kaelaine Minton

Level 9 : 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Now that an entry or re-entry means sitting down with only 25 big blinds (25,000 chips at 500/1,000/1,000), the pace of arrivals has slowed and tables are breaking down to make room for the next flight.

Registration remains open for this fight until the start of Level 13, about 4:45 p.m., but the number of entries should not climb by much. Players can chose to wait until 6 p.m. for Flight E, the final starting fight, and sit down with 250 big blinds (25,000 chips at 100/100).

Level: 10

Blinds: 600/1,200

Ante: 1,200

01-16-2020 16:07 UTC-4

An Mis-Matched Duo

Kaelaine Minton

Level 10 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

A couple of players in the middle of the room present an unlikely duo, but demonstrate tournament poker as the great equalizer.

Bill Gazes has more than $2.3 million in career tournament earnings, a best live cash of $759,000, and cashes in all variants of the game.

On his left is Charles Kassin, with total live earnings of just over $57,000 and a best live cash of $13,140. He has cashed in three Borgata Open Kick-Offs (2019 BFPO, 2019 BPO, & 2019 Spring Poker Open).

At this point Kassin has more chips, but this is a marathon, not a sprint, and there still a long way to go to reach the coveted plastic bag at the end of Level 15, not to mention the culmination of this event, which will be on Saturday, January 18.

Player	Chips	Progress
Charles Kassin	73,000 73,000	73,000
Bill Gazes	58,000 58,000	58,000

Tags: Charles Kassin Bill Gazes

01-16-2020 16:28 UTC-4

Like Father, Like Son

Kaelaine Minton

Level 10 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Borgata has several husband and wife duos, pairs of brothers and even sisters who play tournaments together. Today we have a Father/Son pair in action.

Theen Wey is the father and has $98,814 in tournament earnings. His best showing here at Borgata is second place in a 2016 Spring Open Saturday Series, for which he earned his best live cash of $27,330.

Ta Wey, his son, has $111,211 in earnings and a best live cash of $44,661 for fourth place in the 2011 Borgata Poker Open $450 NLH event — also his best finish at Borgata.

They're pretty evenly matched, so it will be interesting to see who wins the last-longer in this family!

Player	Chips	Progress
Ta Wey	78,000 78,000	78,000
Theen Wey	63,000 63,000	63,000

Tags: Ta Wey Theen Wey