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$2,700 Summer Poker Open Championship
Day 1a Completed
2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open
$2,700 Summer Poker Open Championship
Day: 1a
Players Left 43 / 108
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Chip Counts
Chip Counts
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
The first of three starting days of the 2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship has concluded with 24 players remaining out of 89 entries in the flagship tournament of the series at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. With a price tag of $2,700, the crown jewel of the festival boasts a guarantee of $1 million and another two flights remain for players to join the action along with option to buy in before the start of Day 2 on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.
Upon completion of ten levels of 60 minutes each, Lewis Esposito topped the leaderboard by some margin after bagged up an impressive 425,500, more than ten and a half times the starting stack. His nearest follower is George St. Lawrence whereas another four players are then closely bunched together within two big blinds.
Among those is also Vittorio Abbate, who won his entry in a Poker4Life charity event in New York City last month and parlayed it into the fifth-largest stack of 226,000 after Day 1a thus far.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1a
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | BB Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Esposito | United States | 425,500 | 170 |
| 2 | George St. Lawrence | United States | 288,000 | 115 |
| 3 | Eric Starker | United States | 228,500 | 91 |
| 4 | Colin Moll | United States | 227,000 | 91 |
| 5 | Vittorio Abbate | United States | 226,000 | 90 |
| 6 | Xiaoqiong Liu | United States | 221,500 | 89 |
| 7 | Andrew Porter | United States | 204,500 | 82 |
| 8 | Gregory Bauer | United States | 193,000 | 77 |
| 9 | Emily Sun | United States | 165,000 | 66 |
| 10 | Jean Augustin | United States | 162,000 | 65 |
The only BetMGM ambassador to join the opening flight was Darren Elias, who made it through with one bullet and bagged up 79,000 in chips. Other notables outside of the top ten to advance were Charles Hook (114,000), Brandon Mueller (74,000), as well as Nicholas Funaro (50,500).
Esposito was down to as little as 16,000 when he got away from an overpair against Gregory Bauer which the latter bemoaned later on in table chat before Esposito won a series of larger pots to become the commanding chip leader. The largest of them all came in an all-in showdown against Robert Ozello when his flopped set of nines had Ozello's ace-king for top pair and top kicker in dire shape. Just before the final hands of the night, Esposito also sent Jordan Glazer to the rail to cement his lead by some margin.
Four of the 24 survivors on Day 1a were women led by Xiaoqiong Liu (221,500) and she was followed on the overnight leaderboard by Emily Sun (165,000), Sharman Olshan (65,500), as well as Kathy Saraf (51,000).
Other notables to come and go without anything to show for but expensive buy-in slips were 2025 Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship winner Matthew Zambanini, Danny Vo, Thomas Laviano, Benedetto Bianco, Jason Kluska, and Jason Nguyen to name all but a few casualties of Day 1a. They all have another two flights to try and run up a stack, both of which are set to commence at 12.15 p.m. local time on the following two days.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to cover all of the action throughout the entire remainder of the 2026 Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship until a winner has been crowned on July 31, 2026.
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
After one more elimination in the final three hands of the night, the final 24 players bagged up their chips for the night. Full chip counts and a recap of today's action are to follow.
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
Three ways to the K♥3♥2♠ flop, 6,000 each went into the middle before the K♣ turn paired the board.
Anthony LaRocca now pushed all-in for his short stack of 26,5600 from the small blind and Xiaoqiong Liu reluctantly folded from under the gun. Gregory Bauer, however, snap-called and that was bad news for LaRocca.
Anthony LaRocca: A♠2♥ 
Gregory Bauer: 2♣2♦
LaRocca was drawing dead prior to the 5♦ river and Bauer got a very late boost, but missed out on getting more chips from Liu.
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
On a flop of 9♠6♦2♣, Lewis Esposito bet 16,500 and the action then went on Jordan Glazer who had around 65,000 behind. Glazer eventually pushed all-in and was snap-called.
Jordan Glazer: Q♣6♣
Lewis Esposito: K♠K♣
The 5♣ turn gave Glazer a lot of outs, which he all missed on the 9♥ river.
Shortly after, the final three hands of the night were announced.
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
Charles Hook had jammed for 38,000 in the small blind and Colin Moll called in the hijack. Jean Augustin then pushed all-in over the top and Moll asked for an exact count, which turned out to be for 152,000 total. Moll folded and showed his A♣Q♥.
Charles Hook: 6♥6♣
Jean Augustin: A♠A♥
The aces were cracked on the 8♦3♥2♦6♠8♠ board and Hook tripled with sixes full.
Some table chatter followed as Augustin apparently said "goodbye" to Hook before he concluded with the following statement:
"This hame is all luck, there is no strategy involved".
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
On the river of a 10♣8♥6♣2♦4♥ board, Benjamin Duronio checked and then faced the all-in of Xiaoqiong Liu for what appeared to be around 70,000.
Duronio reluctantly called and was shown the A♠10♠ for the top pair and top kicker.
Duronio tapped the table in defeat and said "nice hand" before sliding his cards towards the muck. As per all-in showdown rule, his 9♥8♠ for the second pair was revealed and his stack was cut into more than half.
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
Kyle Grupp moved all-in for the last 3,000 from under the gun and Andrew Porter isolated with a reraise to 10,000.
Kyle Grupp: Q♣4♣
Andrew Porter: K♦K♥
The J♣5♥2♣ flop gave Grupp a flush draw and the 6♥ turn added a gutshot. However, the Q♦ river was not enough to complete a possible miracle comeback alive.
Level 10
: Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante
Benedetto Bianco was eliminated with a short stack when his 7♣6♣ had a flush draw on the K♣J♣8♥ flop to gain more equity against the 2♠2♣ of Darren Elias. The 2♦ turn gave Elias a set and the 9♦ river was a blank.
On the same table, Charles Hook then re-entered.
What followed was a massive clash between Robert Ozello and Lewis Esposito. On a board of K♦9♠2♦, the chips went into the middle for the largest pot of the tournament so far.
Robert Ozello: A♠K♥
Lewis Esposito: 9♦9♥
The 8♥ turn and 10♦ river completed the board and they counted the stacks. Esposito covered by a small margin to send Ozello to the rail.
On the same table, Matthew Zambanini was then knocked out by Benjamin Duronio to bring the field down further in a frantic last level of the night.
Cleveland Richards also doubled when his 5♦5♥ for a turned flush held against the K♠Q♠ of Gregory Bauer on a board of J♦6♥4♠5♠2♣.
