$5,300 The Return ($3,000,000 Guaranteed)
Day 1b Completed
The Return - A Borgata Championship Event
$5,300 The Return ($3,000,000 Guaranteed)
Day: 1b
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
Players Info - Day 1b
The Return - A Borgata Championship Event
Buy-in
$5,300
Prize Pool
$5,538,700
Entries
1,142
Level
34
Blinds
200,000 / 400,000
Ante
400,000
Entries
683
Players Left
330
Kabir One of the Top Stacks With Elias and McKeehen After Day 1b in $5,300 The Return
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
The Return - A Borgata Championship Event in Atlantic City was full of action today during Day 1b of the $5,300 The Return. A field of more than 650 took their shot at the second of two starting flights and when all the dust settled after thirteen hours of play, about a third of those players remained with a chance at the $3,000,000 guarantee.
The day was chock full of big names and Borgata locals alike. Ending the day as one of the largest stacks was low-profile Mohammed Kabir who has very little recorded poker resume to speak of but was one of the big stacks throughout the day, holding as much as 425,000 at one point He would relinquish some of that big stack before bagging 310,000.
Juxtaposed with the scant record of Kabir at the top of the counts, was well-known crusher Darren Elias who amassed a chip stack of 276,500.
Young Sik Eum (265,500) and Michael Leah (265,000) were two of the largest recorded stacks at the close of play to headline some of the other big names who advanced to Day 2 which also included a couple of WSOP bracelet winners in Michael Wang (102,000) and Nick Schulma in (98,500).
Joe McKeehen bagged up 212,500 as he was yet another big-name player to have a good Day 1b.
There were also some more local players who moved on to Day 2 with big stacks; including Aubrey Williams with 259,000 and Frank Pasquale with 251,000.
The remaining players from Day 1b will converge with those who made it through Day 1a for a combined Day 2 which will get underway at 11 a.m. local time on Friday. Levels on Day 2 will be 75 minutes long.
A full list of chip counts and seat assignments for Day 2 will be available in the morning before the start of play.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand throughout for all of the updates.
Assorted Day 1b Chip Counts
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
310,500 | -114,500 |
|
276,500 | 129,500 |
|
265,500 | 265,500 |
|
265,000 | 20,000 |
|
259,000 | -48,000 |
|
251,000 | -59,000 |
|
212,500 | 89,500 |
|
161,500 | 116,500 |
|
144,000 | -1,000 |
|
102,000 | 29,000 |
|
98,500 | -16,500 |
|
77,000 | -5,000 |
|
74,000 | 17,000 |
|
69,000 | 32,000 |
|
68,100 | -9,900 |
|
51,000 | -24,000 |
Three More Hands
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
The floor has drawn three more hands for the night and then the players will bag their chips to advance to Day 2.
"Cuz" Collects
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
The board read 
on the river. Steven "Cuz" Buckner tossed out some chips for a bet of 25,000 into a pot of about the same amount.
His opponent thought for about 30 seconds before relinquishing his hand and sending the pot over to Buckner.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
82,000 | 82,000 |
Royal Flush on the Board
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
One of the rarest sights in poker was seen in Level 12 as a table was reacting. In a preflop all in, Lukasz Wojtasiak held the 
against the of Jimmy Born.
But the two pocket holdings were rendered completely meaningless as there was a royal flush on the board, 
. Most of the table was standing up and taking pictures of the super rare sight except for one player at the table who grew quickly annoyed and said "nobody gives a s***, deal the next hand!"
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
97,000 | 49,000 |
|
85,000 | 85,000 |
Maio Sent Away
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
Anthony Maio was all in preflop with the 
against the 
of his opponent.
The board ran out 
and Maio was sent away in the final level of the night as he will not be replicating his run good from finishing second in the $2,200 Mystery Bounty.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |
Late Night Big Stacks
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
425,000 | 150,000 |
|
315,000 | 241,000 |
|
|
310,000 | 10,000 |
|
|
307,000 | 307,000 |
Final Level of the Night
Level 10
: Blinds 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
Day 1b has now reached the final level of the night. 75 more minutes of action will be played before the players bag and tag.
Level: 10
Blinds: 800/1,600
Ante: 1,600