partypoker US Network Players Choice Series (Dec.13-20)

In Level 13 with blinds of 1,800/3,600 and an ante of 450, "rprmoo" raised to 7,200 under the gun and Don "dhimp20" Himpele three-bet jammed for a little over 50,000 in the hijack. John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza called behind and all remaining players folded.

Don "dhimp20" Himpele:
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza:

Himpele earned the double, but it wasn't without a small flop sweat as the board ran out to ultimately leave his kings up best over Forlenza's missed straight draw and two pair, eights up.

Player	Chips	Progress
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza	278,674 147,730	147,730
rprmoo	186,773 35,210	35,210
Don "dhimp20" Himpele	116,998 32,389	32,389

Last month, the World Poker Tour (WPT) announced its first U.S.-based online Main Tour event, the $3,500 WPT Online Poker Open Main Event, set for a late December running in New Jersey. That one will also carry a guarantee of $1 million.

The WPT Online Poker Open Main Event will be held Dec. 27-29 on partypoker US Network for players in New Jersey.

The ambitious $1 million guarantee signifies how serious the WPT and partypoker are about making this a premier poker tournament worthy of the WPT name.

“The WPT Online Poker Open brings the most prestigious prize in poker to New Jersey and the partypoker US Network,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in a presser. “WPT’s continued pivot toward online will continue with another landmark for regulated online poker in the United States.”

Indeed, the WPT has pivoted into a strong series of online offerings, however, all were offered to the dot-com partypoker player pool, a much larger bunch of customers than the prospective New Jersey pool. Drawing the necessary entries to meet the guarantee will require some effort, and the WPT already announced satellites will be available for as little as $5.

Level 12 has just begun with blinds of 1,600/3,200 and an ante of 400, and "Ozzy_Rocks111" is the new chip leader with a stack of 234,000. In total, five players are above 200,000, and the top 25 stacks in the field have been updated below.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ozzy_Rocks111	234,557 124,354	124,354
ScarletRaptor	225,564 225,564	225,564
rprmoo	221,983 140,208	140,208
Ptkceaser	215,674 102,382	102,382
ChickenTendies	209,829 68,856	68,856
Josh "layitdown08" Rothberg	195,266 72,578	72,578
A.Jackson1767	155,072 155,072	155,072
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd	153,312 64,287	64,287
pompii	148,845 71,055	71,055
Jaime "mooseman1710" Reyes	140,815 6,039	6,039
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza	130,944 6,300	6,300
KevinDurant	122,754 42,204	42,204
deerpathdave	118,086 118,086	118,086
juansolo10	114,020 114,020	114,020
dadadada	99,207 11,224	11,224
Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski	96,651 25,561	25,561
Brian "TopCreature" Sherrier	94,920 2,812	2,812
audidriver	91,090 91,090	91,090
Cholie	90,677 23,675	23,675
Jon "Jetsfan411" Borenstein	90,232 22,449	22,449
Don "dhimp20" Himpele	84,609 7,229	7,229
Jinxy	84,470 8,550	8,550
Ross "Thehebrewhammer" Gottlieb	75,835 19,570	19,570
Eric "alwaysliquid" Vanauken	74,650 2,216	2,216
Yong "IReadYrSoul" Kwon	74,300 700	700

In Level 11 with blinds of 1,400/2,800 and an ante of 350, preflop action saw 16,000 go into the middle in a pot between "TraderSteve" in the big blind and John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza, who was in the hijack.

A pot-sized bet was then committed by each player on the flop , and "TraderSteve" shoved all in for another 22,000 on the turn . Forlenza called.

"TraderSteve":
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza:

"TraderSteve" had gotten their set of fours in against a pair of tens, but the river quickly appeared after chips went in to give Forlenza a better set and earn him the pot and the knockout.

Player	Chips	Progress
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza	137,244
TraderSteve	Busted

In Level 10 with blinds of 1,200/2,400 and an ante of 300, "dadadada" raised to 4,800 in the hijack and Josh "layitdown08" Rothberg three-bet jammed for 58,500 in the cutoff. Action folded back to "dadadada" and they called to send the two off to the races.

Josh "layitdown08" Rothberg:
"dadadada":

Both players hit the flop , giving Rothberg a set of tens and leaving him in need of fading the four kings in the deck along with running outs to a full house. The turn kept all of those possibliities alive, but it proved to be nothing more than a sweat as the river completed the runout to earn Rothberg the double.

Player	Chips	Progress
Josh "layitdown08" Rothberg	122,688
dadadada	110,431

Christmas is fast approaching and it’s the season to be jolly, as the song goes. Never mind jolly, some of you are going to be over the moon if you win some of the awesome prizes on offer in our Social Media Giveaways.

We’ve got some fantastic prizes to giveaway to you throughout December, our fantastic PokerNews readers, and they’re coming at a perfect time with the holiday’s fast approaching. There are Amazon gift cards worth between $50 and $300, tournament tickets, an Apple Watch, an iPhone 12 Mini and the much sought after Xbox Series X for you gadget lovers to win.

This promotion runs throughout December across all our social media channels so it’s definitely worth following us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and our Twitch channel so you don’t miss out on the chance to bag a Christmas prize.

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Play is now in Level 8 with blinds of 800/1,600 and an ante of 200. Thirty-nine entries have now been logged with 33 players currently in action across five tables, and "Ptkceaser" is now atop the leader board by a wide margin. Here's a look at the first page of the leader board.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ptkceaser	318,056 318,056	318,056
UberNoober	145,316 59,047	59,047
ChickenTendies	140,973 67,812	67,812
Jaime "mooseman1710" Reyes	134,776 38,948	38,948
Cholie	114,352 4,730	4,730
Chips_Jammed	110,887 45,712	45,712
Ozzy_Rocks111	110,203 6,060	6,060
Brian "TopCreature" Sherrier	107,934 999	999
Ross "Thehebrewhammer" Gottlieb	95,405 100	100
Ryan "TheSims" Hohner	95,238 95,238	95,238
dadadada	93,040 93,040	93,040
Jinxy	93,020 93,020	93,020
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd	89,025 61,672	61,672
pay4medsch00l	83,353 79,154	79,154
rprmoo	81,775 81,775	81,775
Got_Milk	80,640 80,640	80,640
KevinDurant	80,550 80,550	80,550
pompii	77,790 77,790	77,790
Don "dhimp20" Himpele	77,380 7,641	7,641
Josh "layitdown08" Rothberg	74,444 39,422	39,422

You might recall that In early 2019, Daniel "leinad" Buzgon signed on as a BorgataPoker.com Sponsored Pro – one of three alongside Michael “Gags” Gagliano and Katie Stone.

“It took a little bit of time to get all the paperwork and stuff like that,” Buzgon previously told PokerNews of becoming sponsored. “It was in December when it started but wasn’t official until just before the Borgata Winter series. Duties include mainly playing a lot online, promoting the site, and trying to get new players on the site.”

According to HendonMob, Buzgon has more than $2.3 million in lifetime live tournament earnings since 2007. He’s a four-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner has played for big money before. In 2001, he finished third in the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $335,433, and last year he finished fifth in the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event for $202,942. He also finished fourth in the 2012 WPT bestbet Jacksonville for $94,624.

Additionally, Buzgon is a beast online where he’s amassed more than $3.1 million in earnings, of which $435,457 has come on BorgataPoker.com where he plays under the screen name “leinad.”