Event 21 Day 1B Recap

Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship   

445 entries on day 1B swelled the total number of players for the Borgata Winter Open Championship to 718.  Total buy-ins for this event are $2,369,400.  The final 72 players will earn a piece with the eventual winner taking away $533,210.

The Day 1B field was sprinkled with a generous supply of World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour title holders.  The most notable was Michael 'the Grinder' Mizrachi, who holds two WPT titles, one of which was won here in the Borgata Winter Poker Open/WPT Championship, January 2006.  He also now has a WSOP bracelet, won in the $50,000 Player's Championship last summer.  He did not survive the day, however, and will not be returning for day two. 

Cornell Cimpan, who also has two WPT titles, didn't make it to the final bell on day two.  Neither did  WSOP Bracelet holders Robert Mizrachi, Jason Young, Dan Heimiller, nor James van Alstyne.

There were quite a few players with WSOP and/or WPT titles and it appears all the rest survived and will return for day two:

Eric Buchman
Jason DeWitt
Dan Heimiller
Ryan Hughes
Brian Lemke
Jeff Papola
Victor Ramdin
Vanessa Selbst
John Spadavecchia
Steve Sung
Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Robert Varkonyi

Overall chip leader going into day two is Joey Couden (Columbus, OH).  He will return with 128,800.

Day two begins at 11am  Tuesday here in the Event Center of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.