Event 4 Recap (Day 1)

Only 19 players remain in Event 4 ($560 NL) as Day 1 play ended with several big stacks poised to make a run at the $44,915 first prize.

Hector Jimenez (Passaic, NJ) became the chipleader on the second to last hand of the night. He sits on top of the leaderboard with 554,000 chips, but knows the tournament is far from over.

Ed Jordon decided to shove 250,000 when the flop fell 2-6-K. Hector was afraid Jordon had pocket aces but felt he had to make the call with A-K. Jordon tabled A-9 of spades and the board ran clean. Hector took his entire stack.

Jimenez feels confident but pulled back a little by stating, "I don't know how it'll play out tomorrow, we'll see."

Also in the hunt is Kam Chin with 468,500 chips who was leader until Hector's huge hand. Kam's big hand came when his set of kings felted a deepstacks set of fives.

Then there's Michael Green with 324,000 chips. He's still smiling over his four-way all in victory when he hit the miracle runner, runner spades giving his AsJs (the worst hand in) the nut flush score.

One of the chip leaders throughout the day was Adina Winston who had a straight flush then almost hit quads sixes a few hands later. Adina went out in 22nd place earning $1,248 and just missed being the last woman standing.

That title went to Joanne Monteavaro who played solid short stack poker all day and graciously bowed out after losing a 10-10 vs. AK flip when an ace hit the river. The Borgata notable, Joanne, finished in 21st place.

Hector Jimenez' girlfriend Wendy is five months pregnant and almost delivered on the felt. She cheered on and sweated her man from the rail since the tournament started at 11am. I asked Wendy what she'll do if Hector (our chipleader) wins. Her reply - "Baby money!" Hector concluded with, "It's a good way to end the night".

The starting field of 343 had a lot of Borgata regulars and many of them made it through to Day 2 including Al Riccobono (Ossining, NY) and Ted Geier (Sunnyside, NY). Gordon Eng will have to get em next time as he was the bubble.

Play resumes 1 pm Saturday as the field competes for what's left of the $171,500 buy-in.