Event 5 Recap (Day 1)

$400 + $50 Omaha H/L 8B

The first Omaha tournament (Event 5) of the Borgata Winter Poker Open brought out a lot of familiar faces for the $450 H/L 8 or better. When Day 1 ended, Jeffrey Hunter (Bronx, NY) was the chip leader bagging 102,000 as 36 players are still in the running for $18,624 top prize.

The field featured two players with WSOP Bracelet's on the their resumes and a recent winner of a WSOP circuit ring. 'Miami' John Cernuto (Las Vegas, NV - 3 bracelets) and Brent Keller (Horsham, PA), who won his second Omaha ring in a Chicago area tournament last fall both survived the day. But Chris Reslock (Atlantic City, NJ - 1 bracelet) was a Day 1 casualty.

On the last hand of play for the night, Keller hit a diamond on the river to help scoop a pot that pushed him a top 10 stack with 58k. "The river card is the difference between having 58 or 28," says the mixed game specialist, "it's a nice way to end it."

Cernuto is just below the chip average with 40,500.

Other survivors include Barry Levy (Brooklyn, NY), who won this same event during the Borgata Poker Open (BPO) in September, and Leonardo Palermo (Ortley Beach, NJ) who had a quick turnaround after finishing 4th in Event 1 ($47,832) that concluded just 5 hours before the start of the Omaha tournament.

Notables in the 160 player starting field who were knocked out included Tom "Mark'em Down" Noyes (Clarks Summitt, PA), who finished second to Levy in September's BPO, and noted author Sheree Bykofsky (Atlantic City, NJ).

Play resumes 1 pm Saturday as 18 of the remaining players will get their share of the $64,000 total buy-in.