Event 1: Triple Up Time

George Cicak from New Jersey looked at one card and put his tournament life at stake. Two other players joined his all in building a nice side pot. So Cicak would triple up or go home.

His cards were A-10 up against A-8 and 9-9. The flop fell Q-9-6.

George would need runner runner for the win.

He turns a 7 and shouts out "where's the eight?". Imagine your entire life on a gut-shot prayer?

Most of the table is standing, waiting for the river.

BOOM he hits the eight for the runner runner straight. Cicak triples up from 89,000 up to 300,000.

Sometimes you just feel it. You just know when it's coming. By the way, the first card he looked at was not the eight.

Event 1: Chuck Bruder Busts Out 83rd

Chuck Bruder (Mechanicsville, MD) just received a pretty good one, two punch.

Hand 1 - Chuck shoves with A-K up against Q-Q. Jaimie Kerstetter gets out of the way with pocket tens. Queens hold up and cripple Bruder.

The very next hand Chuck gets it all in without looking - heads up against Jamie. "I have pocket tens again. Back to back." Chuck flips over 5-6 and sighs, "I'm dead". Flop is Q-A-4 all hearts. Turn is the six of diamonds giving Chuck some hope. River is another six. Chuck thinks he wins until table realizes it was a heart and Jaimie has the ten of hearts for the flush.

Bruder was gracious in his defeat praising Jamie's play all day and stating that he shoved with A-K because he was ready to race and wanted to win the entire tournament, not just make the money.

83rd place for Chuck Bruder.

Event 1 Back From Dinner Break

12 minutes left in level 20.

10 tables remaining. Average stack is 361,309.

84 players left.

Event 2: Flying Along

"Suits" Sticking Around

While a lot of attention is on Event 1 in The Signature Room, the players in Event 2 are doing serious work in the Poker Room.

285 players started in the $400 + $50 NL tournament and are now down to 54 players.

James "Suits" Salters (W Hempstead, NY) is noticing the mass exodus and says he's partly to blame. "They don't believe me," he says while fixing his sharply pressed tie. "I've been up and down all day," adding that his max has been 50k.

"I win a pot, some other guy takes it. I double up, and some other guy takes it. They don't believe me when I have it."

One player's hasty exit, literally cost him a chance to win the tournament. There's three way all-in action and the hands are 7 7, A 8, 8 8.

The board brings an ace and a 7, making the pocket eights the third best hand. "Can you believe I lost to both of them," says the white hooded player, as he quickly leaves the tournament area.

One problem. After counting the stacks, white hoodie had both players covered and still had 3,100 chips left. He ends up returning with just one big blind left, but learned a lesson: Don't leave until the counting is done!

Players are on a 40 minute dinner break.

Event 1: Million Dollar Man

Yat "10-3" Cheng

Yat Cheng (Atlanta, GA) just took down a 980,000 pot with 10-3 off-suit. You heard me! He raised 45,000 with it and the fun ensued.

Big blind called with Q-9 and was feeling very good with a flop of 3-Q-10. BB shoves and Yat calls. 10-3 two pair holds giving Cheng a grand total of 1.1 million chips making him among the chipleaders.

Gianni Arcuri with 850,000 (Staten Island, NY) is sitting to Yat's left. "He's been playing like that all day. Very aggressive" said Arcuri. "He could have anything. The 10-3 didn't surprise me."

Sidenote: Gianni says hi to his wife Caroline.

Event 1: John Myung - 95th Place

John Myung hung in all day and ended up shoving his last 133k in with A8 off, only to run into Taha Maruf's pocket Tens. No Ace appeared to save John and he was busted in 95th place, earning $942.

Down to 91 players now.

Event 1: Roy "The Natural" Gardner in 96th

Roy "The Natural" Gardner (Long Island, NY) was strategically folding and fighting his way to the money.

The good news is he reached that goal.

Roy just busted out in 96th place after his short stack shove of 40,000 fell short.
Gardner's K-Q lost to pocket nines.

Event 1: Level 20

Play has resumed with Level 20, blinds 8k/16k and 2k antes.

Event 1: 97 Players Remain

The atmosphere has definitely loosened up here in The Signature Room now that the bubble has burst. John Corning (Syracuse, NY) moved his last ~50k all-in, then Gil "Gilly the Kid" Roden (Baltimore, MD) moved in over the top. Everyone else opted out and John showed AK offsuit. Gil was ahead with pocket Kings, but was crushed when an Ace hit the flop. John doubled up and Gil was left with about 72k.

Level 19 concluded with 97 players still in the mix. They're now enjoying a ten minute break.

Event 1: Soft Bubble

Bubbling Over with Joy

With just five spots from the money, players scramble to every table that announces "all-in." Play is very tight as the short stacks try to hang on to the top 100.

After a couple of eliminations, the floor stops play to count heads and to everyone's surprise exactly 100 players remain. There's no hand for hand play, no "official" bubble-boy, but lots of celebration.

Shortly after the announcement, Justin Eldeiry (Manalapan, NJ) is smiling like the butcher's dog as the first player to cash.

"I made the money," he says with excitement, "at least I didn't bubble."

Eldeiry takes home $942 and all shorties are now shipping their stacks hoping to double up.

Level 19 (6k/12k/2k ante) is winding down.

Event 2: Payouts

$400 + $50 No Limit Hold'Em
Entries: 285
Total Buy-in: $114,000

Place-Amount

1 $33,174
2 $18,799
3 $10,339
4 $7,741
5 $6,635
6 $5,529
7 $4,423
8 $3,317
9 $2,212
10-12 $1,438
13-15 $1,216
16-18 $996
19-27 $829

Event 1: Another Monster Table

Ryan Wolfson

I ran a quick check on the big stacks and another monster table has developed. Suraj Dalal has about 900k but is no longer in the lead. The player to his left, on the other side of the dealer, is now in the lead. That's Ryan Wolfson of Westbury, NY. Ryan's got about 1.1 million.

Tough beat for a player over on table 5. Action folded to the button who moved all-in for his last 32k. The small blind folded and the big blind decided he had to call the extra 20k with any two cards. Turns out he had J2 offsuit. The short-stack was ahead with K7 off, but the board was not kind to him; it came 8 5 2 Q A and the big blind took the pot.

104 players remain. The money bubble approaches!

Event 1: From 70,000 to 900,000 - The Gene Castro Story

PPI's Gene Castro

Poker Players International co-founder Gene Castro (New Jersey) began the day with 70,000 chips and has turned it into 900,000. His big hand?

Gene set it up after raising five hands in a row only to look down at pocket aces. He pops it 110,000 praying his fish takes the bait, pretty sure he was steaming from an incident occurring just one hand earlier.

Gene - "Karate Mike called the floor over and got this guy on tilt over a blind issue." Back to Gene's big hand - his fish ships it with only A-K and Gene's aces hold. "It was the perfect storm" said Gene. "I had a feeling he was angry. And he was really angry once I knocked him out."

Gene is pretty much sitting back now waiting to make some money claiming he'll fold to any re-raise. Take this with a grain of salt since I did get a wink and a nod out of him.

Blindturn of the Jedi

At this point in the tourney winning the blinds is crucial but winning your own blinds is also important.

Al "Jedi" Nepomnyaschiy at table six gives props to the player to his right. "I was in the big blind and he trapped me good last hand - I'll give him credit. He laid the chips in differently so I shoved with A-4." Small blind tabled A-A and doubled through Al.

The very next hand the force was with our Jedi friend as his 6-9 saw a flop of 3-6-3. With just the BB to beat, Al bet every street including 120,000 once he turned a 9. Big blind folded and Al flipped over his hand. BB - "I folded a six."

Event 1: Ladies working for the Lady

Cortney Scheiner

Cortney Scheiner of Sparta, NY was celebrating when her pocket Queens held up. She doubled up and is now stacking over 500k in chips.

Cortney is one of only three ladies remaining in this event and has the largest stack of the three.

Pat Rush (Glen Burnie, MD) doubled his ~70k stack when he got all-in pre-flop and called by Mark Steinberg. Pat's AK off held up against Mark's A9 off.

On the river with a board of A 8 2 9 T Suraj Dalal bet 45k. The player in seat 1 tanked for a bit, then made the tough call with pocket Kings. Suraj showed QJ offsuit for the runner-runner straight to take the pot. Seat 1's stack was crippled and busted out soon after.

Mark Steinberg is having a rough level. He raised to 48k utg+1 and everyone folded around to Joseph Capalbi (Brooklyn, NY) in the small blind. Joseph thought for a bit, then raised another 100k on top. Mark made the call and the flop came 4 4 2. Joseph announced he was all-in. Mark folded.

Level 18 came to an end and play continued into Level 19 with 6k/12k blinds, 2k antes.

Event 1: Battle of the Bouroughs

Nick Oliveri

The utg+1 player moved in for 88k and after some thought, Allen Chang (Brooklyn, NY) tanked for a couple of minutes, then called. Nick Oliveri (Staten Island, NY) then moved in over the top. Action folded back to Allen, who asked for the count. It was another 140k back to him. He counted out the chips and then counted what he had left. After a couple of minutes, he opted to fold.

Seat 3 held A9 off and was dominated by Nick's AK off. The board came completely dry: T 6 2 T J and Nick took the pot. Allen lamented that he folded pocket 9s, which would have been the winner.

Seat 6 opened for 25k and Mark Steinberg called from the button. The flop came J 7 6 with two clubs. Seat 6 checked and Mark moved all-in. That was good enough to claim the pot.

Mike "Little Man" Sica's pocket Aces held up and he has doubled to about 320k.

About 122 players remain. Only 100 get paid.

Event 2: Monster Man

Singh-ing a Sweet Tune

"Did you get a hold of the chip cart," asks a stunned player, who's just been moved to table 3. That's the reaction Rohan Singh's getting about his monster stack.

Singh (Ozone Park, NY) has 178k as Event #2 is only on Level 7 (300/600/75 ante).

"He thought it was a bounty tournament," says another player. "He's knocked out about 20 guys." Singh puts the actual number at 12 eliminations, with the biggest haul coming in a 60k pot.

Singh raises preflop with A 8 and gets one caller going to the flop of A A 3. All the money gets in with Singh way ahead of K K and his trip aces hold.

"I'm not going to sit on it," Singh says referring to his chip stack. "I'm not catching cards, I'm the chip leader and just pushing the small guys out."

Singh's a Borgata regular and has a few final tables in daily tournaments, but is looking for his first cash in a Borgata Open, "My goal in any tournament is to come out #1," he says while his mountain of chips continues to grow.

Event 1: Do You Know The Muffin Man?

Matt "Muffins" Mazzeo

22 year old baking distributor owner Matt "Muffins" Mazzeo has a Long Island accent as thick as molasses.

Just watched Muffins send a man three times his age to the rail when Matt's A-8 of spades held up to the A-2 shove.

The kid had to sweat a deuce in the window but started hollering the second his man hit fourth street. Board reads - 5-3-2-8-5

With that pot Matt's now up to 300,000.

Event 1: Level 18 Underway

500 dollar purple chips are off the table as Borgata colored up during the break.

Everyone has settled back into their Signature Room seats as Event 1 begins Level 18.

5000 / 10,000 blinds - 1000 antes.

16 tables - 137 players remain.

Average stack is 210,000.

Event 1: Stack Check

Mike "Little Man" Sica

John Myung has been working his short stack very hard today. After starting with almost 90k, he dropped as low as about 30k, and is now up to about 125k.

Gregory Bock has been on a similar roller-coaster ride. He began the day third in chips with 317k and after a couple of levels was down to only 52k. He's back on top of a comfortable 360k stack. Most of his gains were from grinding, but he said he caught a lucky double-up when he got all-in with A5 against pocket Tens. He caught an Ace on the flop and another on the turn.

Mike "Little Man" Sica has also been working hard today. He started the day with 124k and has managed to grind his way up to 162k.

Level 17 has concluded and players are taking a break. About 140 players remain putting the average at a bit over 215k.