Borgata WPT $3,500 Main Event Breaks the 1,000 Player Mark

Day 1a and 1b are over at the Borgata WPT $3,500 main event, and although I was hoping to see over 1,100 runners to get the first prize over the one million mark, they managed to attract a whopping 1,018 players, which amounts to a prize pool of $3,359,400 and a first prize of $925,514. Hey you be the judge, would you rather play a $10,000-15,000 buy in event against 250-400 players, or a $3,500 event with a field of over a thousand. I believe it’s a simple choice; Borgata is the nuts! I’d love to hear feedback on this. This event also competed with several big online events, WSOP Europe, and took place on the biggest of Jewish holidays.

I drew a decent table, although I had Matt Stout (all in 420) two to my right. We avoided each other all day until right around the end of registration for the 5k online event, which he really wanted to play. He raised on the button to 3 big blinds and I had 10 10 in the big blind. Taking into account his wanting to double up his 12k stack with the average around 40k, I re-raised him with what I thought was a scary looking min. 3 bet. He insta-shoved and I called. Matt flipped over AK off-suit and the flop came K 10 4 rainbow, with a blank on the turn and another king on the river, my ten’s stayed ahead and Matt should have made the online registration deadline. He shrugged and said, “with that board it was all going in anyway.” He was of course right.

I never played any big pots and although I had AA twice, I got no action. The day was one of small pots and no showdowns, which was fine with me. I finished with 88k, and I think the average is around 60k, which is about half the field gone. Tomorrow begins with 300-600 blinds, and we should play the same 8, one hour and fifteen minute levels. My good friend Jay Berger also played today and finished the day just below average in chips. He said he had a tough table because Lacey Jones was across from him all day and he was distracted. He came over to my table, which was the last to finish, and asked if he could request her table tomorrow. I probably need to adjust his ADD meds.