Day 1 at the WPT Borgata Winter Open

When 51 tables are dealing no-limit Texas hold’em, anything can happen on the felt. During the early part of day 1 at the 2008 Borgata Winter Open, the unthinkable often did happen. This winter World Poker Tour stop at the Borgata has become popular with the professional players, and with so many of them in action on Sunday, the strange became strangely routine.

The first oddity took place when Nick Schulman was dealt 5 5 on a board of K 5 5 4 2. Schulman got all of his chips into the middle against his opponent, Stephen Freda, and he thought he was golden with quad fives. But, low and behold, Freda flipped over A 3 to take the pot and cripple Schulman. The odds of hitting runner-runner for a straight flush … about 1,000-to-1. After the hand, Schulman put up a gallant fight to try and survive, but even after he tripled up, and then doubled up, he still had only 1,000 in chips. The fight was short for Schulman after the fatal blow, and he was out on the rail before the end of the first level. Schulman was joined during the early stages of the day at the rail by Bill Edler, Peter Feldman, and Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.

Another interesting hand transpired a little later in the day that dealt drastically different results for the professional player involved in the proceedings. With the board showing 10 8 7 8 4 on the river, David Williams doubled up when he flipped over 10 8 against his Freda's 8 7 to make a superior full house. Yes, you read that correctly - the same Stephen Freda who hit the runner-runner straight flush ealrier in the day was involved in this hand as well. "Live by the sword, die by the sword," said Freda of his wild day. This doubled Williams up to 38,000, which he used to his advantage, and he finished the day with 89,600.

Large contingents of online players were present on day 1, as more than 30 of them were dotted amongst the field. They included Ari “BoDogAri” Engel, Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis, Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen, and the de facto godfather of online players, Cliff “JohhnyBax” Josephy. Even with a number of aggressive online players in play alongside the swarm of aggressive professionals, the deep-stack structure of the tournament was conducive to a slow pace of play.

This did not prevent players from climbing to the top of the pack by accumulating boat-loads of chips. John Spadavecchia, who is fresh off of a final-table finish at the WPT stop in Tunica, became the second professional of the day to profit from a full house over full house cooler: Spadavecchia bet 12,200 on the river, enough to put his opponent all in, while 25,000 sat in the pot, and the board read A 10 8 A 6. Spadavecchia turned over A 8 and his opponent got up from the table and flipped over pocket tens on his way out of the tournament area. Spadavecchia took down the huge pot, which gave him the chip lead with 94,000. This lead only held for a while, though, as multiple players surpassed the 100,000 threshold as day 1 wound down. Among those who joined the century club were John “The Razor” Phan, Mike Vela, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Farzad Bonyadi, Victor Ramdin, Justin Bonomo, and Joe Sebok.

The prize pool was also announced today, and the field of 507 players helped create a first-place prize worth $1,401,109. The top 54 players will get paid, but considering that 317 outlasted day 1, a lot of poker will take place between now and then.

Notable Eliminations:

Day 1 Leader Board:

1. Lenny Cortellino — 213,000
2. John “The Razor” Phan — 182,825
3. Joe Sebok — 149,700
4. Justin Bonomo — 148,675
5. Vanessa Rousso — 148,350

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