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With 297 entries on Sunday, the WPT Borgata Poker Open has started. Dag 1 began with poker pros, such as Brian Hastings, Darren Elias, Josh Arieh, Joe McKeehen, Eli Elezra and of course Olivier Busquet. Day Two on Tuesday will begin with 152 players.

On Monday Day 1B kicks off. On Friday we’ll have one last man standing. Until then, the play continues. The tournament guarantees a prize pool of at least $3 million and the buy-in for the event is $3,500. Players can get back into the action on Monday if they already busted on Sunday as it’s a rebuy event.

With the largest stack (206,200) Farid Jattin ended day superior. He will go for his third final table and fifth WPT cash in his career. For the first time, he’d also like to be part of the WPT Champions Club.

On Friday the shooting of the event will begin at the six-player final table by Fox Sports. For their usual entertaining color calls, Vince van Patten and Mike Sexton will be there as well.

Treachery and Age

There are two poker superstars breathing down the neck of Jattin. With 187,000 chips Josh Arieh is in second place followed by Olivier Busquet with 177,700 chips.

If we have a look at other Champions Club members with over 100,000 chips, we see three other players still in the race. Mike Shariati, the reigning WPT Player of the Year, is close with 99,900 but  is not over 100,000 like Will Failla, Eli Elezra and Kevin Saul.

“Elezra, at 55 years old, is still having great success on the tournament trail. The Israeli is a couple of weeks removed from a 2nd place finish in a Las Vegas WSOP Circuit event (where he took $105,281) and a 6th place finish in a Venetian Deepstacks tournament ($46,000). This summer, he cashed at the World Series of Poker no fewer than 10 times.”

With 67,400 chips as an average stack size, Darren Elias made it through Day One. He is one of WPT history’s top performers. On the World Poker Tour the $2 million lifetime mark is now very close for Elias. With six final table appearances and a pair of titles he has a tremendous poker record.

After finishing 5th at the WPT Legends of Poker last month, William Vo (77 years old) will begin Day 2 with 96,100 chips. He became a crowd favorite last month and is now again beloved by the fans.

Among the other notables who reached Day 2 of the event are: Brian Hastings (42,200), Anthony Zinno, Stan Jablonski (102,800) and others.

 

 

 

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