There’s a lot to report from the Borgata Winter Open poker tournament, which moved into its main event, a $2 million guaranteed prize pool no-limit hold’em tournament, on Sunday (Jan. 31). Day 1-A (today is Day 1-B), saw about 279 players register for the $3,300 + $200 buy-in. Borgata officials expect a larger crowd today as there were some major online events happening Sunday.

Dan Shak

One of the clear day one stars has to be Dan Shak, who just won the $100,000 Challenge at the 2010 Aussie Millions in Melbourne to the tune of $1.2 million. Shak beat Phil Ivey, who you may recall from an earlier blog, became the all-time tournament money leader with his $600,000 finish. Shak’s ex-wife and poker pro Beth Shak, is also expected to play in the main event.

Michael Phelps

The open has seen its fair share of pros so far. At last week’s $2,000 buy-in heads up event pros included Gavin Smith, Matt Glantz, Jeff Madson, Jason Mercier, Adam Gerber, Michael Binger, Nicholas Binger, Paul Wasicka, this past September’s Borgata Poker Open Champion Olivier Busquet, and in a celebrity sighting, Olympian Michael Phelps. Despite the names, the winner of the tournament was listed as Freddie Najafabadi.

Meanwhile, in one of the last big buy-ins before the main event, Daniel Garon of Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. won  $143.051 in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event Sunday.

You can follow the main event action here.

Tags: atlantic city, Borgata, Michael Phelps, poker

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Atlantic City Miscellany, Casino News, Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.