Highlights this weekend for Atlantic City poker rooms include the main event at the Show Boat Open Saturday at 11am. The $50,000 guaranteed prize pool, No Limit Hold’em event carries a $225 +25 buy-in. The Open runs through Sunday and includes a $260 + $40 deepstack tournament Sunday at 11am. The event is in the Orleans Ballroom and registration begins two hours before each event. Go here for the schedule.

Also, pro Annie Duke makes her teaching debut in Atlantic City as she head up the World Series of Poker Academy, Saturday through Monday at Harrah’s Resort. Duke will be teaching along with Shawn Rice, Bernard Lee, Court Harrington and Joe Navarro. The two-day academy (Monday’s session is only for alumni) costs $1,899. Go here for details.

Alex Queen

They didn’t need a fifth day of play in the Borgata Spring Open Championship as Alex Queen of Bethlehem Pa. won the $355, 535 top cash late Thursday. Jason Min of East Meadow N.Y., the chip leader going into Thursday’s play takes second and $205,965 and third goes to Dan Hinden of Danbury Conn at $101,756.

Judging by The Borgata’s description of the final hand, which Queen won with an ace, seven (that’s it, just Queen had ace, seven,) it sounds like the player’s may have settled on a split, but then that’s up to them.

Here’s Queen talking about his win:

It’s been a pretty good run for the fledgling Spring Open and one remaining event, a $200 + $30 No Limit tournament is scheduled for today at noon. The Open included the East Coast Championship, won by Sorel Mizzi who officially took home about $170,000 (though again, he and runner-up  Chris Klodnicki agreed to a split). The $3,500 buy-in Championship event drew a low turnout of 383 players, which is probably why a fifth day of play wasn’t needed, but did cover its $1 million guaranteed prize pool.

Still, for a first time event, the Open brought out some notable pros such as Steve Dannenman and Gavin Smith and attracted more than 1,200 players to its opening event.  Not a bad start at all.

Here’s the championship events final results (after the jump):

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The Tropicana Poker Room sent us a reminder about the $45,000 Freeroll Spectacular still underway there. Two $15,000 freeroll tournaments are left; scheduled for June 11 and Aug. 6.

So we dutifully pass the info onto you.

Poker players at Tropicana can still earn a seat in the second $15,000 Freeroll Tournament in the Tropicana Poker Room for players who receive 120 hours of qualified play during each of the tournament periods. Players with 120 hours of play will receive $10,000 in tournament chips and players with 150 qualified hours of play will receive a bonus $5,000 in tournament chip, totaling $15,000.  Players can also earn double hours Sunday through Friday from 2am-10am.

The tournament schedule is as follows:

Play now (began April 1) through Monday, May 31 to earn entry into the Friday, June 11th tournament.

Play Tuesday, June 1 through Saturday, July 31 to earn entry into the Friday, August 6th tournament.

Call 888-POKER AC for information (press #3).

Players have been dropping pretty fast at the Championship event of the Borgata Spring Open and the field was already at a final table by about 2pm. The 11^th place finisher, Michael Castaldo of Palisades, N.Y. earned $15,938. Go here for live updates.

Here’s the final table list by position, not chip count:

Seat, Player
1 Matthew Waxman
2 Alex Queen
3 Roger Van Driessen
4 Allen Chang
5 Michael Somma
6 Jesse Yaginuma
7 Mickael Morgousky
8 Adam Junglen
9 Daniel Hinden
10 Jason Min

Stephanopoulos

How’s this for a dream table? George Stephanopoulos, Annie Duke, Phil Helmuth, Steven Beigletter and Jason Lee all banging heads in a Hold’em showdown. Ok, that’s a pretty strange mix, but it happened Thursday at Harrah’s Atlantic City. It’s part of Good Morning America’s “Live the Dream” segment, which sends its anchors out to live their wildest dreams. Stephanopoulos apparently has always wanted to get yelled at by Helmuth. Go here for our story.

The bubble has been popped at the Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship event and 27 players are left in the field for Day 4 action.

Pro Larry Sharp was the bubble boy for the tournament taking 37^th place and $0. Sharp lost a heartbreaker the hand before he washed out with an ace king suited against another ace king suited, but his opponent, Jesse Yaginuma got the flush. Short stacked, he went all in with ace, five, but lost to a pair of queens.

Robert Deppe, of Lima Ohio, was the first to cash in 36^th taking $6,150.

Play today should get down to a final table. The winner gets $353,000.

The chip leader is Jason Minn of East Meadow N.Y. with $1.4 million. Minn’s previous best tournament finish was a 2^nd place in a No Limit event at the Borgata Summer Open in 2008. He got an about $24,000 cash in that event.

Here he is talking about his chip lead:

And here’s the current chip counts (after the jump):

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Even as the Borgata Spring Open Championship event makes its way to the bubble (less than 10 spots to go), comes word of another major event at the casino.

The Borgata will host a $1,500 + $150 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed prize pool, Deep Stack, No limit Hold’em event starting Sunday and Monday May 16-17 (opening play split over two days). $30,000 in chips, blinds start at $25-$50.

The event includes qualifiers May 9, 14, 15 and 16.

Here’s the schedule:

QUALIFIERS

$165 + $35 No Limit Hold’em

-Sunday, May 9 at 11am

$330 + $50 No Limit Hold’em

-Friday May 14 at 4pm

-Saturday, May 15 at 11 am

-Sunday May 16 at 4pm

$500,000 GUARANTEED DEEP STACK POKER TOURNAMENT
$1500 + $150 No Limit Hold’Em
30,000 in Starting Chips

MAY 16 – 19,
Day 1A – Sunday, May 16 at 11am
Day 1B – Monday, May 17 at 11am
Day 2 - Tuesday, May 18 at 11am
Day 3 – Wednesday, May 19 at 11am

Another cool poker app is hitting the market and it actually gives this blog a chance to fulfill a several weeks old dream  (Hey, we’ve only been around that long) of somehow finding a reason to use a picture of dogs playing poker.

So here it is as Candywriter today announced a new iPhone app called Dogs Playing Poker  1.0. The app costs $1.99 and is available at The App Store.

The app is actually a game designed to teach hold’em, (which explains why the dogs in this modernized pic aren’t playing a more traditional poker game).

Here’s the description:

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Only 79 of 383 players are left in the Borgata Spring Poker Open $3,500 buy-in  Championship Event after three days of play. The top 36 cash in the tournament, with the winner taking home $353,000. Play resumes today.

Ryan D'Angelo

The chip leader is pro Ryan D’Angelo of Blacksburg Va. D’Angelo has more than $1 million in tournament winnings. Earlier this month, he finished 42^nd at the North American Poker Tour Championship at the Mohegan Sun, an $11,500 cash, but also scored a major cash at the PokerStars EPT Caribbean Main Event in early January where a 5^th place finish netted him $700,000.

So he’s been kind of hot this year.

Here’s the top 10 chip counts going into today’s play:

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Actor James Woods run at The Borgata Spring Open Championship ended quickly today as he rode a pair of pocket queens to nowhere and watched trip kings send him to the rail. Woods moved all in with his queens after the turn on his last hand despite a pair of kings on the board. Player Andrew Rosen called, and yes, had a king. Woods had a shot at a boat on the river, but alas, no queen, no luck and no more James Woods today.