It’s a big day in the poker world as the World Series of Poker is underway today, starting off Monday with a casino employees event with a $500 buy-in.

Frankly, unless the event is quite literal and open only to casino employees, we have no idea what it is. If you can enlighten us go ahead, but that would mean somebody leaving a comment on this blog, which, well, God forbid.

Today starts the WSOP’s Heads-up Championship event.

Meanwhile, to get to this point, The WSOP played out its first ever WSOP Circuit Championship. Players earned their way into the $1 million freeroll with wins on  the circuit, which included a stop at Harrah’s Resort in December and Caesars Atlantic City in March.

The event was won by Sam Barnhart, a 50-year-old software analyst from Little Rock Ark.  He takes home $300,000.

Barnhart won his way in at a circuit event held in Tunica Miss. in February. No Atlantic City qualifiers made it to the final table, but a few players seem to have traveled with the circuit playing multiple events and certainly may have played in an A.C. event.

In some other news, The Philly Inquirer, has a nice rundown on where the state of online poker is after the government crackdown in April. Unfortunately, the experts the paper talked to think it could be two to three years before the U.S. finally legalizes online poker.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out in the meantime.

And finally, here’s a little something about how to spot a bluff from Scotland’s John O’Groat Journal and Caithness Courier. Hey, some things are universal.

The Borgata has scheduled a special Memorial Day Weekend tournament for Sunday at 11am. The $170 + $30 tournament replaces the regular Sunday tournament.

Erin McKinnon

And that’s pretty much it for schedule changes as the city moves into the summer season with normal play.

The Borgata is also the site of the city’s highest bad beat jackpot at the moment at $311,110 for the full bad beat (quad 10s a minimum). That’s actually coming close to a record for the casino, which sees its bad beats hit at an amazing pace.

That’s especially true of the small bad beat jackpot (quads deuces to nines a minimum), which is capped, at $50K. Hits on the small bad beat often keep the Borgata from getting those monster jackpots.

The highest bad beat we’ve seen from the Borgata came about a year ago at $332K, which could easily be reached over a busy holiday weekend.

The Caesars combined bad beat was at $253,284 Friday morning and The Tropicana was close behind at about $245,000. The Taj Mahal’s bad beat has climbed back over $200K at $201,000.

Happy Memorial Day grinders.

According to Golden Nugget officials, Atlantic City should have a new poker room in play by the fall. And judging from the action at the brand’s Vegas casino, it should make a play to challenge the city’s big boys, the Borgata and the Taj Mahal.

As you’ve probably heard, Landry’s Inc., the Houston-based company that runs the Nugget brand, took over control of the former Trump Marina on Tuesday. The company plans to do ongoing renovations to the property through December.

And according to Amy Chasey, vice-president of marketing for the Nugget, a new about 35-table  poker room (there was no poker room at Trump Marina) will be a major component.

“Poker is a very important part of the Golden Nugget brand,” she says. “We’ve been involved with Poker After Dark on NBC and High Stakes Poker on the Game Show Network. So we really feel poker is synonymous with the Golden Nugget.

“We expect to have the room open by the fall,” she says. “And we are planning to have a special high-stakes, cash-game room. That’s a need we see here in the city that we want to fill. A lot of high stakes players appreciate their own space.”

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Yes Virginia, there are still whales playing casinos in Atlantic City and sometimes they win big.

The Press of Atlantic City tracked down the high roller who put a serious dent in The Tropicana’s bottom line last month and all in all took the city’s casinos for about $15 million since December, give or take.

His name is Don Johnson, 49, of Bensalem Pa. He’s the  chief executive officer of Heritage Development LLC, a Wyoming-based company that uses computer-assisted wagering programs for horseracing.

So, he’s a gambler.

According to the paper, Johnson “won $4.23 million at Caesars Atlantic City in December. Next, he conquered Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, winning about $998,000 in December, then $1.8 million in March and April and $2.25 million over two nights later in April. Most remarkable was his haul of $5.8 million during a 12-hour spree at Tropicana Casino and Resort in April, a record loss for the casino.”

However, Johnson did say he didn’t always win in the stretch, but didn’t elaborate on the amounts of his losses.

“I don’t wear Kevlar,” he told The Press. “I’m not bulletproof. I do have some losses in between.”

If the losses were also in the millions, this really isn’t all that big a story, but we have a feeling it was much less than he won.

“They beat most people in the long run because the average person won’t have the bankroll,” Johnson said. “But I have my own bankroll. If you can take the swings, you’re going to win. You also have to understand the math.”

So it’s your basic it takes money to make money story. Figures.

We’ll start off the Monday headlines this week with an actual bit of Atlantic City news. Apparently blowing off the much hyped, but completely wrong predictions of the rapture happening Saturday, 700 players turned out for the Borgata’s Saturday series $350 + $50 No Limit tournament.

That’s a pretty healthy turnout for the Borgata and a total buy-in of $245,000.

The event was won by Robert Hatcher of Oak Hill Va., an apparent amateur who takes home a nice $55,135 cash.

Speaking of amateurs, the most recent WSOP Circuit regional championship event played in New Orleans proves that satellite events for major tournaments can sometimes be the road to the big time.

The event was won by recreational player A.J. Jejelowa, a 27-year-old medical researcher at Rice University, who beat a field of 75 in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

That’s a pretty small field for the last regional championship event of the season before the WSOP itself (Harrah’s Resort drew 136 for its WSOP circuit regional championship in December), but with a $10k buy-in, you kind of have to expect that.

Jejelowa, who won his way in through a satellite, takes home $235,956. He told Cardplayer.com he intends to use the money to pay off some student loans.

Meanwhile the World Poker Tour Championship went to Scott Seiver, who wins about $1.6 million, bringing his tournament winnings to more than $4.2 million. It’s his first WPT win.

For those poker players who aren’t swept away in the rapture or successfully dodge the earthquakes, The Borgata continues its $100,000 Saturday Series this weekend (May 21).

Carmen Electra

The $350 + $50, one re-entry (through Level 6) tournament starts at 11am.

Players receive 15K in chips. Levels are at 30 minutes and antes kick in at level five.

As for the end of the world bad beats, The Borgata’s main bad beat jackpot (quad 10s the minimum) has gotten unusually high for the casino at $318,503. We say that’s high because the casino sees so many hits on their jackpot. The small bad beat is capped at $50,000.

The Caesars combined bad beat started Friday at $212,294 (quad nines the minimum) and the Trop comes in at about $230,000. The Taj Mahal’s bad beat jackpot is at $174,000.

And to help fight off those Apocalypse blues, we feature the lovely Carmen Electra this week.

Good luck grinders and God bless …

More Borgata news — because there’s always Borgata news — as the casino has announced the winners of its $1,000 buy-in Deepstack Double Play event that began Sunday, May 15.

Queen at the 2010 Spring Open

The winner was Alexander Queen of Bethlehem Pa., who wins $111,774.

You gotta figure Queen is liking the Borgata (Over say the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem) as he also picked up $355,535 at last year’s Borgata Spring Open by winning the championship event. He now has about $560,000 in tournament winnings.

The second place finisher for the tournament was Alek Givotovsky who wins $64,527.  Givotovsky had  first in the year’s spring open taking $47,287 in another No Limit Double Play event.

It’s no wonder the Borgata attracts such player loyalty.

The event attracted 451 players. Here’s the top five finishers:

1. ALEXANDER QUEEN (BETHLEHEM, PA): $111,774

2. ALEK GIVOTOVSKY (NEW YORK, NY): $64,527

3. ROBERT FETZKO (JOHNSTOWN, PA): $39,372

4. JOHN WHITWORTH (MYRTLE BCH, SC): $31,717

5. EUGENE TODD (BROOKLYN, NY): $24,937

The Borgata has released the schedule for the main tournaments in its Summer Open, June 8-24, and they’ve sprinkled in some exciting twists to keep things interesting.

The open competes directly with the World Series of Poker in Vegas and is probably the most regional in its player draw of the casino’s four opens. So to spice things up, The Borgata is introducing a new twist on bounty tournaments.

Three of the main events will include bounties. The twist is that everybody who plays will be a bounty.

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When the government moved against online poker last month, we figured Atlantic City’s poker rooms would reap a benefit.

But the numbers just don’t show it. Instead, April was kind of a down month for the city’s rooms, except of course, at The Borgata.

For a breakdown, check out our weekly Poker Lowdown column.

The WPT World Championship is underway at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and the $25,000 buy-in tournament managed to pull in 220 players. That’s an about $5.5 million total buy-in and first place will win about $1.6 million.

Abe Mosseri has the chip lead after Day 2 Sunday with $685K in chips.

Tekintamgac

But the real fireworks came when player Ali Tekintamgac took a seat at the tournament. Tekintamgac was disqualified last year from a Partouche Poker Tour Cannes event’s final table for cheating. A ruling by tournament staff claimed Tekintamgac was being signaled by “fake journalists and bloggers” about his opponents cards.

Tekintamgac has denied the allegations and even sued the French poker tour.

But that didn’t stop several players from objecting, loudly, to his participation in the WPT event.

Leading the pack was Daniel Negreanu who called Tekintamgac out at the table, but was pretty much told by Bellagio security to cut it out.

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