News from over a holiday weekend moves at its own pace and we’ve finally gotten word of a major bad beat jackpot hit at The Tropicana on Friday, Nov. 25, shortly after noon, we think.

Anyway, the jackpot hit for $309,387.96.

Here’s the very precise rundown from The Trop.

“Domingo Feliz was dealt pocket queens while Pablo Zabala received a 10 and nine of spades. The flop revealed a jack of spades, deuce of hearts and queen of spades, leaving Zabala with an open-ended straight Flush draw and Feliz with three queens.

The turn produced an eight of spades giving Zabala his straight flush …The magic occurred on the river when Domingo Feliz received his 4th queen; the queen of Hearts” paying the group $309,387.96

Domingo Feliz won $123,755.19
Pablo Zabala won $61,877.59
The other 8 players at the table received $15,469.40 each.”

No word on where these guys were from, but at least we got a hand rundown. And even better, we have a big check picture with Feliz. We love big check shots.

While the hit is great for the players involved, it actually wipes out the large bad beat jackpot reserve the Trop has been building since late last summer when they saw the jackpot climb to $540K before it hit last month.

Their jackpot is now down to $113,315.

Still, with a $542,000 cash last month and a $309,000 hit this month, why that’s $850,000 in jackpot money given away at the Trop in two months.

Pretty cool.

Here’s that big check shot.

The  Caesars Entertainment three card poker 6 bonus promotion hit again, though not for the $1 Million grand prize which hit last month.

This time the hit was good for $100,000.

The game is played at Caesars properties’ three card poker tables. If you make the bonus bet, you get a shot at six card bonuses, counting your three cards and the dealer’s three cards.

Yeah, it’s a little confusing, but if you hit a six card super diamond flush (to the nine) you get $1 million.

On Friday, Nov. 25, (which apparently was some kind of big shopping day), Richard N. Wood of Newport News Va, hit a super royal flush in hearts at Harrah’s Resort, which under the bonuses is good for $100,000.

“I didn’t actually realize what I had won till after a few minutes,” Wood, 72, told the casino. “When they told me I almost had a heart attack.  It’s a day I’ll never forget.”

Then they asked him something about shopping because of this Black Friday thing. Wisely, Wood said “I think I’ll leave the shopping to my wife.”

To be eligible to make the 6 Card Bonus $1 million wager a player must place an ante wager and a Pair Plus wager based on the posted table minimums.  The 6 Card Bonus wager is offered at $5-$100 with odds paid on all hands of 3-of-a-kind or better, except for the $100,000 and $1 million Super Royal hands, which are fixed payouts.

Wood’s total bet was $20.

Well, after a four-day turkey break, there is a lot to catch up with in the Atlantic City poker scene, starting with the winner of the Borgata Fall Open poker championship event.

Badecker

The winner was 24-year-old Andrew Badecker, Vernon Ct., who sees his career earnings come close to $1 million with the $388,657 win.

Badecker has had two previous cashes at the Borgata at last year’s (2010) Borgata Open, including a first in a No Limit event, good for about $28K.

But this year is his best ever and includes a first at the WSOP Shootout No Limit event where he took home $369, 371. So barring any unreported pot splits, the Borgata win is his best payday to date by $19K.

“Borgata is hands down my most run good casino,” Badecker told the casino’s blog. “I’ve never had a losing trip here.”

Don’t we all wish we had a run good casino?

Badecker outlasted a field of 670 and a final table that included WSOP bracelet winners Freddy Rouhani and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

Heads up, he was against newcomer Tony Nguyen (McLean, VA) with a two to one chip lead and got him with a simple king high against Nguyen’s suited eight, nine.

Still, for Nguyen, who wins $218,531, this is the kind of finish amateurs dream of.

“This is my first year playing,” said Nguyen. “I’m really happy coming in second considering I was short stacked all the way to the final table.”

The final day of play started Wednesday (Nov. 23) with 63 players and lasted into early Thursday morning.

Today’s final round of the Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship event started off with 63 players returning and in the money. The field quickly lost 11 guys in the first half hour, but you have to figure they’ll be playing to the wee hours. They’re playing for a top prize of $388,657.

Since posting the winner would clearly cut into football and turkey time, you can get the results here Thursday.

Meanwhile, over the long weekend, the Borgata has posted a holiday tournament schedule, which is basically just offering single tournaments on Thursday (6PM: $150 + $30 + $25 Green Chip Bounty NLH) and Friday (10AM: $270 + $30 Big Stack NLH, $30,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool).

Friday, of course starts the Showboat’s House of Blues Open, which will offer seven tournaments through Sunday. For that schedule, go here.

As for the bad beat jackpots, The Borgata’s jackpot has survived the Fall Open frenzy and is in at $430,000. The small bad beat jackpot remains topped out at $50,000.

The Tropicana’s jackpot is just under $310,000 while the Caesars Combined Bad Beat Jackpot is at $208,696. The Taj Mahal’s jackpot is still recovering and at $58,000.

And if this seems suspiciously like a weekend update, you’re very astute. See you Monday grinders.

And have a Happy Thanksgiving.

The Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship Event ended up with a pretty healthy 670 entries for the $2,500 + $200 buy-in tournament.

That easily covers the $1 million guarantee with a total buy-in of  $1,675,000. Subtract a 3 percent dealer tip fee and you get the prize pool.

The tournament was a Double Play, meaning anyone could re-buy on Monday, even if they busted out Sunday. But with a $2,500 cost, you have to figure that the re-buys were kind of low.

Anyway, 337 players are still in the hunt today with an average stack of 60K.

Here’s your top five chip leaders:

1. ANDREW INTERDONATO (WASHINGTON, DC):  233,775

2. SAKIP SHEHU (BROOKLYN, NY):  231,625

3. NICHOLAS MANFREDO (LEVITTOWN, NY):  199,200

4. ALEX NEPOMNYASCHIY (STATEN ISLAND, NY):  180,200

5. JAMES SPARACIO (MOORESTOWN, NJ):  177,050

By the way, there’s a funny little rule in this tournament that I’ve never seen before where your Day 1A and Day 2A chip leaders get $3,000 bonuses, or better than their buy-in back.

Interdonato and Shehu get the free roll.

Do you like this chip leader bonus twist, and is it more common than I think? Be a rebel, leave a comment.

Those sneaky folks at The Showboat have scheduled a House of Blues Poker Open for the holiday weekend, Nov. 25-27.

The open features seven tournaments overall with a total of $50,000 in prize pool guarantees in three of them

It’s also hosted by the casino’s bombshell calendar models, which is always a nice touch.

Here’s the schedule:

It was a busy weekend at The Borgata Fall Open, which started its main championship event Sunday.

More on that later.

First off,  Alex Queen of Bethlehem Pa. won the open’s heads-up championship, beating Darren Elias of Philadelphia.

Queen wins $29,098, bringing his total tournament winnings to just under $625,000.

The win comes close behind a $111,000 cash at this year’s World Series of Poker in a $1,500 buy-in event. Of course, his biggest cash was a first at the Borgata’s Spring Open championship in 2010, good for $355,000.

Elias, wins $14,450.

Olivier Busquet, winner of the 2009 Borgata Open championship, and Randy Feder of Plainview NY, were the other quarter-finalists,winning $7,275 each.

There were 50 entries into the $1,500 Heads-up tournament.

Saturday, a $1,000 No Limit tournament, one of the highest buy-ins besides the championship event, attracted 260 players.

The winner was Avraham Lipman, who apparently trekked out from his job at the University of Ohio to take his second big tournament cash. He wins $70,614.

As for the $2,500 championship event, Day 1A Sunday produced 230 entries. Day 1B is today for the Double Play tournament and usually brings in more players than a Sunday start.

The Day 1A chip leader is Andrew Interdonato with 233,775, but hanging in third is Queen, fresh off his heads-up win. Queen has about 171K in chips.

Swung by the Borgata this morning to check out the action at The Casino’s Fall Open and I have to hand it to the Borgata’s staff for keeping all the play in the crowded room straight.

The Borgata was offering a six-max $700 + &70 + $500 bounty tournament that had split the event’s more than 200 entries between the Signature Room and the poker room. That’s a nice turnout for that high a buy-in.

Also in the Signature Room, the Open’s Heads-up championship was playing out. It’s now down to five remaining players (as of about 3pm) including Olivier Busquet, a past Borgata Open champion.

Meanwhile a $350 seven-card stud tournament was under way in the poker room as were numerous cash games. The casino’s high-stakes cash room also had a nice crowd for lunchtime.

If you haven’t played in the Signature Room, it’s a nice space that may even be swankier than the main room. The Borgata, never one to rest on its laurels, has been upgrading the video screens in both rooms and laying some new carpet.

All in all, it’s pretty easy to see why the casino dominates the city’s play.

As for this weekend, the casino busts out the Open’s big events.

(more…)

The funny thing about poker opens is that you never know when a big crowd is just going to suddenly show up for an event.

Grau

Take event 12 of the Borgata Open, a seemingly innocuous $200 + $30, NLH event on the schedule that was played Wednesday. Lo and behold, the tournament drew 963 players.

The lower buy-in certainly allowed for a few more re-buys (which went to level 8), but that number almost matches the 970 that turned out for the Open’s kick-off event (also on a Wednesday).

The tournament drew a $192,600 total buy-in an paid its winner, Edward Grau of Middle River Md. $42,044.

The Borgata reports that the tournament, which had registration lines out the door, was so popular they had to split play between the signature room and poker room.

It’s probably a sign of the economic times, but it looks like low buy-ins are attracting the most attention at the open.

It was a pretty action-packed weekend at The Borgata as the casino’s Fall Poker Open moved forward and there was a small bad beat jackpot hit at the casino.

As we’ve noted before, the casino has lucked out with having the highest bad beat jackpot in the city — which tends to pack cash games — and have another one of its major tournament events going on simultaneously.

And it still has the highest A.C. bad beat jackpot even after the $50K hit Saturday, now coming in at $372,996.

This hit was a late night hit (or early morning hit) coming at 3:15am Saturday.

And there was actually two bad beat losers, though only one met the minimum requirements for the jackpot.

Here’s the rundown:

On a board of three of diamonds, four of spades and seven, three and four of hearts, three hands hit.

Nina Coffin of Livingston NJ held ace, nine of hearts, good for a nut flush but a distant third in this hand.

James Gargiso (Staten Island, NY) won the hand with his four, five of hearts, and you have to figure he was betting on a hunch before the flop. He wins $10K.

The bad beat winner, David Grandieri (Danbury, CT) drew quad threes, which lost to the straight flush, but wins $20K.

Remember, the minimum hand for the small bad beat jackpot is quad deuces to nines.

Coffin and four other players got $4K each.

There was also a major bad beat hit at the Taj Mahal this weekend, which had climbed over $140,000, but no info has been released yet.

By the way, kudos to The Borgata for such a nice rundown on their hit. Gotta love a good bad beat story.