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.

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.

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The Borgata always seems to have a charmed existence and once again there’s  a perfect synergy going on in its poker room. Not only is the Borgata Fall Poker Open going on, the casino also has the highest bad beat jackpot in the city at $397,000.

That’s crowding both tournament tables and cash games.

You might remember that this also happened, well sort of, during the Borgata Open in September. During that open the casino’s bad beat jackpot climbed to $465,000 before hitting in the first week of play. That was a record jackpot for the Borgata, but at the time, The Tropicana’s bad beat jackpot was higher.

Of course, the Borgata’s jackpot frequently gets clipped by small bad beat hits (minimum quad deuces to quad nines), which lop of $50K, but still, you have to take notice when a jackpot hits the $400K mark.

Meanwhile, The Tropicana’s bad beat jackpot has topped $300K at $301,644. The Caesars Combined bad beat jackpot is at $151,921 and the Taj Mahal’s bad beat jackpot is at $140,456.

Btw, our pic this week comes for our story on the Showboat’s HOB Party Pit.

As for the Borgata Open, here’s some of the action for Saturday and Sunday. You can get the secondary tournament schedule here.

Purple Chip Bounty
No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Day 1 Sat. 11/12 11am
Day 2 Sun. 11/13 Noon
$500 + $60 + $500

Deep Stack Semi-Turbo
No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Sun 11/13 11am

$260 + $40

Ladies No Limit Hold’em

Sun 11/13 noon

$200 +$30

The National Deaf Poker Tour began play today at The Taj Mahal with two more events this evening and three tomorrow.

Vanessa Rousso

The tour was founded in 2006.  The mission was to find the best deaf poker players and match them against each other in hopes that someone will represent the NDPT on the big stage at WSOP, WPT, USPC or other major poker tournaments.

For information on the tour go here and for the schedule go here.

As for the bad beat jackpots, The Borgata still has the largest in the city at $355,222 going into today’s play, making back most of the small bad beat hit it had last week. The small bad beat jackpot remains topped out at $50K.

The Tropicana’s bad beat jackpot is at a pretty hefty $285,727 as of today and The Caesars Combined Bad Beat jackpot, which had a hit last Sunday, is at $118,695.

The Taj Mahal’s bad beat jackpot is back up to $115,595.

Wednesday (Nov. 20), of course, is the start of the Borgata Fall Open with a $200,000 guaranteed $400 + $50 No Limit tournament. Get the schedule here.

And of course, the “November Nine” start playing out the WSOP in some out-of-the-way Nevada cow town on Sunday. Here’s some info on how to watch, but live play is better grinders and it’s sure to be on in the poker rooms.

Regular tournament action again this weekend, so here’s a rundown on the bad beat jackpots.

Shana Hiatt

The Borgata’s bad beat jackpot had a hit early in the week on its small bad beat, knocking $50K off the total. It’s climbed back up to $318,429 going into today, keeping it as the highest jackpot in the city.

The hit came Monday, Oct. 24, on a $2-$5 No Limit table.

Marcus Bower of South Williamsport, Pa., had his quad 4’s beaten by a straight flush from Kien Ping Kwan of Atlantic City.

Bower took home $20K, Kwan won the pot plus an additional $10K, and the  seven other players at the table divided up the remaining $20K.

The current jackpot is still high enough to leave the small bad beat jackpot topped out at $50,000.

The Tropicana’s jackpot is next highest at $271,585 going in today’s play. The Caesars Entertainment combined jackpot has climbed back to $167,992 and The Taj Mahal’s jackpot is at about $96,000.

Snow could begin piling up in a lot of those new Pennsylvania casino areas this weekend, but A.C.’s probably just looking at a little rain.

Just a thought grinders.

The only thing on the schedule for this weekend is regular tournament action, which is listed on the side of the page through The Poker Atlas.

Lacey Jones

That leaves the bad beat jackpots, which haven’t quite recovered from the slew of hits last week.

Still, the one jackpot that didn’t hit, The Borgata’s, is at a hefty $329,639. In case you’re new, remember The Borgata has two jackpots. The small jackpot comes with a minimum hand of quad deuces to quad nines and has topped out at $50K. The main jackpot has a quad 10s minimum.

The Tropicana’s jackpot is at $256,830. The jackpot reset high after its $542K hit last week.

The Caesars Entertainment combined bad beat jackpot — in play at all four Caesars properties, Bally’s, Showboat, Harrah’s and Caesars — is at $135,000 going into today, and actually picked up about $30K through the week.

Finally, The Taj Mahal bad beat jackpot is at $76,000.

It’s a bye week for Eagles and Giant fans, so you might as well play a little grinders.

We’ve already covered the massive bad beat jackpot action in Atlantic City lately, but there’s still some tournament action this weekend thanks to The Borgata.

Sunday, Oct. 16, starts a major tournament event at the casino, a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool, Double Play event that starts Sunday.

The event is a $1,500 + $150 No Limit event with Day 1A Sunday and Day 1B Monday. Both start at 11am.  As always, a Double Play means players can buy-in on both opening days, even if they wash out Sunday.

There are also two satellites for the event this weekend.

The $330 + $50 No Limit games are at 4pm Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Money is flying out the door down around here grinders. Take advantage.

Hot off the success of the Borgata Open, the casino comes right back with another of its $100,000 guaranteed Saturday Series tournaments at 11am this weekend.

The tournament is a $350 + $50 No Limit Hold’em tournament that gives players a 15K starting stack. Pretty typical Borgata structure with re-entries through level six, blinds kicking in at level five and 30-minute levels.

Jennifer Harman

As for the bad beats, The Tropicana’s jackpot just keeps grinding along and was at $536,515. This thing has been growing slowly (the casino is only putting 20 percent of the vig towards it) for well over a month and has to be grinding down the room and the Trop staff. And if it was getting a bigger cut, it probably would have set an Atlantic City record by now (about $670,000).

But it is what it is and $536K ain’t bad. The Trop’s minimum bad beat hand is quad eights, by the way.

The Borgata’s bad beat jackpot is at $289,346 after a hit on its small bad beat jackpot ($50K) on Thursday. Quad sevens lost to an eight high straight flush, which was under the full bad beat minimum of quad 10s.

The Taj Mahal jackpot is at $182,074 and the Harrah’s Combined bad beat jackpot is at $114,593.

For our update girl, we’ve picked Jennifer Harman-Traniello, who picked up a nomination for the Poker Hall of Fame this week. Congrats.

We’re expecting some beautiful fall weather this weekend grinders, so come on down.

The Borgata Open doesn’t officially end until Saturday, Sept. 24 and there’s one last main event, a $200 + $30 Deepstack that starts at 11am.

There are also a $150 + $30 + $25 bounty event tonight (Sept. 23) at 6pm.

After that, it’s back to the bad beat jackpots.

The Tropicana’s jackpot is still out there and has now climbed to $521,000. The Caesars Combined jackpot is at $115,000. The Borgata jackpot has climbed quickly back up to about $250K (undoubtedly because of heavy action brought on by the Open). The Borgata’s small bad beat has topped out at $50K and The Taj Mahal’s jackpot is at $137K.

The blog is taking the week off next week, but if you simply must know who wins the Borgata Open Championship, you can find it here — eventually as play should go well into tonight.

Ciao grinders.

This weekend belongs to the Borgata Open, which starts its championship event Sunday, Sept. 18 and Monday, Sept. 19. (Day 1A and 1B) and will run until at least Thursday.

Lacey Jones

The event carries a $3,300 + $200 buy-in and a $3 Million guaranteed prize pool. Considering the high turnouts the Open has been getting, it’s a safe bet the field will cover the guarantee.

Starting tonight (Sept. 16) at 7pm, there are eight satellite tournaments for the championship, most at $200 + $50. That’s right, eight. Go here for the schedule.

Saturday’s main event is a Six-Max No Limit Hold’em, $1,000 + $90, two-day event, starting at 11am.

The Tropicana’s bad beat jackpot is also still out there at $513,000, which has got to be putting quite a strain on the room and the poker room staff. While it’s climbing at a slow rate, The 35-table room has been in bad beat mania mode for nearly a month now.

Sooner or later, something has got to give.

The city’s remaining bad beat jackpots are all climbing back from recent hits. The Taj Mahal jackpot is at $113,000, The Borgata is at $183,000 with the small bad beat jackpot at about $46,000 and the Harrah’s combined bad beat jackpot is at $137,000.

We’re rounding those off, of course.

And don’t forget Sunday’s birthday party for poker player Christina Lindley, with guests Maria Ho and Lacey Jones (our update girl this weekend), Sunday Night at MIXX Nightclub at the Borgata.

It’s championship time in A.C. grinders. Get yourself a chair.