The Borgata Spring Open Championship has gone to a New Jersey based player, Russell Crane of Howell Twp. New Jersey, who scores his biggest payday yet with the $276,949 win.

The Champ

All we can say is ‘Whoo Hoo, go Howell’ (which just happens to be your blogger’s hometown).

“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Crane told the Borgata’s poker blog. “It felt great to have a lot of people from my home state supporting me.”

Crane had about $376,000 in live tournament cashes before his Spring Open win. He had a huge $220K cash at the 2009 World Series of Poker (a 3^rd place finish in a No Limit Hold’em six handed event), but most of his other cashes have come in Atlantic City during his about six- year career.

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Cards are in the air at The Borgata Spring Open Championship as 25 remaining players play down to a champion today.

Eriquezzo

Going into today’s action, the chip leader is Ryan Eriquezzo of Danbury Conn, with 997K. Eriquezzo has about $400,000 in live tournament winnings, including a first at the Borgata Winter Open in January in a No Limit Hold’em Six Max Tournament that netted him about $71,000.

45 players cash in the championship tournament with 1^st winning $276,949.

Here are the top five chip leaders.

1. Ryan Eriquezzo 997k
2. Adam Agaev 927k
3. Bart Dowling 927k
4. Jason Helder 880k
5. Matt Matros 839k

As we guessed, The Borgata Spring Open’s championship event saw a much better Monday turnout than on Easter Sunday as more than 300 players came out for the $2,500 + $200 event.

The final total was 447 entries, with a total buy-in of $1,117,500. That easily covers the $500,000 guarantee of the tournament. The winner will receive $276,949.

Of course, it was a double play tournament, so the 447 doesn’t equal 447 individuals, just 447 buy-ins.

Going into today’s play, 165 players remain, but we won’t see the bubble break until 45 players are left.

Here’s the chip leaders going into Day 2

1. MARK WAHBA (CLEVELAND, OH): 345,300

2. ERIC HABER (MUTTON TOWN, NY): 249,700

3. ANDREW BROWN (VALATIE, NY): 224,900

4. BARTLEY DOWLING (NEW YORK, NY): 224,800

5. AARON OVERTON (PHILADELHIA, PA): 221,000

Some notables still left include Eric Siegal at 95K and Gordon Eng at 60,400. Kathy Liebert and Maria Ho appear to be gone.

Play resumes today at 11am

Beautiful weather — for most of the day anyway — and Easter hams seem to have kept the turnout for the Borgata Spring Open’s $2,500 + $200 championship opener Sunday low as only about 123 players took advantage of the tournament’s first day.

Day 1A Chip Leader Liberta

While that’s about $200,000 off the tournament’s  $500,000 guarantee, fear not, today is also an opening session, day 1B, and should make up the difference. The tournament is also a double play, meaning players who busted out Sunday can re-buy in today.

Still, at $2,700 a pop, well see how many take advantage.

Only 42 players survived to today, with Joseph Liberta of Berlin the chip leader at 183K. last year’s championship winner, Alexander Queen of Bethlehem Pa, is in third with 154K.

Some notable pros in the first day of play were Kathy Liebert, Maria Ho and Eric Siegal.

Day 1B gets underway at 11am.

Lightning can strike at the strangest times at The Borgata Spring Open and Wednesday’s seemingly innocuous, $170 + $30 buy-in, Big Stack event seems to have brought out the biggest field yet at the open.

Morgan

The event drew 990 players for a total buy-in of $168,300, well above the $75,000 guarantee, even after the 3 percent dealer fee.

Remember, the opening event of the Spring Open, usually the biggest field of the scheduled tournaments, drew only 726 entries.

Maybe a bunch of former online players are in town. Or at least bargain hunters (the opening event was a $350 + $50 event).

The two re-entry tournament, 20K starting chips, started at 11am Wednesday and didn’t finish until 6:30am this morning.

The winner was James Morgan of E. Aurora,New York who wins $36,731. He busted out once, but bought back in. Smart move.

And there was another notable high finish by a woman (women are having a great run at the open), as May Sui of NYC took 4th and $10,937.

Let’s see if the spring open championship, which starts Sunday and Monday, can match this field.

Givotovsky

Every amateur’s dream is to take their kitchen table poker skills and get on a good run in casino tournaments play. We don’t know if Alek Givotovsky of NYC ever played at the kitchen table, (actually, he mostly plays online, or at least he did) but he’s been on a pretty good run the last few months at casinos.

Givotovsky won The Borgata Spring Open’s Event 8 Tuesday, a “Double Play” Deepstack No Limit tournament with a $400 buy-in. He outlasted 477 players to win $47,287.

That brings his total recorded live tournament winnings to about $120,000, almost all of which he has won since a second place finish at a WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s in December.

That event paid him about $42,000 and he added a $23,500 cash at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event in January.

Of course, Givotovsky has a lot more experience playing online, but like many players, has seen his online bankroll frozen after the federal crackdown Friday.

“Guess I’ll be seeing a lot more of you guys,” he told the Borgata’s tournament blog.

Givotovsky, who plans to play the open’s championship event, also had this advice after what is being described as a grinding, small ball win.

“Play tight and wait for good hands,” he said.

Words to live by.

Maybe its because poker players around the country and region were in shock and trying to figure out how to access their online accounts after Black Friday, but the Borgata Spring Open didn’t exactly wow this weekend with turnouts.

Galloway's Jennifer So

Saturday’s $1,000 buy-in attracted only 90 players. Despite a field that included Dwyte Pilgrim and Allen “Chainsaw” Keller, the win went to James Casement Jr. of Saint Charles Ill., who wins $30,555.

Local player and Borgata regular Jennifer So of Galloway was third, winning $10,476.

Event 4, a $500 buy-in No Limit on Friday drew twice as well with half the buy-in. The tournament drew 195 and was won by Marcelia Keene of Maplewood, who almost matched Casement’s win with $28,372.

You gotta figure the casino didn’t expect the Friday tournament to be so close to Saturday’s —the largest buy-in yet at the open — in total money.

Saturday’s “Big Stack” Tournament did much better as 440 turned out for the $350 buy-in. Again, the win went to a woman as Patricia Barsanti-Chou, of Metuchen wins $38,166

Just a note, 3rd place in Event 4 went to Kimberly Edmonds of Toms River who won about $9K. By our count, that’s four female players finishing in the top three of events four, six and seven, with two first-place finishes.

This year’s open has no ladies event, but it looks like the ladies are doing just fine in the early events all on their own, thank you very much.

Courtney Friel

It’s not to hard to figure out where the action will be for tournament players in Atlantic City this weekend as The Borgata Spring Open continues.

Saturday marks the open’s biggest tournament, short of the open championship April 24, with a $1,000 + $90 No Limit event at 11am. There’s also a Big Stack event, which we’re assuming is similar to a Deepstack event, at noon for $300 + $50.

Sunday’s event brings back the Borgata’s popular Double Play concept where opening day play is split between Sunday and Monday at 11am both days. Those washing out Sunday can buy-in again Monday. The $400 + $50 event ends up Tuesday.

For the spring open main schedule go here and the secondary schedule go here.

As for the city’s bad beat jackpots, they seem to be continuing to hit with amazing frequency.

The Taj Mahal bad beat was at $36K Friday, indicating a recent hit. We’re trying to track down the info.

The Harrah’s combined bad jackpot was at $252,575 with quad jacks as the minimum. The Borgata’s bad beat (there’s still plenty of cash games available during the open) has climbed up to $219,746. The Tropicana’s bad beat is at about $162,000.

And for this week’s update picture, former WPT host Courtney Friel.

The Borgata Spring Open has crowned its first event winners and emerging player Michael Dentale of Brooklyn scored one of his biggest cashes ever by taking the first event, a $350 buy-in Deepstack tournament.

Dentale

Dentale wins $57,267, good for his second best recorded cash. He had a better than $58K win last year at Foxwoods and now has over $270,000 in live tournament winnings. He also had a nearly $50K cash at the 2008 Borgata Open.

The Borgata poker blog reports this is his first major tournament win.

Shortstacked going into heads up play with David Heck of Colts Neck (winning $33,320), Dentale wore down his opponent.

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Just spent an amazing afternoon at The Borgata Open as the casino is sporting a packed Signature room today as the open’s events play out.

The Borgata's Signature Room

OK, didn’t exactly live blog it as expected, but still, you gotta love the excitement these seasonal opens bring to the city. My first impression was how many players this event, in its second year, is drawing. April is shaping up to be a pretty crowded month for poker tournaments as major events are underway in Vegas, Indiana and even Europe.

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