The start of the football season means the start of a lot of football-based promotions around the city and that includes the city’s poker rooms.

At the Tropicana, the casino is bringing back its “Beat the Straight” promotion on Monday nights (starting tonight.) If a straight loses to a flush or better (which I guess means that a higher straight doesn’t do it),  you’ll be entered into a football box pool for cash prizes. The winners of the first and third quarters get $250, half-time winner gets $500, game winner gets $1,000.

Meanwhile, at The Borgata they’re running a Pick the Pros Contest. While not specifically tied to poker, it’s a $1 million promotion tied to picking NFL winners. The most correct picks each week gets $30,000 prize, plus there are random drawings for slot dollars.

And we already told you about the Taj Mahal’s football promotions.

Just thought we’d give you a heads-up because free money is always fun.

Jamie Gold will always be remembered for his massive $12 million win at the World Series of Poker in 2006.

Gold after his WSOP win

But “champ” might not be the first word that comes to casino exec’s minds if they were to see him in Atlantic City.

(hint: the first syllable rhymes with red).

Seems Gold is on the hook for more than $50,000 he may owe the Borgata after allegedly bouncing a check in 2010.

TMZ, which has been getting a lot of good poker stories lately, reports that:

“According to papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this month, the owners of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ won a default judgment against Gold for $52,279.47 back in 2010 — after the casino claimed Gold bounced a check there.

The casino won the judgment against Gold in New Jersey, but he lives in California — so the casino has now filed papers in California to get the judgment enforced there. A judge has yet to rule.”

It should be pointed out that there were reports after Gold’s 2006 win that a number of entities sued him claiming Gold owed them money. Those cases were reportedly settled out of court.

Think the house always wins at the blackjack table? The folks at the Tropicana would disagree with you.

According to several reports and casino revenue figures, The Tropicana had a very unlucky April, dropping $1.86 million at the blackjack tables. One unidentified high roller in particular took the casino for $5.8 million.

Normally, casinos win 10 to 15 percent of chip buy-ins at blackjack.

“We ran very unlucky,” Mark Giannantonio, Tropicana’s outgoing chief executive told The Press of Atlantic City.

For a casino to have such a bad month at blackjack, regardless of one high roller’s win, is extremely strange.

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If you’re looking for that big payday at The Borgata this weekend, apparently there’s no reason to come up with the $3,500 for the Borgata Winter Open Championship this Sunday. Or even the couple of hundred bucks for a satellite.

The stuff dreams are made of

Nope, fortune is in that penny jar you keep on the dresser.

Thursday, a player at the Borgata hit a penny slot progressive jackpot for just shy of a $5 million payout.

We’ll let that sink in. … penny slots … $5 million.

The amazing thing is that less than two weeks ago, another player hit a progressive penny slot jackpot at the casino for about $3.5 million.

Which is, you know, ridiculous.

Anyway, here’s the latest penny millionaire’s story from the Borgata:

A customer from Ocean County, NJ was playing a penny The Wizard of Oz™ Ruby Slippers progressive slot machine when five “progressive” symbols appeared on the payout line signaling a jackpot of $4,963,819.15. Earlier in the month, on January 16, another customer from Staten Island, NY was playing a “Wheel of Fortune”® penny progressive slot machine and won $3,491,146.57. Combining both jackpots, that’s $8,454,965.62 or 845,496,572, or nearly a billion pennies! Both winners chose to remain anonymous.

“Lightning struck twice in less than two weeks on our penny slot machines, said Joe Lupo, Borgata’s Senior Vice President of Operations. “And we couldn’t be happier. We’ve always said that Borgata is a lucky place to play. I’m sure that these two customers would readily agree.”

Meanwhile, the Winter Open Championship prize pool is guaranteed for only $2 million, which is way less than a billion pennies.

Go figure.

The Borgata has always been an innovator in Atlantic City and their latest poker gimmick, a Double Play tournament May 21-23, is giving the traditional re-buy a real jolt. Basically, players that washout on the first day can start all over again on the second day.

Here’s how The Borgata describes it: “This unique $300 Buy-in + $50 Entry tournament features 15,000 in tournament chips and the ability to play in both Day 1A and Day 1B.  If a player entered into Day 1A had been eliminated (busted) from the tournament, he/she may register for Day 1B.”

You can also just take your chances and enter only on Day 1B.

Here’s the schedule:

Day 1A – Friday, May 21 – 11am

Day 1B – Saturday, May 22 – 11am

Day 2 – Sunday, May 23 – 11am

By the way, that’s Ozzie Smith in the pic.

There’s normal action in Atlantic City this weekend, but all eyes may turn to The Trump Taj Mahal poker room, where the bad beat jackpot topped $300,000 as of Thursday. That’s still off from the record $553,000 jackpot that hit at Caesars in January, but it’s not bad.

Both Caesars and Bally’s also have bad beat jackpots at around $200,000.

Sunday, the first qualifier for The Borgata’s May 16, $500,000 guaranteed prize pool Deep Stack Tournament will be held. The qualifier, at 11am, is a $165 + $35 buy-in. Go here for tournament details.

Mizzi with Borgata bracelet

There’s a nice interview today with Sorel Mizzi at Cardplayer.com. Mizzi last month won the East Coast Championship at The Borgata, part of The Borgata Spring Open, and officially collected $170,313. We say officially because it was later reported that he and runner-up Chris Klodnicki actually reached a deal, splitting about $130,000 apiece between them, and then played out the tournament for bragging rights.

Still, Mizzi got the bracelet and adds to an already impressive $1.26 million he’s won in tournaments this year. Mizzi is currently in second place for Cardplayer’s Player of the Year behind Thomas Marchese.

Mizzi has been a real force in online poker for a few years, but says this about his growing success in live tournaments:

“I’m really starting to get the hang of live poker. I have become more confident in my game, and I tackle situations a lot differently than I used to, and I guess my results have shown that those changes were good changes.”

Go here for the full interview

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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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

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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