Thursday, September 22, 2011

Event 20: Day 4 Recap - Championship Preview

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship NLH

Top Row (l-r): Ricky Hale, Fred Goldberg & Jin Hwang,
Bottom Row: Daniel Buzgon, Bobby Oboodi & Darren Elias


A record setting field of 1,313 entries is down to six players as the tv final table is set to play for the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship first prize of $922,441.

"It's amazing," said Jin Hwang, who is the table short stack with 2.2 million chips, "I was on a roller coaster all day and to still be playing is incredible."

After four days of poker, two players emerged as the big stacks in Bobby Oboodi and WSOP bracelet holder Fred Goldberg, who both have a little more than 11 million chips.

"It's a great feeling anytime you have a chance to win a title," said Goldberg who is only 60k behind Oboodi's 11.14 million after being the chip leader most of the day. "I love Borgata. I've only played one other time, but seem to run pretty good here."

The other three players at the final table are Darren Elias (7.4 million), Daniel Buzgon (4.7 mil), and Ricky Hale (2.3 mill), who are 3rd, 4th, and 5th in chips respectfully.

Day 4 began with 27 players looking for their piece of the $4,332,900 total buy-in, including two WSOP bracelet holders and two prominent Borgata regulars.

Two-time WSOP winner Vanessa Selbst finished 23rd ($18,868), while three-time winner "Miami" John Cernuto was 14th ($35,640).

On the local side, the largest rail bird crowd supported Will "The Thrill" Failla, who was trying to be the first player to win back-to-back WPT titles. Failla started the day as the chip leader, but after becoming a short stack was crippled by Hwang.

Failla was all-in with pocket queens, but when Hwang flopped a set of jacks and turned quads, Failla was crippled and knocked out the next hand in 11th place ($50,315).

"I was trying to do something that's never been done before," says Failla, "I got it in good, but the chips ended up where they were supposed to go."

Going out in 12th place ($50,315) was Matt Glantz who plays regularly in the high stakes room and has $3.9 million in career tournament earnings.

The final six are guaranteed $186,585 as they return 3 pm Friday to play for the title under the bright lights of the Event Center.

"It's pretty exciting," said Oboodi, "but I haven't done anything yet. There's still $800,000 to play for."

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