Short stack Gregory Fitzgerald (Seaford, DE) had his black tens cracked by A-7. Ace on the flop which turned out to be a two-outter since Mike Holm folded A-J. The next hand he was forced all in and held a better face card race but lost to a nut straight.
Ahmet Kose (North Brunswick, NJ) - 18th Place - $1,079
Future Borgata Blogger Joe Altomonte (West Paterson, NJ) saw his pocket kings run into aces. Joe rode the short stack for hours making tough folds and winning key double up races. Joe was jacked in 19th Place - $1,079.
Michael Forca (Babylon, NY) - 20th Place - $952
Two tables have tightened up. We'll get as many bust-out hands as we can.
Playing this through until it ends tonight with full Borgata Poker Blog coverage.
Play resumes noon Wednesday in the four quarterfinal matches as they play for the title and the $61,690 first place. The eight remaining players are in the money.
Elite 8 Matches
Keith Block vs Christian Harder
Ryan Hall vs Trevor Savage
Randy Feder vs Matthew Maccaroni
Travis Greenawalt vs Austen Johnson
First I have to thank James English for giving all the detail on the following bust-out and for a great quote, "We were all pretty upset the only hot chick is now gone".
He's referring to Mary Beth Salmieri (Los Angeles, CA) who fired every barrel but was snap-called by Dover, DE Used Car Salesman, Nathan Sipple. Nathan can spot a lemon and he figured out Mary Beth was bluffing.
Sipple's Used Cars Clears Mary Beth's Lot
Nathan raised 27,000 in the cut-off, Mary Beth called on the button, English calls from small blind and the big blind mucks.
Flop is K♥-8♥-4♦
Nathan checks and Mary Beth fires 60,000. English mucks and sb mucks.
Turn is 4 ♥.
Nathan throws out 60,000 and Mary Beth pops it to 120,000.
River is 2♣.
Nathan checks. Mary Beth tanks, then fires her remaining 150,000.
Nathan insta-calls. Mary Beth asks if he has the nut flush?
The table was shouting sick call when Nathan tabled only 8-9 off-suit with no hearts. Mary Beth showed A-Q.
Nathan's now up to 750,000.
Mary Beth was the last woman in the tournament before busting out in 21st place but doesn't like the title "Last Woman Standing". As she told me, "You're not the Last Woman Standing until you win the tournament.
I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Mary Beth - a tournament favorite.
One suitcase contained $1,000,000 the other $25 when Mary Beth Salmieri got one final offer from the banker on the hit game show Deal or No Deal.
"I truly believed I had the million," says the 28 year-old, who was named Holtzheimer at the time, "but I had to take it," she says when offered $341,000.
She knew it didn't matter what was in case #13, because a guaranteed 6-figure payday would be life changing. Salmieri's poker sense was to lock in the guarantee instead of rolling the dice and ending up with only $25.
In the end, Salmieri's initial instincts were right as her lucky number held the $1,000,000, which she sold to the banker for one-third of the amount. "I was heartbroken," she said when they opened the case and it revealed the show's top prize.
Salmieri's thrill of a lifetime happened in 2008 and money was just part of it.
Mary Beth & Annie Duke
During the show's three hour taping pro player Annie Duke made a guest appearance to help sweeten the pot and experience, "I had no clue," says Salmieri, who listed Duke as one of her poker idols during auditions. "My mouth dropped when she walked out, it was completely surreal."
Salmieri says she was the only person picked out of 10,000 hopefuls who lined up in Center City Philadelphia for a 30 second chance to impress the show's producers. Her spirited personality and story of how she would use the winnings to start a poker bankroll were enough to land Salmieri on the show three months later.
Salmieri was picking off cases one-by-one, when Duke appeared and tempted the Deptford, New Jersey girl who now calls Los Angeles home. The banker's offer was a total of $158,000, which included a $25,000 poker package featuring private lessons from Duke.
But Salmieri said, "no deal," and stayed the course until she was down to three fateful cases, which you can watch below.
In the end, Salmieri didn't take home the $1,000,000, but she did become friends with Duke who gave her lessons and helped launch Salmieri's poker career. "She taught me a lot about the math and odds and bet sizes," says Salmieri, who finished 22nd in this event for $952.
"A lot of what she taught me is in her new book," says Salmieri, who admits to plugging Decide to Play Great Poker any chance she gets, adding "I just read it again the other night."
Since winning big on the show, Salmieri gave up her job as a retail district manager and is in the business of planning weddings and playing poker because, "I can do what I want," which she says confidently and with a smile.
Salmieri plays poker several times a week, but doesn't call herself a professional even though she dates one in "Hollywood" Dave Stann. For now she settles for the title of professional amateur and is focused on making the right decisions both in poker and in life.
"I don't regret it," Salmieri says about taking the banker's deal, "but I wouldn't go as far as saying I would make the same decision if I had to do it all over again. Annie compared it to folding pocket 5s when your opponent has aces and a five hits the flop. It was the right decision at the wrong time."
We've passed midnight and now they're starting to drop.
David Barone busted in 24th place followed by Borgata regular Adam "Lippy" Lippert.
Adam had 25 bigs left and called off his stack holding A-7 up against CL Alek Givotovsky. Deuces held up and Lippert collects $952 for 25th place.
Russell Crane is also out. He chipped down to 250,000 and once the blinds hit 6000 / 12000 he jammed with tens and found himself in a world of hurt up against Nathan Sipple's (Dover, DE) pocket aces. Crane collects $952 for 24th.
Keith Block def William Serfass
Christian Harder def Ryan DeAngelo
Ryan Hall def Darren Elias
Trevor Savage def Gavin Smith
Randy Feder def Greg Merritt
Matthew Maccaroni def Aaron Overton
Travis Greenawalt def Michael Gagliano
Austen Johnson def Alexander Venovski
Second Round
Keith Block def Matt Glantz
William Serfass def Nicholoas Erwin
Ryan DeAngelo def Michael Stone Hill
Christian Harder def Ryan Moriarity
Darren Elias def David Laufer
Ryan Hall def John Racener
Gavin Smith def Manzano Clemens
Trevor Savage def Jack Schanbacher
Randy Feder def Jason Sackler
Greg Merritt def Brian Paneth
Matthew Maccaroni def Ian Palomo
Aaron Overton def John Lytle
Travis Greenawait def Jonathan Little
Michael Gagliano def Mark Borges
Alexander Venovski def Freddy Rouhani
Austen Johnson def Michael Delvecchio
First Round
Manzano Clemens def Yaron Reuven
Gregg Merritt def Paul Mirabello
Alexander Venovski def Brandon Hall
Michael Gagliano def Joshua Hillock
Michael Stone Hill def Matthew Lombardi
Ryan DeAngelo def Matthew Berky
Ryan Moriarity def Jesse Cohen
Randy Feder def Valentin Serben
Ian Palomo def Bahbak Oboodi
Aaron Overton def Chris Klodnicki
Jonathan Little def Scott Lezewski
Mark Borges def Kunimaro Kojo
Freddy Rouhani def Alexander Freund
William Serfrass def Eui Woon
David Laufer def Orson Young
Christian Harder def Jeff Madsen
Jack Schanbacher def Scott Baumstein
Trevor Savage def Jason Summerville
John Lytle def Jeremy McLaughlin
Gavin Smith def James St. Hilaire
Byes:
Keith Block
Matt Glantz
Nicholoas Erwin
Darren Elias
John Racener
Ryan Hall
Jason Sackler
Brian Paneth
Austen Johnson
Michael Delvecchio
You ever meet someone and you feel like you've known him for a long time?
Mike Holm (Chicago, IL) has a great personality for poker. Not afraid to joke or laugh at the table and seems down to earth and friendly with the players.
It's Mike's first time and Borgata and he's loving it. "My goal is to cash in every tournament I play in". He cashed yesterday and now again today her in Event #13.
Holm's main goal of course is to cash in the WPT Championship. That's why he and a few friends he brought in from Chicago are really here. Mike played in the first WPT event last year at Bellagio where the Royal Flush girls made their debut. He managed to get some TV airtime with them and even bought them all some chocolate covered strawberries. Hmmm. Sounds like a MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD commercial.
Right now it's Alek Givotovsky (New York, NY) vs. the rest of the field. With three tables, 27 players remaining, Alek has a commanding chip lead. Adam Lippert is now seated to Alek's right. "I think he's double the next closest stack" commented Adam. "Pretty sick world" said Givotovsky.
Pretty close to double as James English has 500,000 in second place. English is campaigning to get an extra dinner voucher if they play more than 12 hours. He jokingly said he's starting a petition.
Mary Beth Salmieri (Los Angeles, CA) is seated to James' right. She seems to be all in every time I look over. One she chopped, the second she won.
Normally Jason Ginex would snap call an open shove holding KK. But we've been playing hand-for-hand for close to a half-hour now. Everybody wants to make the money. Do you fold kings on the bubble? Could you? After a healthy tank session, Ginex decides to call.
Jason Ginex K♣ K♥ vs. Opponent's 7♣ 7♥
Board runs: 2♣ A♣ 9♣ 2♥ 6♥. Kings hold up.
Opponent had Jason covered by 7500 and was forced all in the very next hand as the big blind was 8000.
Surprisingly the entire table folds around to Justin Friedman in the small blind who calls without looking.
Opponent never looked either and so flipped over one card, the K♦ . Justin flips an A♠ which caused opponent to moan, about to accept his fate.
Board ran: 3♥ 3♦ 2♣ A♥ Q♠. Kickers never played - Opponent's 5 vs. Justin's 9.
And with that the bubble fled the felt and the remaining 36 have reached part of the $130,900 Total Buy-In.
Four more players advance to the Elite 8, leaving one match from the Sweet 16, Christian Harder vs Ryan DeAngelo. They're playing game two after Harder took the first.
More Sweet 16 Results
Austen Johnson def Alexander Venovski
Matthew Maccaroni def Aaron Overton
Travis Greenawalt def Michael Gagliano
Randy Feder def Greg Merritt
Frank Gangemi (Long Beach, NY) couldn't have played pocket queens any better from the big blind. Opponent Brian Paneth (Brooklyn, NY) opened for 16,000 with K-10 of spades and Frank simply called.
Both players improved on a heart heavy flop of K-Q-10.
"I was trying to represent A-K" said Frank who quickly re-raised Brian's flop bet with an all-in jam.
So you're sitting with top and bottom pair at risk for all your chips up against a big blind who didn't re-pop pre - you can't blame Paneth for committing.
Board ran clean and the set of Queens earned Frank a monster pot. He's now up in the neighborhood of 400,000.
Before Brian departed he told me he signed up for the Heads Up and Event 13 and was playing at the same time in both tournaments.
He built his stack early in Event 13 since he had a bye in the first round of heads up. Then he played heads up for 3 1/2 hours while his healthy Event 13 stack bled off 80,000 in blinds and antes.
Even though he had his heart on winning the Heads Up, after busting there, he focused here. Alas, he couldn't survive running into a set of Queens and now has lost twice today.
Gregory Fitzgerald - 17th - $1,079
