Where have I been?

Date: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 Live Tournament Women

The blog was in some kind of purgatory for the last two months. I couldn't access the blog, but now it is back. For the most part, I've been putting news up on the Twitter account (@pokerinac) because I didn't have any place to put it.

Hopefully, the blog stays in this world and doesn't go over to the next.

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Final results Borgata Poker Open: championship event

Date: Wed, Jun 30, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Here are the final results of the championship tournament of the Borgata Poker Open as posted on the Borgata Summer Poker Open blog.




Entries: 321 Total Buy-In: $642,000

FINAL RESULTS
1. WILLIAM ONEIL (COLLAGE PARK, MD): $180,595
2. MIRZA NAGJI (NEW YORK, NY): $104,620
3. TODD GEDDIS (ASTORIA, NY): $51,687
4. MICHAEL MELKERSEN (NEW MARKET, VA): $43,592
5. STEVEN CURTIN (INDIAN TRAIL, NC): $37,364
6. JOHN BORZIO (ROBBINSVILLE, NJ): $31,137
7. FRANK DELLARIA (BURGETTSTOWN, PA): $24,910
8. DEAN POTASHNER (MORRISTOWN, NJ): $18,683
9. EDWARD CORRADO (NAPLES, FL): $12,456
10. JOSHUA HAKAKIAN (WARFORDSBURG, PA): $8,096
11. ALEX KUCHIK (BROOKLYN, NY): $8,096
12. JAY JOHNSON (PHILADELPHIA, PA): $8,096
13. LARRY NELSON (HARLEYSVILLE, PA): $6,227
14. JAMES OSTRANDER (SOUTHERN PINES, NC): $6,227
15. FLORENTINO DELEON JR (JOPPA, MD): $6,227
16. MARK HNATOV (HUNTINGTON, NY): $4,359
17. ANTHONY BALLETTA (SANIBEL, FL): $4,359
18. JIA LIU (BROOKLYN, NY): $4,359
19. TYNG LOW (FLUSHING, NY): $3,736
20. DANIEL LEE (RICHMOND, VA): $3,736
21. AZIZ WEHBEY (WHITEHALL, PA): $3,736
22. EDIP AYAZ (NEW MILFORD, NJ): $3,736
23. DANIEL FISCHER (GLASSBORO, NJ): $3,736
24. BEHROOZ JAMSHIDI (ELLICOTT CITY, MD): $3,736
25. JOSEPH DADDARIO (CHESTERLAND, OH): $3,736
26. ARBEN KUPI (ELMHURST, NY): $3,736
27. SEAN KNITTER (FOX CHASE MNR, PA): $3,736
28. MICHAEL BUTTACAVOLI (VENTNOR, NJ): $3,114
29. JOHN DORAN (WOOLWICH TWP, NJ): $3,114
30. RICHARD MISKO (HOBOKEN, NJ): $3,114
31. BRYAN GREELEY (MASTIC BEACH, NY): $3,114
32. JOANNE MONTEAVARO (BRONX, NY): $3,114
33. MICHAEL CONTESSA (ROCHELLE PARK, NJ): $3,114
34. BENJAMIN LUDWIG (SCHWENKSVILLE, PA): $3,114
35. JOSH SPIEGELMAN (PRINCETON, NJ): $3,114
36. CARL RESTIFO (WARETOWN, NJ): $3,114

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Billy O'Neil wins Borgata Poker Open

Date: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Billy O'Neil won the Borgata Summer Poker Open main championship event just a few minutes ago, the Borgata poker reporters tweeted.

O'Neil won a bracelet, trophy and $180K.

I'll update more later as more information becomes available.

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Borgata Summer Poker Open championship final table today

Date: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 Live Tournament Women

The final table of the championship tournament will conclude today at the Borgata.

Ten players remain to try and collect the $180,595 first place prize.

Here are the chip counts, according tot he Summer Poker Open blog:

Position-Name-Chip Count

1. Steven Curtin 1.459 million
2. Ed Corrado 1.349 million
3. Todd Geddis 1.324 million
4. Billy O'Neil 1.247 million
5. Mirza Nagji 1.136 million
6. Dean Potashner 1.09 million
7. Frank Dellaria 756k
8. John Borzio 686k
9. Michael Melkersen 429k
10. Joshua Hakakian 243k

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They keep growing, and growing, and growing ...

Date: Sun, Jun 27, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Harrah's has been hit with more lawsuits this month. Four more harrasmentlitigations against the company have been filed against the company, including some with issue in the poker room. That's 32 lawsuits filed against Harrah's and its sister properties.

The Bridgeton News has an article (link) showing two complaints, one at Harrah's poker room and the other at Showboat's.

Here's what the article states about the complaints at the Showboat:

Another complaint, which includes new defendants, states a female poker room employee at Showboat had been the victim of derogatorycomments about sexual acts supervisors stated she would perform with others.

Supervisors Kellie DeCelis and Hoon Cho are named, among other management officials, in the complaint.

The complaint continues, noting that the alleged victim was ultimately fired while DeCelis received a promotion.

Here is the complaint involving Harrah's poker room supervisor John Arthur:

"Among other things, John Arthur referred to women as wenches, remarked that he carried a ni - stick and that a certain employee was a pole smoker in describing a homosexual," reads the complaint.

The complaints states a shift manager in the poker room who had, among others, sent written and verbal complaints to Arthur as well as management and human resources officials.

However, the shift manager stated he later had problem taking time off work in anticipation of his wife giving birth to triplets and the care she would require in the months following.

The complaint states: "É John Arthur, among other things, stated at one point when the plaintiff explained that his absence was due to his need to transport his wife to and from the hospital, I don't know why you have to take off work; can't your wife just take a cab?

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The men are at it again

Date: Sat, Jun 19, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Back in September, a man beat out a field of 260 women in the Borgata Poker Open to win the ladies tournament (link).

The current version of ladies tourney is going on right now at the Borgata and two men have entered the field.

This is nothing new. During the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, men also entered the field in the ladies tournament. It was a huge debate that many professional gave their opinion on.

Here two blog posts by Annie Duke on the topic: post 1 (where she also links to other posts) and post 2.

What are your thoughts on men playing in events that are geared for women?

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Last Chance WSOP Super Satellite at Harrah's tomorrow

Date: Fri, Jun 18, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Still trying to get into the WSOP Main Event that beings July 5? Harrah's Resorts in Atlantic City is running "Last Chance" satellites to win a seat into the Main Event.

The last super satellites is tomorrow June 19. You can buy straight into the event for $512+$44.

Check here for more information from Harrah's.

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Largest Borgata bad beat hit on Thursday

Date: Fri, Jun 18, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Bad Beat Has Hit 52 Times, Paying Out 455 Winners Over $6.7 Million in Prize Money


Atlantic City, NJ (June 17, 2010) – Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa paid out the largest Bad Beat jackpot in its history this morning, awarding eight players a total of $332,654.

At exactly 10:00AM on a $1-$2 No Limit Hold’em game, Do Hien’s quad 2’s lost to Blackwood, NJ native Carlo Santos’ straight flush. Santos won the hand and the $66,509 share of the Bad Beat pot; however, it was Do who hit the jackpot, as he collected forty percent of the record-breaking $332,544 Bad Beat prize money. Each of the remaining players who were dealt into the hand received $22,170.

Do Hien, who’s been playing poker since 2003, just had a hunch that something great would happen this morning. “I played yesterday into this morning for twenty hours and was up $1500. I was sitting in my car and had a feeling to go back inside and play some more.”

The winner of today’s record-breaking hand, Carlo Santos, was just trying to win enough money for his buy in to today’s Borgata Summer Poker Open Deep Stack event which began at noon.

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Borgata Summer Poken Open results - Event #1

Date: Sun, Jun 13, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Event 1: $200 + $30 No Limit Hold'em
June 11

Entries: 508 Total Buy-In: $101,600

FINAL RESULTS
1. GILBERT SACKS (BALA CYNWYD, PA): $28,077
2. KENNETH JACOBY (ROSLYN HTS, NY): $14,783
3. CHRISTOPH LYON (BRICK, NJ): $7,638
4. ADAM COOK (ANNAPOLIS, MD): $6,652
5. CHRISTIAN AGUILERA (HICKSVILLE, NY): $5,667
6. MICHAEL MATRONE (MORGANVILLE, NJ): $4,681
7. KERRY SMALL (VENTNOR CITY, NJ): $3,696
8. DAO BUI (STERLING, VA): $2,710
9. SAED RABAH (STATEN ISLAND, NY): $1,971
10. VICTOR STOVER (HUMMELSTOWN, PA): $1,281
11. ANTHONY CALDEIRA (WEST BABYLON, NY): $1,281
12. TREVOR SAVAGE (MANTUA, NJ): $1,281
13. MILTON AMARANTE (CHERRY HILL, NJ): $936
14. JAY JOHNSON (PHILADELPHIA, PA): $936
15. DONG ZHOU (JERSEY CITY, NJ): $936
16. SAUNDRA GRACE HAMPSON (PHILADELPHIA, PA): $641
17. FRANK MARTINELLI JR (DELRAY, FL): $641
18. KEVIN DOYLE (HARLEYSVILLE, PA): $641
19. CHRISTOPHER ACKERMAN (CHATHAM, NJ): $512
20. GEORGE REID (ROBBINSVILLE, NJ): $512
21. DON HUANG (LEESBURG, VA): $512
22. JOHN MYERS (CARMEL, NY): $512
23. MARK DIKKER (MORGANVILLE, NJ): $512
24. RENAN BESIDO (PORT READING, NJ): $512
25. ENGIN CETIN (BELLWOOD, NY): $512
26. KEVIN TRAN (CENTER VALLEY, PA): $512
27. MICHAEL TOBACK (ELKRIDGE, MD): $512
28. HARRY PIACITELLI (PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA): $414
29. FRANK RICHARDONE (STATEN ISLAND, NY): $414
30. JOSEPH BROOKS (EGG HBR TWP, NJ): $414
31. OREN KLEIN (MONTCLAIR, NJ): $414
32. JOHN SYKES (BROOKLYN, NY): $414
33. ROBERT FRONCZAK (STEWARTSVILLE, NJ): $414
34. LARRY ZHANG (JERSEY CITY, NJ): $414
35. JOSEPH LOBIANCO (LUTHERVILLE, MD): $414
36. EDWARD ABENDSCHEIN (MTN LKS, NJ): $414
37. MAKSIM SHCHETKOVSKIY (BELLEVILLE, NJ): $345
38. MARK STOLLINGS (NEWARK, DE): $345
39. RAMIN AZIZOGHLI (FREEHOLD, NJ): $345
40. MICHAEL RADUTMAN (BROOKLYN, NY): $345
41. CHRISTOPHER LIM (BRONX, NY): $345
42. BRIAN ECKSTROM (MARLTON, NJ): $345
43. JAMES BAXTER (WESTPORT, CT): $345
44. JOSEPH ALTOMONTE (WEST PATERSON, NJ): $345
45. THOMAS CHILLEMI (MANASSAS, VA): $345
46. YUL SOO PARK (LONG ISLAND CITY, NY): $296
47. MATTHEW LOPE (GLOUCESTER, NJ): $296
48. WILLIAM LAU (SEWELL, NJ): $296
49. JONATHAN GAIGE (HARRISBURG, PA): $296
50. JAMES BOYLE (HAVRE DE GRACE, MD): $296
51. SHAUN GONZALES (BUSHKILL, PA): $296
52. ANDREW ROSNER (GARDEN CITY, NY): $296
53. FRANK CHARLES MOLINARI II (MOONACHIE, NJ): $296
54. BARRY JAY KANDEL (ROLAND PARK, MD): $296

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Borgata Poker Summer Open

Date: Sun, Jun 13, 2010 Live Tournament Women

The Borgata Summer Poker Open started Sunday and will run through June 30.

The Borgata always does a great job with updating tournament information and getting results as quickly as possible if you're not at the Borgata.

The Summer Poker Open blog is up and running with updates nearly every few minutes.

Check out the blog here for results and news.

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Last Chance WSOP Super Satellite at Harrah's tomorrow

Date: Fri, Jun 11, 2010 Live Tournament Women

Still trying to get into the WSOP Main Event that beings July 5? Harrah's Resorts in Atlantic City is running "Last Chance" satellites to win a seat into the Main Event.

Harrah's will run daily $58+$12 satellites for three seats into the super satellite, which awards two seats into the Main Event.

The next super satellites is tomorrow June 12. The remaining super satellites is June 19. You can buy straight into the event for $512+$44.

Check here for more information from Harrah's.

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Still not done talking about the Taj Bad Beat

Date: Tue, Jun 8, 2010 Live Tournament Women

When a poker bad beat jackpot is hit, it's immediately reset and starts over again waiting for the next lucky table to claim the prize.

When a bad beat gets to a certain point, the resetting process doesn't hurt that much. For most casinos, 10 percent of the drop is taken out for for reseeding purposes. When the Trump Taj Mahal bad beat opened today - two days after it hit for a record amount - it's still at a respectable amount. The Taj bad beat is at $167,818.

That's not the highest of the casinos. Borgata is at $277,358 and most of the others are in the 100K territory as well.

I wonder what the bad beat chasers are going to do now.

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He even got a big check!

Date: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 Live Tournament Women

The Trump Taj Mahal bad beat was hit on Sunday night ending the largest bad beat in Atlantic City history.

The Press of Atlantic City has an article with a photo of the man holding a large check inside the poker room. I hope he left with it.

The bad beat was quad sevens beat by quad aces.

Congratulations to John Bazela who won.

However, the part that struck me was the last paragraph.

But every gambling story has to have one loser, and everyone knows it's not the house.

Shortly before Bazela struck the untraditional jackpot, Beverly Joskowitz, of Bayonne, Hudson County, left her spot at the table to grab a quick bite to eat. Twenty minutes later, she returned to the mob scene around her table. She had missed being a part of history, and more importantly, she was out more than $24,000.

"My stomach went to the floor," she said upon hearing the news. "It's still there. I haven't picked it up yet."

I feel sick for her. That's a terrible way to find out that you lost your share of roughly $24,000. Imagine sitting there for hours on end and then that happened.

I know someone who was sitting on this game and I intend to find out if Joskowitz was given any money by the other players on the game. There have been tables that make a pact with each other that if someone is in the bathroom or grabbing food, they are still going to get their share of the money.

From the sounds of it, this was not that kind of table.

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Bad beat finally hit at the Taj

Date: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 Live Tournament Women

The bad beat jackpot got hit at the Taj Mahal tonight.

I don't have all the details, but I do know it's finally in the books. I'll try to get more info on Monday.

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