The biggest payday at the Borgata in April was to Brooklyn’s Jia Liu, who won the Spring Poker Open’s main event and $312,483. But it wasn’t long after that another huge payday rocked the Borgata poker room.
On April 26, the bad-beat jackpot was nearing February’s record total of a little more than $636K, when it was posted at a massive $617,524.
Shortly after, the mini bad-beat jackpot hit and shrunk the overall bad-beat total by $50K. A mere four hours later at a $1-$2 no-limit hold’em table, the remaining jackpot of about $567K hit when the quad 10s of David Henry (Marlton, N.J.) fell to the quad aces of William Lee Warner (Manassas, Va.). Henry may have lost the pot, but he collected a cool $227,009 in doing so. For his winning hand, Warner made a score of $113,505 and the rest of the table got to enjoy about $32K just for being at the table.
HARRAH’S A.C.: For any East Coast grinders looking to win their way to the World Series of Poker Main Event, Harrah’s is running satellites. For more details call the poker room at 609-441-5000.
Pennsylvania
Parx Casino had quite a weekend to close out April. DeepStacks Live, led by WSOP Europe bracelet-holder Tristan “Cre8tive” Wade, offered a curriculum on NLHE tournament play and pot-limit Omaha. Joining Wade were two-time World Poker Tour champion Randal Flowers, PLO specialist and Ante Up strategy columnist Jay Houston and high-stakes regular Matt Glantz.
The course helped kick off the main event of the WPT Parx Spring Showdown. The WPT Regional attracted a field of 196 players with a buy-in of $1,500, creating a prize pool of $285,180. The final table was packed with talent as pros Ryan D’Angelo, Brian Lemke, Joseph Wertz and Ante Up strategy columnist Lee Childs all made a bid for the top spot. Ultimately, it was Wertz who maneuvered his way through the stacked final table to the victory and $65,588.
— Cris Belkewitch is the Ante Up Atlantic City Ambassador. A member of Team Bustout, his insight can be found at thepokerjourney.net.
Borgata Spring Poker Open
Atlantic City, April 4-20
Event 1 • $560 NLHE
1,041 Entries • Pool: $520,500
Brian Lemke, $111,076
Event 2 • $400 NLHE
329 Entries • Pool: $115,150
Manh Nguyen, $30,159
Event 3 • $450 H.O.R.S.E.
80 Entries • Pool: $32,000
Yuebin Guo, $10,863
Event 4 • $450 NLHE
308 Entries • Pool: $123,200
Mark Wahba, $32,267
Event 5 • $770 NLHE
162 Entries • Pool: $113,400
Karthik, $32,998
Event 6 • $400 Omaha/8
54 Entries • Pool: $18,900
Yuebin Guo, $6,417
Event 7 • $300 NLHE
193 Entries • Pool: $50,180
Waheed Guirguis, $14,601
Event 8 • $400 NLHE
346 Entries • Pool: $121,100
Michael Dentale, $31,716
Event 9 • $280 PLO
117 Entries • Pool: $29,250
Daniel Maisano, $8,511
Event 10 • $500 Bounty
229 Entries • Pool: $80,150
Karl Tretter, $21,768
Event 11 • $230 NLHE
1,105 Entries • Pool: $221,000
Sungwoo Tae, $47,160
Event 12 • $400 PLO/8
81 Entries • Pool: $28,350
Ryan Waddell, $9,625
Event 13 • $450 6-Max
245 Entries • Pool: $98,000
Travell Thomas, $25,188
Event 14 • $1,090 NLHE
150 Entries • Pool: $150,000
Vineet Pahuja, $43,648
Event 15 • $400 NLHE
323 Entries • Pool: $113,050
Brian Ballentine, $29,610
Event 16 • $1,090 6-Max
156 Entries • Pool: $156,000
Michael Woll, $42,373
$2,700 Main Event
520 Entries • Pool: $1.3 million
Jia Liu, $312,483
Event 18 • $450 NLHE
147 Entries • Pool: $58,800
Laura Camuso, $17,110
Event 19 • $200 NLHE
920 Entries • Pool: $156,400
James Sloat, $34,132
