Atlantic City was a buzz in August as the Caesars Entertainment properties combined to set an Atlantic City bad-beat jackpot record. On Aug. 12, the jackpot hit as Caesars for $787,320, smashing the record of $672,115.
Narong Sae Whited claimed $237,154 when four nines lost to Nick Angelakopoulos’ king-high straight flush. He banked $158,422 for the winning hand while the 409 players spread across the four casinos collected $958 apiece.
The Borgata also was busy hosting another successful PLO weekend series. With $30K in guarantees spread across two tournaments, the Borgata smashed the guarantees, something it has become known for these days. In the PLO/8 event, Michael Wang of Livingston, N.J., took home the top prize of $5,876 for besting a field of 101 players. In the PLO event it was Michael Rigo of Vineland, N.J., that topped a field of 75 to bank $5,090.
On the forecast for Atlantic City is the famed WPT Borgata Poker Open, which is coming out swinging this year with a $3 million guarantee for its televised main event. Over by the beach, Revel has added to its schedule with a Super Challenge Series sponsored by PokerApproved.com. The series includes a mega party and bounty free-roll tournament Nov. 16-19. For more details, go to pokerapproved.com.
Pennsylvania
All eyes were on Parx Casino as the World Poker Tour was in town giving Pennsylvania its first televised tournament. With 500 entries, including WPT Champions Club members Will “The Thrill” Failla, Dwyte Pilgrim and Marvin Rettenmaier, along with top-flight pros such as Matt Glantz, Jon Turner, Joseph Cheong and Jason Koon, the WPT Parx Open Poker Classic generated a prize pool of more than $1.6 million. But in the end it was Anthony Gregg who came out on top, earning a little more than $416K.
Gregg held the lead three out of five days, though he started the final table in second. He began heads-up play at a 2-1 chip disadvantage to Stephen Reynolds, but picked his spots well over the course of 98 hands and three hours.
The event proved to be a huge success and further cemented Parx as a major player in the East Coast poker scene for a long time to come.
— Cris Belkewitch is the Ante Up Atlantic City Ambassador. A member of Team Bustout, his insight can be found at thepokerjourney.net.
