The 2013 World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open resumed Monday with the second of two Day 1 flights at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. After 397 put up the $3,500 buy-in on Day 1a, another 645 hit the felts on Day 1b, creating a record turnout of 1,042 players for the event. The eventual winner of the tournament will take home $730,053.
After eight levels of play on Monday, 396 players survived Day 1b to join the 209 who made it through Day 1a. Taking the chip lead into Day 2 will be Mark Ketteringham, who accumulated 193,775 chips on Day 1b to collect $5,000 as the top stack of the day. Ketteringham barely edged Chris Barnes (189,500) for the top prize, and Filippo Bonura (172,275), Nimer Ltaif (163,725) and Travis Williams (155,575) rounded out the top five of the leaderboard.
WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Day 1b Top 10
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Ketteringham | 193,775 |
| 2 | Chris Barnes | 189,500 |
| 3 | Filippo Bonura | 172,275 |
| 4 | Nimer Ltaif | 163,725 |
| 5 | Travis Williams | 155,575 |
| 6 | Dean Marco | 155,000 |
| 7 | Panayote Alafoyannis | 141,300 |
| 8 | Jeff Treadway | 141,300 |
| 9 | Simone Zaino | 130,175 |
| 10 | Jordan Young | 130,000 |
Barnes made a run at the chip lead late in the night after scooping a big pot with only a few minutes remaining. According to the World Poker Tour Live Updates team, Barnes and two other players saw a flop of 
. One player in early position bet 8,500, and a player in middle position moved all in for about 24,000. Barnes then reraised all in, having both players covered, and the original bettor got out of the way.
Barnes: 
Opponent: 
Barnes’ straight was out in front of the other player’s two pair, and the 
turn and 
river secured the pot for Barnes, increasing his stack to around 185,000. He received $3,500 for having the second largest stack when played concluded.
Others who found success on Day 1b were Jonathan Little (128,000), Jamie Kerstetter (122,725), Eric Buchman (112,375), Joe Serock (105,525), John Racener (105,000), and Matt Glantz (103,000). Little was named the Day 1b Club WPT Player of the Day after re-entering on Day 1a and coming up empty. His third bullet was far more effective, and Little said on Twitter that he mostly chipped up without seeing a showdown.
Kerstetter, coming off a 12th-place finish at the WPT Borgata Poker Open in September, eclipsed the 100,000-chip mark when her 
held up against another player’s 
. It was actually a three-way all-in as a short-stacked Kathy Liebert has her last few chips in with 
, and the 
board secured the double-up for Kerstetter. Liebert re-entered and later advanced to Day 2.
Many notables hit the rail on Monday, including Kia Mohajeri, Brock Parker, Jeff Madsen, Ebony Kenney, Bernard Lee, John Cernuto, Robert Varkonyi, Michael Esposito, and former WPT champs Olivier Busquet, David Williams, and Shawn Cunix. Mohajeri was the victim of a cooler when he ran his into Matt Stout’s after all the chips went in preflop. Busquet, who won a WPT event at Borgata in 2009, also met his demise against aces, but he held pocket kings.
Day 2 of the Borgata Winter Poker Open will commence at noon ET on Tuesday, and the remaining 605 players will attempt to survive eight 75-minute levels before calling it a day. We’ll continue to follow all of the highlights from the tournament, so stay tuned to PokerNews for a full recap.
Lead photo courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com.
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