Champ: Zhu MIA

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Blinds 1,200/2,400, 300 ante

Yue Zhu (Flushing, NY) started the day with 105,800 chips.  He had never appeared and has been blinding/anteing off all day long.  The stack is now down to about 45k (about 19 big blinds).

 Yue Zhu's stack and the man himself!

Yue has just appeared and played his first hand of the day.  He had a family emergency (a fire at his girlfriend's apartment building) and he had to drive there and back (six hours!).

Now he's back in the game and looking for a double-up.

Event 18: Bubbling Over

$400 + $50 Deep Stack Semi-Turbo NLH

Lee Left Out of the Money

After surviving his first all in when a diamond flush hit the board for a chopped pot, the second time is not the charm for Paul Lee (Bethesda, MD). He's all in with K J against the pocket 7s of Gennaro Cammarota (Hawthorne, NJ).

Lee picks up a straight draw on the turn, but doesn't win the race and is the bubble boy. The final 18 players are in the money and drawing for new seats.

 Lee and Rail Birds Waiting for the Flop

Champ: Break Time Tweets

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Some Tweets from the break:

Steve Ryan ‏ @SteveRyanPoker
Break. Treading water at 90k. Comin back to 2400 bb. Approx 90 remaining. 54 paid. Gonna be a long stressful way to the bubble hungry!

Cliff Josephy ‏ @JohnnyBaxPoker
They are all playing crazy, and I haven't picked up a hand. Bad combo. 78k, the smallest stack at my tbl by far. Avg is 170k. 1200-2400/300

John Lakatosh ‏ @johnlak
Finally a few good levels even rivered quads for a minute I thought my name was @Mikunbelievable

Larry Sharp ‏ @BBOY3110
335k going into 1200/2400 300

Champ: Back From Break

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Players are back from break for Level 15, blinds 1,200/2,400, 300 ante.

Before the break, with Blinds: 1k/2k, 200 ante

Matt Woodward (cutoff) and Vinny Pahuja (button) got into a pre-flop raising war, until Vinny was all-in and Matt was in the tank.

Matt eventually surrendered and Vinny chipped up to~260k.

Matt still leads the field with 645k.

Danny Currie (Clifton, VA) who finished 2nd in chips on day 1A, has busted out.

92 players remain.  Average stack is ~170k.

Only 54 get paid.

Champ: Woodward Back In The Lead

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Blinds: 1k/2k, 200 ante

Larry Sharp (North Whales, PA) got all-in with pocket Queens against Ben Chou's AK. 

This time the Queens hold up.

Larry doubled up to nearly 300k.  Ben dropped down to ~510k.

Matt Woodward is up to almost 700k and back in the chip lead.

End of level 14 and time for a break.

Champ: Abrams Again

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH 

 Abrams Aiming for Chip Lead

Just a few hands after winning the 400k pot, Larry Abrams (Mahwah, NJ) flops a straight with AK and knocks out a player.  The opponent ships 100k and Abrams is now one of the chip leaders with 580k.

Champ: The Chou Crushes Two

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Ben Chou

Blinds: 1k/2k, 200 ante

First, Ben Chou (Astoria, NY) was racing with AK against pocket Queens.  A King on the turn gave him the pot, sending his opponent to the rail.  He was up to ~525k.

Then, a short-stack was all-in with pocket Jacks.  Ben called him down with K5 suited and made a flush, sending another player to the rail.

With that pot, Ben chipped up to ~630k, taking the chip lead.

Matt Woodward has about 600k.

Also gone:
Vladimir Peck
Scott Wardell
Rep Porter

96 players remain on 11 tables.  Average stack is ~162k.

Champ: Gola Gone, Abrams Up

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Joe "the Jeweler" Gola (Cherry Hill, NJ) opens the pot from middle position and gets three callers, the button and both blinds.

Flop: 2♣ J♥ 10♦

The blinds check
Gola bets 15k
button folds
SB moves all in for 35k
Larry Abrams (Mahwah, NJ) raises to 90k from the BB
Gola moves all in for 145k total
Abrams calls

SB: 9♠ 10♠ (OE straight draw)
Abrams: J♦ 10♣ (two pairs)
Gola: Q♣ Q♠ (pair of queens)

Turn: 6♠

River: A♥

Blanks on the turn and river knock two players and gives Abrams the 400k pot.

Champ: Darden Dispatches Two

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

 Paul Darden

Blinds: 1k/2k, 200 ante

On a flop of 5♠4♠3♣, three players got all-in

Seat 1 (bb): 6♣2♥-- six-high straight
Michael Shasho (mp): 5♣4♣  -- top two pair
Paul Darden (utg): 7♠6♠ -- nut straight, open-ended straight-flush redraw

The T♠ came on the turn, improving Paul's hand to a flush.  River was a Jack and Paul 'The Truth' Darden collected the pot, chipping up to ~260k.

The big blind and Mike 'Mad Dog' Shasho were both busted.

Champ: Melikian Cracks Aces

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Blinds: 1k/2k, 200 ante

With Q J T on the board, Ara Melikian had a short-stacked Jonathan Dimmig all-in.

Jonathan's pocket Aces were ahead, but Ara's T9 had a lot of outs.  One of them, a 9, landed on the river, giving Ara two pair and the pot.  He chipped up to 200k while Jonathan headed for the door.

Also gone:
Vyacheslav 'Steve' Eyzerovich
Abe Korotki
Roz Quarto

Champ: Strategy Session

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Bill Campbell & Jeff McAlister Talking on Break

Champ: Woodward Reclaims Lead

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH    

Players are back for break for level 14, blinds 1k/2k, 200 ante.

 Eric Ladny

Eric Ladny (Mercerville, NJ) is up to 350k over on table two, where he sits between Cliff Josephy (Muttontown, NY) and Andrew Klein (Ocean, NJ).

Matt Woodward

It is Matt Woodward, however, who has retaken the chip lead.  He's now up to ~450k.

When his last table broke, Matt landed on table 13 with Phong 'VIP' Nguyen, William Dugan, Rep Porter, Vladimir Peck, and Andrew St. Hilaire.

Champ: Hubbard Boots One

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH   

End of level 13 and players are shuffling out for a break.

Before the break, with blinds of 800/1,600, 200 ante: 

On the turn with a board of A J 9 5, Stephanie Hubbard (Hazlet, NJ) was facing a bet of 30,600 from the player on her left.  He only had about 5k behind his bet.

After giving it some thought, Stephanie moved in and he called all-in, showing pocket 3s.

Stephanie was way ahead with pocket Kings.  River was a 9 and he was busted.  Stephanie chipped up to ~120k.

Approximately 117 players remain on 13 tables.  Average is about 133k.

Champ: More Goners

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH   

Blinds 800/1,600, 200 ante 

Amarender Puri (Flushing, NY) got his last chips in and got action from Ali Tabatabai (Cockeysville, MD) who is the big stack on table 10.

Amarender had A9 and was ahead of Ali's 76.  Then the board ran out Q 7 6 T 6 and Ali took the pot with a full house, sending  Amarender to the rail.

Also gone:
Alex Torres
Jay Nair
Athanasios Diakos
Mark Borges
Dan Fischer
Gordon Eng
Alex Smith
Paul Spitzberg

Down to 125 players players, meaning 100 players have busted out since play began at noon today.

Event 18: Flying Fast, Just the Facts

$400 + $50 Deep Stack Semi-Turbo NLH

Chip Leader Mike Laufer (Upper Saddle River, NJ) 

flashes the A♣ to Tony C.

45 players remain including the all star table of:

David Kim
Bill Blanda (2nd in chips 150k)
Joe Liberta
Christine Brewer
Jesse Cohen

Others Still Playing

Mike Laufer (Chip Leader with 190k)
Andrew Interdonato
Adam Lippert
Ken Aldridge
Leonardo Palermo
Jerry Callahan
Laura Camuso

Semi-turbo portion of the tournament is over as blind levels increase from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.

The average stack is 82k (16 BB) as blind are 2.5k/5k, 500 ante.

Champ: New Chip Leader

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH  

Blinds 800/1,600, 200 ante

William 'The Reaper' Parker

Looks like William 'The Reaper' Parker (Princeton, NJ) is the new chip leader.  He's up to ~385k.  William says "Hello" to the home-game gang at the Chesterfield back at Princeton.

Champ: Matt on Matt Action

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH   

Blinds 800/1,600, 200 ante 

On a flop of T 9 8 with two spades, Matt Glantz got all-in against big stack Matt Woodward.

Glantz had pocket 8s for bottom set.  Woodward had pocket Jack for the open ender.

The last two came T 4 and Glantz doubled up to ~145k.

Woodward was left with ~300k and is no longer the chip leader.

Champ: Tweet-Counts

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH  

Chip counts Tweeted over the break:

Brock Parker - 160k
Edward Pham - 150k
Larry Sharp - 130k
Rep Porter - 122k
Cliff Josephy - 106k
Orson Young - 105k
Steve Ryan - 90k
Danny Rohde - 80k
Steve Scales - 60k
Roman Valerstein - 47k

Champ: More Big Names Depart

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH  

Also reporting to the rail:

Chris Bell - 1 WSOP Bracelet
Gavin Smith - 1 WPT title, 1 WSOP bracelet
Cornel Cimpan - 2 WPT titles
Andrew Barta - 2007 Borgata Summer Open Champion ($513,925)
Mark Sykes - 2-time Borgata Open winner

Champ: Tough Table 15

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH   

Level 13:  Blinds 800/1,600, 200 ante

Players are back from break.

When his table broke, Matt Woodward landed at table 15, to the right of Matt Glantz.  Also sharing this patch of green is Mike Dentale, Joe Pitti, John Lakatosh, and Andrew St. Hilaire.

Matt's got about 320k and I believe he is still the chip leader.

Champ: Scales Triples, Busts Zaydman

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH  

Before the break:

Three-way pre-flop all-in.

Elliott Zaydman:  AJ offsuit
Alex Torres:  AK suited
Steve Scales:  99

The board came 5 4 4 9 A.  Elliott was busted, Alex got the side pot, and Steve tripled to about 60k.

Steve won almost $33k when he took down the $350 Big Stack No Limit event during the 2012 Winter Open.

Champ: Former Spring Champions Depart

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH  

Russell Crane, (Howell, NJ) winner of the 2011 Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship ($276,949) has busted out, so there will be to repeat for him.

Alex Queen, (Bethlehem, PA) winner of the 2010 Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship ($355,535) has also departed.  Alex also won the 2011 Borgata Fall Open Heads-Up Championship ($29k).

End of level 12 and time for another break!

Champ: Borovetz v. Woodward

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH  

Blinds 600/1,200, 100 ante

Back on table 19, Michael Borovetz (Pittsburgh, PA) and start-of-day-two-chip-leader Matt Woodward (Waterboro, ME) tangled in a pot.

On the turn, the board showed J♦4♥3♦T♥.  Matt (sb) was facing a 25k bet from Michael (there was a short-stack already all-in).

Matt called and the river was the 3♣.  Matt checked, Michael bet 30k, and Matt folded.

Michael showed two black Queens and the all-in player mucked.  He chipped up to ~225k.

Matt is up to 380k and probably still the chip leader.

Table 19 will be the next one to break, so these players will be moving to new tables soon.

Event 18: Tweet-Time

$400 + $50 Deep Stack Semi-Turbo NLH

Tweets from the field:


Jerry Callahan ‏ @callahanja911
119k at 1k/2k. Just won a 60k pot all in after flop qxx 2h with q10 against flush draw and gut shot on turn. Avg is 45k

Robby Devries♠ ‏ @X18robbase
On break level 13! 1200/2400 really short stacked! 19k, 147 entrants about 75 left!

larry goldstein ‏ @tworedducks
20bbs goin to 1200/2400 in thr turbo. 75 of 150 left

adam lippert ‏ @lippypoker
95k super fast structure avg stack under 20bb

Champ: Goners

 $2500 + $200 Championship NLH 

Table One was tough to start the day with this crew:

David Inselberg
Daniel Currie
Brandon Hall
Anthony Caruso
Alex Smith
Ofir Mor
Mike Wolf

Then it got a little easier when Anthony Caruso and Mike Wolf busted out.

Now it's gotten a little tougher.  Paul Spitzberg and Wade Woelfel have filled those empty seats.

More Goners:
Laura Camuso
Mark Vanderloo
Miguel Borrero
Dominic Colonna
James Magee
Jay Sharon
Carless 'Joe' Boatwright
Wazir Baksh