World Poker Tour Boot Camp hitting the Trop

The Tropicana will host a World Poker Tour Boot Camp on April 9-10 (link)

The boot camp costs $1,895 and pros include Kathy Liebert, Nick Brancato, Rick Fuller and Nick Binger.

Poker tourneys going on at the Taj

The Taj Mahal is kicking off 2010 with the New Year's Classic, which runs through the 18th. You can book your seats at www.ptseats.com

By clicking on the above link, you will also see what tournaments the Taj is running. There is a good mix of games from the popular NL Hold 'em to my personal favorite 7-card stud.

Most of the events will run you $300+$40, but the daily tournaments are about $50 and the Taj still has the midnight tourneys going on.

Borgata Poker Open down to three tables

The Borgata blog is the place to keep up-to-date with the latest info on the Borgata Poker Open.

The main event is down to the final three tables. Play will begin Wednesday at 11 a.m., and go down to the final six for the final televised table.

Those six will get their mugs on Fox Sports Net in the future.

Here are the chip counts heading into Day 3 from the WPT live updates.

Also, if you want to see more photos, check out this gallery from The Press of Atlantic City.

We're heads up!

The Borgata Poker Open is already heads up after close to three hours of play.

It took a full day to get from 27 to six and people are now dropping fairly quickly. You can catch all the live action at the Borgata Poker Blog. The faithful bloggers over there are giving updates hand by hand.

Here are the current heads up chip counts:

Vivek Rajkumar - 16,805,000
Sang Kim - 3,910,000

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Day 3 of the Borgata Poker Open finished

Day 3 mercifully came to an end at the Borgata Poker Open around 7 p.m. This has been the earliest of the three days so far and everyone involved with the tournament is thrilled. The first two days were nearly 12 hours each with several small breaks and only one lengthy break.

The 69 that came back for Day 3 played until there were 27 left and then called it quits. They will come back on Wednesday and play until there are just six left. Those six will then play on Thursday for the television portion of the Borgata Poker Open that will be seen on FSN as part of the World Poker Tour.

Flyers' Scottie Upshall busted out in 52nd place and netted $15,000 for the two charities he is playing for, the Flyers Wives for Life and the Kids Foundation that he helped create along with a fellow hockey player.

Read the Card Player article on Day 3 here and if you need constant updates the guys over at the Borgata Poker Blog are doing a great job.

Here the chip counts heading into Wednesday as per the WPT.

Dan Heimiller - 2,870,000
Vivek Rajkumar - 1,756,000
Thayer Rasmussen - 1,413,000
Steven Levy - 1,317,000
Jason Strochak - 1,266,000
Nicky Frangos - 1,140,000
Andrew Knee - 1,091,000
Mark Seif - 1,087,000
Patrick Carney - 1,050,000
Stephen Vanauken - 1,009,000
John Myung - 946,000
Michael Binger - 718,000
Steve Dannenmann - 627,000
Ted Forrest - 607,000
Bobby Shasta - 606,000
Ralph Villela - 345,000
Christopher Baksh - 344,000
Vinh Nguyen - 336,000
Sang Kim - 316,000
Mikiya Takitani - 301,000
Randy Pfeifer - 288,000
Robert Toft - 269,000
Nam Le - 235,000
Kevin Lang - 209,000
Chris Arvanitis - 177,000
Natale Kuey - 175,000
Chris Bell - 165,000

Day 2 of the WPT Borgata Poker Open comes to a close

There are roughly 70 players remaining in the Borgata Poker Open after two days of action. Many of the more popular poker players got knocked out on the second day, but there are still many notables left in the field such as Ted Forrest, Joe Sebok, Mark Seif and Tiffany Michelle.

Flyers' Scottie Upshall is still in the hunt as well. He is playing for two charities and has made it to the Day 3 in his first live tournament. Upshall is used to playing with his teammates on the road. He doesn't play online nor does he play in the casinos. Not bad for his first time out.

Many of the players have their own views of Atlantic City. Check out the latest radio from PokerRoad.com. They have an interesting view of the resort and, well, it's not the plushy image Atlantic City's old name gives it. These guys don't like to venture to boardwalk side of Atlantic City. However, I can't say that I blame them.

With the Eagles playing the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, many of the players were paying attention to the game. This allowed the Philadelphia haters and their obsessive fans to come out and show their colors. There were many talking about sports from that point, Nicky Frangos was giving his opinion on the New York Yankees, who won't be making the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

Keeping checking in with the Borgata Poker Open's own blog. The men on the scene are giving live updates with all the information you could possibly need.

Here's Card Player's recount of Day 2 with Julio Rodriguez reporting.

Day 1 of the WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event

The economy is lagging, gas is on the rise again (although it never got low) and people are scrounging to find their last dollars. But don’t tell anyone at the Borgata about the economy’s downward swing.

The Borgata has had a great turnout for its Borgata Poker Open and 516 people registered for the main event, which is a World Poker Tour event that started today. The multi-table tournament costs $10,000 to enter, unless you are lucky enough to get in through a satellite.

However, plenty put up the cool 10K themselves, including plenty of notables that casual poker fans would recognize.

John Juanda was in the house. As were Joe Sebok (Barry Greenstein’s son), Mark Seif, Michael Mizrachi, Nicky Frangos and Beth Shak, who my boyfriend is sad he didn’t see her. These were some of the more popular players, although there were many local pros.

Flyers forward Scotty Upshall is playing in the tournament. According to the Borgata poker blog, Upshall doubled up and should at least make it to Day 2 of the tournament. The Flyers have been practicing in the early morning getting ready for camp, which starts on Saturday. Upshall is probably taking a small break before Philadelphia makes a run to get back to the Eastern Division Finals.

Today was the first day of the U.S. Poker Championships over at the Taj Mahal, which is just a quick ride from the marina. It started with a $300+$40 limit event and will continue through Oct. 8. Its main event ($10,000K) is from Oct. 5-8.

It will be interesting to see how well the Taj draws or if the people are just flocking to the Borgata.

Update: Here's Card Player's Julio Rodriguez's account of Day 1 of the WPT event.

Call Your Hairstylist ...

I know I am a little late on this, but sometimes even the real job gets in the way of things.

On Wednesday, the World Poker Tour announced the creation of the World Poker Tour Ladies League. The WPT is incorporating a title into the events it was previously holding.

I bet all the women out there are asking, well how can I play? Easy. Come to the Borgata on Jan. 20. It’s the first stop of the five-date tour. I have every intention of playing in this tournament. I actually had planned on it before it was given this prestigious title. This is part of my lesson in becoming a better tournament player. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Women are a growing demographic in the game. In every poker room, you can find a handful of women, not all are good, but they are there.

However, the men still seem enamored by the fact women are playing in their game. Some even get scared. One time I sat in a cash game at the Taj and the man to my immediate left got up and said he couldn’t play with women on the game because they take all his money and suck out.
Well, except for that silly Showboat tourney I played in recently, I don’t suck out. I think he just plays badly.

But it’s comments like that that scare women away from the game. It’s relative to high school where there have been studies done showing girls are intimidated by boys. That was never my problem, which is probably why I enjoy sitting at a poker table so much.

These women’s tournaments and women’s events are great for these other types of women though. It’s a much more relaxed atmosphere and they get a chance to enjoy a social game with women of the same interests.

As much as there are other women playing poker now, I find it hard to find another woman I can actually enjoy poker with. Either they think they are better than they really are and don’t want to listen to advice when they ship it, or the women just love the social aspect of the game.

I plan on being at the Borgata for my first major tournament. And as I’ve learned, you have to play bad to win these things. Just kidding.

Here’s the rest of the schedule:
• January 20 – Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa – Atlantic City, NJ – $300+$50
• Feb 2-3 – Commerce Casino* – Los Angeles, CA – $970+$95
• March 16 – Bay 101** – San Jose, Ca. – $300+$30
• March 29 – Foxwoods Resort and Casino – Mashantucket, CT – $530+70
WPT Ladies’ Championship
• April 13-14 – Bellagio – Las Vegas, Nevada – $1500+$90
• April 25 – Final Table

The Borgata Winter Poker Open Sked

Here are live results from the Winter Poker Open.

EVENT TOURNAMENT DATE TIME BUY-IN ENTRY 1 No Limit Hold’Em Tue, 1/15 11am $300 $50 2 No Limit Hold’Em Wed, 1/16 11am $500 $60 3 No Limit Hold’Em Thu, 1/17 11am $750 $60 4 No Limit Hold’Em Fri, 1/18 11am $1,000 $80 5 No Limit Hold’Em Sat, 1/19 11am $1,500 $100 6 WPT Ladies No Limit Hold’Em Sun, 1/20 11am $300 $50 7 Limit Hold'Em Sun, 1/20 12pm $300 $50 8 Modified Shoot Out Mon, 1/21 11am $300 $50 9 No Limit Hold'Em Tue, 1/22 11am $500 $60 10 No Limit Hold'Em Wed, 1/23 11am $2,500 $150 11 No Limit Hold'Em Thu, 1/24 11am $500 $60 12 No Limit Hold'Em Fri, 1/25 11am $5,000 $200 SUPER SATELLITE DAY Sat, 1/26 10am 13 WPT Borgata Poker Classic Championship Day 1 Sun 1/27 11am $9,700 $300 WPT Borgata Poker Classic Championship Day 2 Mon, 1/28 11am $9,700 $300 WPT Borgata Poker Classic Championship Day 3 Tue, 1/29 11am $9,700 $300 WPT Borgata Poker Classic Championship Day 4 Wed, 1/30 11am $9,700 $300 WPT Borgata Poker Classic Championship Final Event Thu, 1/31 5pm $9,700 $300 14 No Limit Hold'Em Sun, 1/27 12pm $1,000 $80 15 No Limit Hold'Em Mon, 1/28 12pm $500 $60 16 No Limit Hold'Em Tue, 1/29 12pm $300 $50