Thursday, September 19, 2013

Championship: Day 3 Recap / Day 4 Preview

$3300 + $200 Championship Deep Stack Double Play NLH (Re-Entry)

Selbst & Pham
Top 5 in Chips

Vanessa Selbst (Las Vegas, NV), one of the biggest names in poker, is in the hunt for the WPT Borgata Poker Open title and the $825,099 first prize.  She bagged 1.7 million chips, a top 5 stack, and trails chip leader Cong Pham (Naples, FL) who has 2.5 million.

Second in chips is Jake Schwartz (New York, NY) who is at 2.1 million.

"I'm very content with the day," said Schwartz, who finished runner-up for a bracelet at this summer's WSOP, "I can't really complain."

It was moving day as the money bubble burst (110 cashed) and players put themselves in position for the title. 36 players remained at the end of Day 3 with the average stack at nearly 1 million chips (63 bb).

Of the remaining players, the Kottler brothers, Jeremy and Zak, each have a top 10 stack.

Zak & Jeremy Kottler

"We want to make history," says older brother Jeremy who is just behind Selbst in 6th place. "We want to be the first brothers to make a WPT final table."

"It's a brother-off," says Zak, who's 10th in chips at 1.4 million, "we've had a lot of brother-offs in our lives, but this will be the biggest."

While there are interesting story lines the rest of the way, a lot of the recognizable names failed to bag chips, but did cash in this event.  The list included 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion Bobby Oboodi, two-time WPT Champion Jonathan Little, who was eliminated by Selbst and reigning WPT Player of the Year Matt Salsberg.

Notables in the Money

42nd Alex Queen
46th Matt Salsberg
47th Bobby Oboodi 
59th Jonathan Little 
60th Dan Buzgon
63rd Allen Kessler
78th Eric Baldwin
80th Victor Ramdin

The biggest name who returned for Day 3, but failed to cash, was 5-time Borgata trophy holder and WPT Champion Will "The Thrill" Failla."

Play resumes for Day 4 at high noon in the Poker Room with blinds continung at 8k/16k/2k ante and approximately 1 hour left on the level. 

"It's still a marathon," said Schwartz, "there's a lot of work still to do."  And as he walked out of the Event Center he sent a shout out to his Grandma Gagi, who he hopes will get to see him return here Friday for the final table.

Day 4 concludes the televised final table of six players is reached.

Alex Rocha (standing, center) Reacts to Schwartz 
Who Has Trouble Bagging & Tagging

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