Will OC

‘FPO Championship’
Level 21 (6,000/12,000/2,000) (72 minutes remaining)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 25
Avg. Chips: 668,000

We’ve mentioned a few times during our Fall Poker Open Championship coverage that there is going to be no such thing as an easy table draw and following that theme, it’s no surprise that a completely stacked field is going to return for Day 3 of this FPO Championship. An event that started with over 550 players and built up a more than $1,300,000 prize pool is now down to it’s final 25 and while yesterday’s Day 2 session was a grind, today’s play down day is sure to be a grind as well.

That’s because those 25 players will return at 12 PM to crown a champion and, as is customary prior to Day 3 sessions, the FPO blog will be previewing the entire field, starting with the man atop the FPO Championship leaderboard. That player is Jason Paster and one hour into yesterday’s Day 2 session, he likely should have been on the rail, as he was the victim of a set under set encounter. Paster pulled quads on the river though and his tournament life was saved and then some, as he was able to catch some heat late in the day to bag up the chip lead to lead this field into the final day of play.

The New Jersey native finished as a runner-up for a bracelet in 2014 and another notable Borgata runner-up comes back second in chips. Sang Kim finished 2nd in the 2008 WPT BPO Championship and he and Paster return as the only players over the 1,200,000 mark. There are a handful below that number but still in the Millionaire’s Club, including the alias driven Richie Tenenbaum, 2012 WSOP bracelet winner Henry Lu, Brooklyn’s Mike Dentale, who is coming off a final table run at the WPT partypoker.net Main Event, and Philadelphia judge Scott DiClaudio.

Giuseppe Pizzolato also returns above the 1,000,000 chip mark and his attempt at Borgata Poker history is still alive. Pizzolato has already won two FPO titles this series and he goes for a record setting third in this Championship event. Taylor von Kriegenbergh might not be looking to make history but he is looking for a bit of redemption, as he finished second in this event last year.

Borgata regulars Orson Young and Greg Fishberg return above the chip average but below the million mark, they’ll be coming back with nearly similar standings but with Young looking to capture his first BPO title. Fishberg on the other hand will be looking to add to his poker trophy case, as he has two BPO titles to his name, along with a WSOP Circuit ring from 2011. Connor Berkowitz comes back just below them on the leaderboard and while he doesn’t have many previous results, he is one of the only players in this returning field with a WSOP bracelet.

Berkowitz won his this past summer in the ‘Lucky 7s’ event, besting a 4,400 player field to earn a nearly $490,000 score. The New Jersey native briefly controlled the chip lead last night but he comes back today just slightly above the chip average. The rest of this field comes back below that number and while we usually consider the sub-average stacked players dark horses heading into Day 3, the stacked bottom half of the leaderboard won’t be sneaking up on anyone today.

That group is led by BorgataPoker.com pro and everyone’s favorite twitch streamer, Michael Gagliano but the real storyline in today’s Day 3 restart comes in right behind ‘Gags’ on the FPO Championship leaderboard. Despite his success and multiple victories over the last few years, recent WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen has not had much success in BPO Championship events. He joked yesterday that it’s taken him three years to make a Championship Day 3 and just a few weeks after a $7,600,000 victory, he’s finally broken through.

While McKeehen returns with a resume jam packed with past results, Steven Coppola, who controlled the early Day 2 chip lead and spotlight, comes back with his best career finished to date already locked up. He’ll now try to spin up a shorter stack en route to a potential final table run. At the start of yesterday’s Day 2 session, Eric Starker likely envisioned himself at this FPO Championship final table, as he came out of both Day 1 flights with the chip lead. Starker stumbled early but recovered and has seen grinded a shorter stack to perfection and if he’s able to get a double early today, he will be a threat to make a final table run.

Michael Antimisiaris was and is likely in the same camp as Starker, as he came back near the top of the Day 2 leaderboard and stayed there for a majority of the early levels. Things got swingy towards the end of yesterday’s moving day though and he’ll now come back with 30 big blinds. Antimisiaris final tabled the ‘Borgata Million’ earlier this year in January and he’ll now try to get back to another $1,000,000 guaranteed final table today.

Thai Ha has been on a consistent tournament run over the last year, a run that started with him claiming his first Borgata Poker title during the WPO in January. Since then, Ha has gone deep in some of the East Coast’s biggest events and he’s hoping to end his year with another solid finish. He’ll return near the bottom of the leaderboard but while that last few spots on any chip chart are usually written off, the bottom three today can’t be dismissed just yet.

Chris Tryba is comfortable playing any sized stack and as one of the more consistent players in this field, he’ll be a contender if he’s able to find an early double inda early levels. While Tryba has one of the more well rounded live tournament resumes in this field, Edwin Roman, who returns just below Tryba does most of his damage online.

The New Jersey grinder comes back with 20 big blinds, a similar stack size to the one he perfectly worked towards a cash in the Summer Poker Open Championship earlier this year. Rounding out the returners is a player who midway through Day 2 was likely pegged by everyone in the field to at least make the final table. Aaron Mermelstein was the first player over the half-million mark and likely would have broken the 1,000,000 threshold prior to dinner if two massive hands hadn’t been cracked in quick succession.

Mermelstein saw pocket aces and queens go down in flames but the two-time World Poker Tour champion spent the last few hours of Day 2 grinding out his stack. He’ll now come back today with just over 10 big blinds and despite his short stack, the two dozen players above him know he’s a threat if they chip him up early.

Regardless of whether we mentioned it or not, whatever storyline plays out, a winner be crowned today. The seating assignments are listed below, after an overnight redraw took place with 25 players remaining. The FPO blog will pick up the action once cards are in the air at 12 PM and a reminder of the FPO Championship payouts can be found here.

Table 1

1. Eric Starker – 363,000
2. Thai Ha – 347,000
3. Steven Coppola – 397,000
4. Connor Berkowitz – 722,000
5. Giuseppe Pizzolato – 1,1014,000
6. Chun Li – 768,000
7. Joe McKeehen – 506,000
8. Greg Fishberg – 776,000

Table 2

1. Jason Paster – 1,269,000
2. Blake Purvis – 374,000
3. Chris Tryba – 267,000
4. Mike Dentale – 1,110,000
5. Theo Nerantzinis – 377,000
6. Scott Matte – 281,000
7. Scott DiClaudio – 1,049,000
8. Michael Gagliano – 673,000
9. Aaron Mermelstein – 156,000

Table 3

1. Orson Young – 897,000
2. Edwin Roman – 258,000
3. Taylor von Kriegenbergh – 967,000
4. Richie Tenenbaum – 1,168,000
5. Michael Antimisiaris – 348,000
6. Christopher Dombrowski – 300,000
7. Henry Lu – 1,112,000
8. Sang Kim – 1,230,000

It should be noted that this Day 3 restart will take place in the back area of the Poker Room.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 67
Avg. Chips: 249,000

This FPO Championship field is now heading on a 75-minute dinner break and while some players might be happy to halt for a long recess, Christopher Dombrowski likely doesn’t want to kill the momentum he’s built over the last few levels. Over those levels, Dombrowski has built up one of the bigger stacks in the room and he’ll now enter the dinner break near the top of the chip lead, as he’s currently playing 455,000.

Sang Kim goes on dinner leading the FPO Championship, after winning a massive pot in the last hand of Level 16, a hand that eliminated Dan Wach. Kim flopped a set and the two got it in with Wach holding both flush and straight draws. He bricked and Kim is now playing over 7500,000.

This field will return from dinner at 8:35 PM and when play does resume, they’ll be just ten spots from the money. A complete list of the bigger stacks in the room is provided below:

Sang Kim – 755,000
Richie Tenenbaum – 620,000
Mike Dentale – 530,000
Steven Coppola – 470,000
Christopher Dombrowski – 455,000
Michael Gagliano – 445,000
Michael Antimisiaris – 430,000
Dimas Martinez – 395,000
Aaron Mermelstein – 380,000

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 67
Avg. Chips: 249,000

Prior to the last break, Mike Dentale cracked pocket aces on Table 3 and with just 25 minutes left in Level 16, James Gettinger did the same. The short stack called a pre flop raise in the blinds and then cracked the aces of Aaron Mermelstein and the pocket queens of another player, as he held {3s}{2s} on a {7c}{3h}{2c} flop and managed to hold through the turn and river.

The triple up moved Gettinger up and over the 300,000 mark and while it didn’t crippled Mermelstein, who is still playing close to 350,000, it was a disheartening hit to his stack. Had Mermelstein not been cracked, he’d likely be the far and away chip leader heading into the dinner break but now, he’s back as a member of the second wave. 

Gettinger is right there with him but after working a short stack for the better part of the last few levels, he now has a significantly more comfortable stack to work with.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 72
Avg. Chips: 232,000

Throughout the last few days of Fall Poker Open Championship coverage, the FPO blog has highlighted a wide range of players in this field. From World Champions to some of the bigger names in poker but, as is the case in nearly every BPO Championship we’ve ever covered, there is always that dark horse, the player that is making his first real tournament appearance.

This time around, that player is Charles Ashby and after winning a live $500 qualifier for this event, he looks like he could be trending towards his first ever championship cash. Ashby just scored a massive double up through Thai Ha, one that, in his own words, was “lucky” as he “spiked a club on the river to stay alive”.

Ashby might be chalking that double up to luck but the way he’s played over the last two days, against some of the region and country’s best shows that this run is anything but lucky. The Staten Islander started this Day 2 session with just over 80,000 and now, just 45 minutes from the dinner break, he’s playing just shy of 375,000.

That’s good for a well over average stack heading into dinner and if he’s able to continue to build, he’ll be a threat to do much more than just cash in this FPO Championship event.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 81
Avg. Chips: 206,000

Earlier in this Day 2 session, we featured Kevin ‘sofcknsick’ Campbell, who came into this restart with just over 10 big blinds. He forged a quick comeback, getting some early double ups in Level 12 and while he’s continued to build his stack, another player is making a comeback of his own. That player is Moe Farah, who was playing well under the 100,000 mark the last time we did a mass chip count update.

Now, after a solid last level, he’s playing just shy of 250,000 and after notching a deep run in the 1,400 player ‘Almighty Stack’ event, he’s in a position to contend for his second straight BPO Championship score. His first came during the last WPT series in September, when Farah turned a BorgataPoker.com online qualifier into first first career World Poker Tour cash.

Farah is still over 20 players from another BPO Championship cash but if he’s able to continue to build and continue his comeback in this FPO event, we could be talking about him well into tonight and tomorrow’s Day 3 session.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 81
Avg. Chips: 206,000

This Day 2 FPO Championship field has just returned from it’s last pre-dinner break, as the remaining 80 or so players will return to play Level 16 before taking a 75-minute dinner recess. That dinner break will start around 7:15 PM and while there is plenty of poker left to be played before that break, we don’t imagine that any of that play will be in the money. 

With around 30 eliminations remaining until the money bubble bursts, we expect the bubble to burst on the other side of the dinner break. As a reminder for both players and blog followers, a list of the official FPO Championship payouts is provided below:

Event 17 $1,00,000 GTD – $2,500 + $200 FPO Championship No Limit Hold’em 
Total Prize Pool: $1,350,725

1. $336,331
2. $189,102
3. $121,565
4. $96,577
5. $75,641
6. $62,133
7. $49,301
8. $38,496
9. $27,015

10-12. $17,559
13-15. $13,507
16-18. $10,130
19-27. $7,429
28-36. $6,754
37-45. $6,078
46-54. $5,403

This payout structure will be posted again when the money bubble gets into a clearer focus, which will be after the 7:15 PM dinner break.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 15 (1,500/3,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 85
Avg. Chips: 198,000

Mike Dentale started this Day 2 session near the top of the chip leaderboard but his standing has dropped over the last few levels. Dentale is now back near the top of the leaderboard, after hitting a double gutter straight towards the end of Level 15. That hand was picked up on a board of {10c}{8h}{4s}{5c}, with Alex Givotovsky moving all-in and Dentale snap calling. Givotovsky turned over {Ah}{Ad} and cringed when he saw Dentale turn over {7h}{6h} for a turned straight.

“Come on Mikey!” Givotovsky said, asking Dentale, “How much more do I have to bet on each street?” Dentale didn’t give an answer, only watching the {Kc} brick out on the river to confirm his double up, a double that quickly moved him back up the FPO Championship leaderboard.

When the dust settled, Dentale was stacking up just over 350,000 chips, which puts himself in a great position to notch another BPO Championship score as this field continues to play down to the money. Heading into the final pre-dinner break, this field is just over 30 players from the money and we imagine that the money bubble will not burst before the dinner break, as the pace of play in these ‘championship’ events tends to slow heading towards the money.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 15 (1,500/3,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 97
Avg. Chips: 172,000

This Fall Poker Open Championship is finally under the 100 player mark and that means that we are now within touching distance of the money. We don’t expect that bubble to burst any time soon but now that it’s starting to come into focus, we’re bringing you our first real look at the chip counts from around the Signature Room.

Aaron Mermelstein has quietly built up the biggest stack in the dark corner of the room and with Table 9 set to break soon, we imagine he’ll likely move into focus himself over the next hour or so. Sang Kim has also moved himself into a great position over the last few levels, as he’s well over the 350,000 mark, a number that used to signify a top stack no more than a few hours ago.

Other big name players have also built up sizable stacks over the last few levels, with a complete rundown of big and notable stacks in the room listed below:

Aaron Mermelstein – 580,000
Bobby Corcione – 475,000
Sean Roff – 460,000
Steven Coppola – 450,000
Richie Tenenbaum – 430,000
Sang Kim – 370,000
Christopher Dombrowski – 365,000
Michael Antimisiaris – 345,000
Michael Gagliano – 320,000
Jerry Maher – 295,000
Joe McKeehen – 290,000
Russell Crane – 285,000
Peter Sennon – 280,000
Jason Paster – 275,000
Greg Fishberg – 270,000
Justin Liberto – 260,000
Eric Starker – 260,000
Kevin Campbell – 255,000
Taylor von Kriegenbergh – 245,000
Mike Dentale – 220,000
Travis Greenawalt – 215,000
Dimas Martinez – 210,000
Tom Dobrilovic – 210,000
Jonathan Borenstein – 205,000
Tony Sinishtaj – 200,000
Thai Ha – 195,000
Roman Valerstein – 185,000
Will ‘The Thrill’ Failla – 180,000
Mike Linster – 175,000
Chip Average – 172,000
Dan Wach – 165,000
Thomas Revello – 160,000
Henry Lu – 155,000
Alex Rocha – 150,000
Kyle Bowker – 145,000
Peter Campo – 135,000
Ben Beahm – 130,000
Cathy Dever – 125,000
Barry Leventhal – 125,000
Vinny Pahuja – 115,000
Giuseppe Pizzolato – 110,000
Edwin Roman – 105,000
Todd Breyfogle – 100,000
Orson Young – 95,000
Moe Farah – 95,000
David Paredes – 80,000
Ed Walsh – 75,000
Aaron Overton – 70,000
Brian Hastings – 70,000
Anthony Maio – 65,000
Chris Tyrba – 65,000

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 15 (1,500/3,000/500)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 101
Avg. Chips: 165,000

Steven Coppola might be having a few laughs with Taylor von Kriegenbergh but another solid professional at his table wasn’t sharing in on that laughter in one of the last hands before the post-Level 14 break. One of the biggest pots of the tournament almost played out between Coppola and Bobby Corcione, as the action was picked up on a board {Kd}{qd}{9c}.

Coppola looked to lead from early position and Corcione raised to 30,000 from late position. Coppola then re-raised to 90,000 and quickly, Corcione announced himself “all-in”. The big stack went into the tank for a few minutes and eventually threw over {Ac}{Ad}, conceding the pot to his opponent while also handing the Day 2 chip lead off to Corcione in the process.

When the dust settled, Corcione was playing the better part of 460,000, which looks to be in the biggest stack in the room coming back from the last break. A complete list of the bigger stacks in the room will be posted shortly, as this field is just over the 100 player mark.

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‘FPO Championship’
Level 14 (1,200/2,400/400)
Total Entries: 557
Players Remaining: 108
Avg. Chips: 150,000

The big stacks from our last chip count update after the last break have gone in a variety of directions but the new FPO Championship chip leader is a player that wasn’t even on our radar an hour ago. Steven Coppola has quietly built up the biggest stack in the room, as he’s now playing well over 450,000 as this field continues to move towards the century mark.

While Coppola is surrounded by WPT Champions, WSOP bracelet winners and players with hundreds of thousand, if not millions of dollars of tournament earnings, the Staten Island based Borgata regular is doing much, much more than just holding his own. Coppola started this Day 2 session just under the 120,000 chip mark and after a solid first three levels, he’s looking like a strong contender to make his first BPO Championship score.

A complete list of big stacks will be posted on the other side of break, as this FPO Championship field is just ten minutes from the end of Level 14.

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