$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 9: Blinds 800/1,600/1,600 BB Ante
Entries: 300
Almighty Stack players are back from break and play has resumed.
Over the first two flights yesterday, a total of 402 entrants took to the felt and only about 100 of those got rewarded with the plastic bag at the end of 17 levels.
We expect roughly 25% of this flight will advance as well and registration remains open until the start of level 13 (about two hours from now).
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
End of Level 8: Blinds 600/1,200/1,200 BB Ante
Entries: 287
End of level 8 and time for another break!
Frank Bonacci
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Frank Bonacci here at Borgata, but he’s back today, sporting an impressive sprouting of facial hair. It’s either his effort at Movember, or just trying to keep his face warm in the frigid weather outside.
He has two Borgata Open titles from 2011 and 2012, but the last time he cashes here at Borgata was in the 2016 Spring Poker Open Championship, finishing 21st for $7,869. Since then, he’s cashed far and wide, from Maryland and Niagara Falls to Las Vegas. Good to see him back here at Borgata where it all began, with his first reported tournament cash in 2009.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 8: Blinds 600/1,200/1,200 BB Ante
Entries: 273
Cathy Dever
Cathy Dever was the small blind in a hand involving Greg Joslyn (cutoff) and was leading a the pot until the river. The board read 
and she checked. Greg bet 8,000 and after a beat, Cathy said “I’m not going to call, I think it’s a chop,” and showed her AJ as it was headed to the muck.
As Greg was collecting the pot, she asked, “did you have AQ?” and he just shrugged. Cathy was still in good shape with more than 200,000 after surrendering that pot.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 7: Blinds 500/1,000/1,000 BB Ante
Entries: 253
Mike Baiocco – all-in and awaiting his fate
When everyone at Table 3 stood up, we had to check out what was going on.
The flop was out and read 
and three players were all-in.
Seat 10 (sb): 
– flush draw
Seat 1 (bb): 
– nut flush draw
Mike Baiocco: 
– bottom set
Mike was way ahead, but had to fade the “spades!” that seat 1 was calling for. Seat 10 wasn’t even in the running.
The turn was the 
and changed nothing, but the 
on the river completed seat 1’s flush and for an instant he thought he had won, but then someone said “full house” and pointed out that Mike had made fives-full of eights to scoop it all.
Seat 10 was felted and seat 1 was left short. Mike chipped up to about 310,000 and is most likely our early chip leader.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 6: Blinds 400/800/800 BB Ante
Entries: 225
Justin Leeds
One familiar face in today’s early action is Justin Leeds. He won the Kick-Off event during September’s Borgata Poker Open a couple of months ago, taking home more than $170,000 (adjusted payout) for 1st place out of 3,106 entrants.
Appropriately, he was pulling a pot and stacking chips as we went by his table.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 5: Blinds 300/600/600 BB Ante
Entries: 210
Players are back on the felt following the break.
Kevin Grabel – $864,000 in tournament earnings
Shortly before the break, Kevin Grable and Norman Rodriguez arrived to take their seats — at the same table. They’re both on Table 22, and that’s the risk you take with a late-registration table.
Kevin’s making his BFPO debut in this event, but he cashed in this event during September’s BPO and among his eight tournament titles is one from Borgata. He won the 2015 Summer Poker Open Super Stack Elevator event for $21,915.
Norman Rodriguez – looking a little chilly.
Norman’s been here since the Kick-Off, where he cashed, finishing 108th for $1,235. He also took home his first Borgata trophy this year in the March Monster Stacks series. That win was good for $8,702 of his $116,000+ in tournament cashes.
Sheree Bykofsky
They’re both seated with Sheree Bykofsky, a literary agent and author of four poker books, who also has three tournament titles to her credit. Sheree’s newest book is THE KAIZEN OF POKER about continuously improving your game at any level.
While we were watching, Sheree pulled a pot when her pocket Queens held up against a player with AT on a board of T 8 7 J 7.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
End of Level 4: Blinds 200/400/400 BB Ante
Four levels down and time for the first break of he day. Players have 15 minutes to take care of non-poker business before resuming play.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 4: Blinds 200/400/400 BB Ante
Greg Joslyn
Greg Joslyn’s best live cash was right here at Borgata during the 2014 Fall Poker Open Kick-Off Deep Stack. He finished 4th in that event, earning just under $67,000. Today he’s on table two, quietly doing his thing.
Over the years he has accumulated more than $456,000 in tournament earnings, including one WSOP Circuit ring, but has yet to take home a Borgata trophy. His name may not be familiar to many because he’s quiet and unassuming, racking up the cashes without a lot of fanfare.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 3: Blinds 200/300/300 BB Ante
Table 1 players know one thing for sure — they’re stuck there all day, unless they bust out. Tables are broken high-to-low, so they’ll never move (unless a rare need to balance tables arises).
Anthony Anastasi, Lisa Pickell, & Eric Siegel
All the seats are now sold at table 1 and the lucky (or unlucky?) player to get assigned the final empty seat was Lisa Pickell. The experienced pro landed between another couple of tournament regulars, Anthony Anastasi and Eric Siegel.
Also seated at table 1:
Greg ‘Almighty Stack’ Fishberg
Greg Fishberg has four Borgata titles, two of which are from Almighty Stack event wins, and more than $1.3 million in tournament earnings.
Ibraim Ibraimovic
Ibraim Ibraimovic is a Borgata tournament regular who is always a threat on the felt. The New Yorker has come close to the prize, but so far his best finish here was as runner-up in a Deepstacks Challenge event.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$300,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 2: Blinds 100/200/200 BB Ante
Borgata Poker has implemented the “Big Blind Ante” for all No Limit Hold’em tournaments during this BFPO series, with the exception of the SixMax (Event 13).
Instead of each player at the table anteing 25 and the dealer having to sort out who has posted and who hasn’t, and collect all the antes, making change where necessary, a single player in the big blind will post the antes for the table. The amount of the Big Blind Ante is always the same amount as the Big Blind and the number of players at the table is irrelevant. This simplifies the ante process immensely and keeps the game from slowing down once the antes kick in.
Now the player in the big blind will post 200 for the blind and another 200 for the table’s antes. If the player in the big blind doesn’t have enough chips to cover both, his/her chips go toward the Big Blind first, then any chips remaining go toward the BB Ante.