Korotki, Selbst Lead Borgata Poker Open Day 1A Field

The World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open started off with a large and strong field Sunday, as 460 players came to Atlantic City to fight for what should be a multi-million dollar prize pool.

Sunday represented Day 1A of play, with the remainder of the field beginning play on Monday. At the end of the first day of play, Abe Korotki took the chip lead with a monster stack of 260,100 chips. That put him well ahead of the field, including Vanessa Selbst, who stood in second place with nearly 200,000 chips.

Overall, according to reports from the World Poker Tour website, there were over 1,250 entries when combining the two Day 1 entry options. However, the number of players will be somewhat smaller; as with several WPT events on this season’s schedule, players were welcome to enter on both starting days. Players could enter a second time on Day 1B if they were unfortunate enough to be eliminated on Day 1A, or they wished to forfeit their remaining stack in exchange for a second chance.

The total exceeds the turnout for last year’s Borgata Poker Open, which received 1,042 entrants. At the time, that was the largest event in the history of the World Poker Tour. With a buy-in of $3,300 + $200, this year’s tournament should see a prize pool of over $4 million – likely around $1 million more than last year.

Other top finishers on Day 1A included Will Failla, who won the WPT Legends of Poker event last month and sits in 4^th place, as well as Darren Elias and Eric Salinas, both of whom find themselves in the top five at the end of the first day of play. All of the top five chip leaders have over 180,000 in chips.  

Action at the Borgata Poker Open will continue through Friday. The players will play down to a final table of six players on Thursday, before returning for the televised final table on the 23^rd.