Championship: End of Day 3 / Day 4 Preview

$3300 + $200 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship NLH

It was moving day at the Borgata Winter Poker Open as 160 players returned for their shot at the $3,438,600 total buy-in, but after a long day only 28 remain for their chance at the $730,053 first place prize.

Day 3 closed with Yung Hwang (Sugar Land, TX) as the chip leader with more than 3 million chips (150 bb).  Late rallies by Jeremy Druckman (Portland, OR) and Sam Taylor (New York, NY) put them second and third respectively.

On the final hand of the night, Taylor's pocket aces held against the pocket kings of Donald Himpele (Mahwah, NJ) and Taylor added 500k to his stack to finish with nearly 2.4 million while Himpele finished 31st.

"I'm not going to say it's surreal," said the 22-year-old Taylor. "I'm starting to know how this should feel." This is Taylor's third deep run of the series which has featured two final tables including a third place finish in Event 1 for $137,000.

Druckman also finished strong and picked up more than a half million chips from Ana Marquez (Bethesda, MD) who finished 34th.  "It doesn't hurt when she bluff-shoves the river when you have quads," said Druckman who finished with 2.6 million. "I got pretty lucky that she was trying to make a move."

The highlight of the day came when it took 2 hours and 15 minutes to break the money bubble. Paul Volpe (West Chester, PA) was the unfortunate bubble boy as his elimination gave the 100 remaining players a min cash of $6,637.

Those still in the running for the big money include Russell Crane, the 2011 Borgata Spring Poker Open Champion, three-time Borgata trophy winner Chris Reslock, reigning WPT Player of the Year Joe Serock, WPT title holder Matt Salsberg and the last woman standing Jamie Kerstetter.

Those who cashed included Matt Glantz (36th), Allen Kessler (70th), Jonathan Little (72nd) and Matt Matros (77th).

Day 4 resumes 12 pm Thursday in the Poker Room with the average stack at 1.1 million (56 bb) and blinds beginning at 10/20k/2k ante.

Check back after 9 am for the Day 3 Table Draw

Top 5 Stacks

Yung Hwang 3.039 million
Jeremy Druckman 2.598 million
Sam Taylor 2.39 million
Taylor Paur 2.080 million
Ryan Paluf 1.63 million