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With the advent of online poker available pretty much everywhere, it was inevitable that brick and mortar poker clubs and going to a casino’s poker room would lose some of its luster. After all. why make the hours long car ride or flight when you can simply run an application where all of your favorite games can be played in the comfort of your own home? Believe it or not, just because the online poker scene is vastly greater than live play, that doesn’t mean live games are a thing of the past. Actually, those games are very much alive and in great demand. Perhaps there is no greater example of this than the turnout at this weekend’s WPT Borgata Poker Open event in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Though lacking all the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas or Monte Carlo, Atlantic City still provides a haven for east coast gamblers who just can’t get to take part in the Las Vegas games. Not only did this year’s Borgata event mark the largest turnout in their history, it also doubled as the largest turnout for a World Poker Tour event anywhere. At the conclusion of the two separate Day 1’s, 1,042 players had entered. This created the massive prize pool of $3,438,600, also a WPT record. They must be doing something right over there as the previous record number for WPT players was 1,018, which was set last year, also at the Borgata.
As Day 2 began, there were still 641 players in contention, all eyeballing the top prize of close to $950K. Last year’s winner, Olivier Basquet remains very much in the hunt as are many other top tournament pros. The top prize will be revealed sometime this morning.
For this event, as is the case for all WPT events, players were able to qualify through online poker sites such as PokerStars, through single table Borgata satellites and directly buying in. The Borgata Poker Open seems as though it is still popular among the throngs of players from the New York tri-state area.
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