Tournament Tracker: Small Buy-Ins, Big Fields at Borgata & Choctaw

Shannon Shorr brought the PCA to a close with his win in the $10,000 Six-handed Turbo event. (Photo c/o PokerStars Blog)

Poker is back in full swing around the world, with massive turnouts for small buy-in events at both the Borgata and Choctaw Durant, where the WSOP Circuit is currently being played, highlighting this week’s tournament offerings.

Borgata opened its Winter Poker Open series with a $500 No Limit Hold’em event with a $1 million guarantee. It almost doubled that amount by attracting an astounding 3,871 entries by the close of registration. Joseph Stiers was the big winner, turning $500 into $318,104 by outlasting what will surely be one of the biggest live fields of the year. Event 5 from that series also well outpaced expectation, with the $100,000 Guarantee almost getting quadrupled as Pearce Arnold won over $81,000 in the $300 No Limit Hold’em tournament.

Speaking of absurdly sized fields, Choctaw Durant played host to over 2,200 players for the second ring event of their WSOP Circuit stop. The $500 tournament doubled their $500,000 Guarantee and the prizepool crossed $1.1 million, with Ross Bybee earning $168,433 for his impressive victory. Two international tournaments drew solid attendance as well, with Yoshitaka Okawa getting $143,974 for winning the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon Main Event and Andrea Montini taking home almost $220,000 for his victory in the IPT Campione Main Event.

Finally, two tournaments that ended late in the series at the PCA merit attention in this week’s Tournament Tracker. After chopping up the majority of the money four-handed with Dani Stern, Jason Koon and Gleb Tremzin, Shannon Shorr won the $10,000 Turbo event that closed out the PCA. The second-largest field of the series belonged to Event 29, a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event with multiple starting days. Nabih Zaczac earned the first win of his career and over $100,000 by taking this title.

2013 EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
Atlantis Casino & Resort, Atlantis Paradise Island

Event 29: No Limit Hold’em with Unlimited Re-Entry
Buy-in: $1,000
Prize Pool: $414,190
Number of Entrants: 427

1. Nabih Zaczac – $103,510
2. Michael Malm – $55,500
3. Thomas Muhlocker – $34,800
4. Julian Sacks – $27,720
5. James Pascalle – $21,940
6. Ramzi Jelassi – $17,820
7. Eric Place – $13,660
8. Sergey Malyavko – $9,520
Full Results

Event 40: No Limit Hold’em Turbo Six-Max
Buy-in: $10,000
Prize Pool: $853,600
Number of Entrants: 88

1. Shannon Shorr – $160,610
2. Dani Stern – $180,280
3. Jason Koon – $167,165
4. Gleb Tremzin – $157,765
5. Ole Schemion – $55,480
6. Tommie Janssen – $38,420
Full Results

2013 Borgata Winter Poker Open
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Event 1: No Limit Hold’em – $1 Million Guaranteed
Buy-in: $560
Prize Pool: $1,935,500
Number of Entrants: 3,871

1. Joe Stiers – $318,104
2. Tanios Abi-Yaghi – $209,158
3. Sam Taylor – $137,261
4. Mark Sykes – $114,946
5. Mike Belton – $93,377
6. Dan Sprirer – $71,901
7. Tony Campagna – $51,359
8. Michael Borovetz – $35,481
9. Austen Johnson – $23,343
Full Results

Event 5: No Limit Hold’em – $300,000 Guaranteed
Buy-in: $400
Prize Pool: $380,450
Number of Entrants: 1,087

1. Pearce Arnold – $81,182
2. Bob Horan – $48,787
3. Steve Dannenmann – $29,523
4. Jason Rubin – $24,725
5. Manny Jannes – $20,297
6. James Reisman – $16,472
7. Daniel Wach – $13,101
8. Albert Truong – $9,964
9. Charles Carver – $6,827

Italian Poker Tour – Campione
Nuovo Casino di Campione, Campione, Italy

Main Event
Buy-in: $2,671
Prize Pool: $971,539
Number of Entrants: 385

1. Andrea Montini – $219,339
2. Vito Planeta – $178,761
3. Giuseppe Esposito – $97,463
4. Davide Slanzi – $72,555
5. Roberto Finotti – $48,406
6. Massimo Bulgari – $38,443
7. Federico Granara – $28,698
8. Ciro Petta – $19,384
Full Results

WSOP Circuit – Choctaw Durant
Choctaw Casino Resort, Durant, Oklahoma

Event 2: No Limit Hold’em with Re-Entry – $500,000 Guaranteed
Buy-in: $500
Prize Pool: $1,104,500
Number of Entrants: 2,209

1. Ross Bybee – $168,433
2. Michael Downing – $104,419
3. Matthew Bray – $78,685
4. Pradeep Buddharaju – $60,085
5. Jonathan Hilton – $46,345
6. Nicolas Vaca-Rondon – $36,095
7. Christopher Rauscher – $28,386
8. Abraham Montenegro – $22,543
9. Jay Diaz – $18,081
Full Results

Macau Poker Cup – Red Dragon
Avenida Marginal For de Lotus, Macau

Event 6: Red Dragon Main Event
Buy-in: $1,303
Prize Pool: $669,522
Number of Entrants: 532

1. Yoshitaka Okawa – $143,974
2. Zhenwu Wang – $100,513
3. Eemil Tuominen – $59,231
4. Homan Houshiar – $45,256
5. Kevin Zhang – $33,462
6. Michael Marvanek – $26,795
7. Oliver Duran – $21,795
8. Shashank Rathi – $16,731
Full Results