Sunday, November 13, 2011

Event 5 Recap

$500 + $60 + $500 NLH Purple Chip Bounty  

The bounty hunters were out in full force on Saturday for day one of the $500 + $60 + $500 Purple Chip Bounty No Limit tournament.   After all the entries and re-entries were counted, there were 304 generating total buy-ins of $152,000.

Only the final 36 players got paid (not counting their bounties).  The money bubble burst close to 1am after 14 hours of play.  One of the first players to cash was Borgata tournament regular 'Action' Bob Hwang, (Barnegat, NJ) who finished 32nd for $885.

When day one ended about an hour later, only 23 players were left to return for day two.  One of those was 2011 Borgata Poker Open $500 No Limit champion Manh Nguyen (Munhall, PA) who was hoping for a repeat win.  He busted out 20th ($1,106).

Another Borgata regular Dajuan 'DJ' Whorley made a final table at the WSOP this summer playing Pot Limit Hold'em (finished 3rd - $91,212) and today made another final table here, finishing 10th and earning $1,917.

Travis Greenawalt (Landisville, PA) finished 2nd in the 2011 Borgata Poker Open Heads-Up event ($30,846) narrowly missing the title.  He found himself heads-up again today, but this time he faced a three-to-1 chip deficit that turned out to be insurmountable.  Greenawalt walked away with 2nd place, $22,116, and eight $500 bounties he claimed over two days of play.  He has three other cashes at Borgata including one final table in the $400 No Limit Bounty event during the 2011 Summer Poker Open (7th - $4,035).   Bounty hunting must be in his blood.

After two days of play it was Harry Korotki of Owings Mill, MD, who took the top prize of $39,804 and the engraved Borgata trophy -- not to mention the ten $500 bounties he collected along the way.

Korotki just started playing poker this year -- tournaments, not cash games.  He learned how to play by watching the World Poker Tour on TV.   This is his first cash in a major event.

He serves on the board of the Baltimore Humane Society and plans to give a portion of his winnings to that charity.  "They're an all volunteer organization" he said, and he donates his time as well as his money to the cause.  He also has five cats at home, all rescues.

"I find playing poker very relaxing"  Korotki said.  Quite the opposite of what I hear from most players.  He's been married for 17 years and his wife supports him coming out to play.  He's not a gambler, so no chance of losing his winnings in the casino on the way out.  Korotki plans to return next week and play in the main event, so we'll see more of him.

Other notable players who entered but did not cash in this event:
WSOP bracelet holders Jason Young, Arkadiy Tsinis, Mike 'Little Man' Sica, and Jeffrey Papola;
WPT title holder Kevin Saul; and Borgata champions Roland Israelashvilli, Gordon Eng, Ryan Eriquezzo, Russell Crane, Mike Dentale, David Inselberg, Josh Brikis, Keith Crowder, and Austen Johnson.





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