Borgata Summer Poker Open - Hooked on Borgata

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Hook2120 On-line at Borgata

Chalie Hook cut his teeth playing poker at Borgata when the room first opened in 2003, since then he's grown into an elite player.

"I love playing Borgata it's convenient, it's close to home," says Hook, a Philadelphia native, who's playing in the Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship Event. "I started playing $2-$5 no-limit and mixed a lot of live and on-line through college when I was around."

Hook, a Holy Family University grad, eventually moved to Florida and hunkered down to grind high stakes cash games as screen name Hook2120.  But that all changed on April 15th, internet poker's black Friday when the FBI essentially shutdown U.S. players from playing on-line.

"It sucks," says the man originally named Charles, but even his mother drops the "r' and calls him Chalie. "Playing live isn't my first choice, but it's what I have to do."

As he sorts out his future, Hook doesn't mind returning to his roots and playing in the Summer Poker Open.  "I think I have over $100k in earnings, probably more than that, at the Borgata lifetime," says Hook, who in 2009 alone scored $31,000 for winning the Borgata Summer Open Heads Up Championship and another $57,000 for a second place finish in the Borgata Winter Open.

"Borgata's been good to me. Most of my earnings have been at Borgata," he says with $226,000 in live career earnings.  "I love the Borgata, the structure, the people here are great."

While Hook isn't a household name like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth, he's earned himself a name among the top on-line players. Guys like Olivier Busquet, the 2009 WPT Borgata Poker Open Champion and Hook's good friend Tom Marchese, the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year.

"Definitely top players in the world know who I am. I've played with them live and on-line," says Hook, who's been having a tough day and still has his 30k starting stack at the dinner break.

"There are guys like Tony G (Antanas Guoga), he plays here on weekends and is a mid-stakes grinder on-line. I think he's probably one of the best players in the world and not everybody knows who he is. I'd say the same thing about Marchese, two years ago he was one of the best players in the world and nobody knew who he was."

After playing here in the Championship Event, Hook plans on meeting up with Marchese in Vegas to play in the WSOP Main Event.  He'll then decide if he wants to move to Europe where he can fire up the computer and play the game he loves, legally, on-line.

"It'll be a different experience moving away and I'll probably do it."  But wherever Hook plays, he'll always call Borgata home and know this is where his poker career began.

Borgata Summer Poker Open - The Defender

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH 

 DiClaudio Stealing Blinds & Antes

In poker, not all chips are created equal, so defending the blinds doesn't guarantee the player a fair trial as the person will be out of position the rest of the hand.  Fortunately for defense attorney Scott DiClaudio's clients, he's more committed to the Pennsylvania legal system than he is to his big blind.

DiClaudio had 5 separate court cases this morning which could have potentially detained him in Philadelphia, preventing him from playing in Day 2 of the Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship event.  "It was fortuitous from me to get here on time as the Commonwealth's witnesses failed to appear," he said after working cases that included a bank robbery, shooting and assault.

DiClaudio says the "wrong judge" and it would've been "problematic" to arrive by the noon restart, especially since he began the day in the top 20% of the field with a well above average stack of 100,500 chips.

DiClaudio knew going deep in the Championship Event could conflict with his work schedule but, "we're poker players, we like to gamble."  So far, so good for the defender who just applied capital punishment to an opponent holding pocket 5s against DiClaudio's pocket aces, and now has 225k.

With an above average stack, DiClaudio is eying the prize pool as 36 of the remaining 61 players will cash.  DiClaudio hopes there won't be any courtroom conflicts for Tuesday's Day 3 finale and is a problem he'd love to have, as it means he'll be in the money.

But for now, DiClaudio is perfectly content stealing the blinds and antes where it's perfectly legal.

Borgata Summer Poker Open - Championship Recap

$2500 + $200 Championship NLH

Three players with a lot of Borgata success are the last three players standing, but in the end it's Tyng Low (Flushing, NY) who's on the ultimate high as the Summer Poker Open Champion. Low defeated Farid Jattin (Miami, FL) heads up to take the title and outlasted Austen Johnson (Woodsboro, MD), arguably the most dominant player of the series.

"Good, great, tremendous, fabulous," says Low, who takes home his biggest poker payday at $211,484. "It means a lot," added the 27 year old, "I've been trying to hit one like this for five years."

On a board of 5♣ 6♠ 4♣, Low flopped a straight holding 7♥ 3♥, while Jattin hit top pair and a gutshot straight flush draw with the 6♣ 2♣. But when the board bricked out, Jattin, who was the chip leader after Day 1A and Day 2, was one place away from going wire to wire in the Championship Event.

"There's nothing I could do," said Jattin, who earned $117,481 as runner-up. "The hand played itself. I'm not uspet. I expected to win, so I'm disappointed."

"I was calling red, red," said Low, who dodged a club on the turn and river to win the title. "Fortunately the right black cards came out."

Jattin, who finished third ($15,045) in the $1,000 6-max (Event 15), began the day as the chip leader and held it the entire way, until Low closed the gap by knocking out Johnson in third place.

"Anything less than first place is a disappointment," said Johnson, who got $72,845 for third place. "But I think I locked up player of the series, which all-in-all isn't a bad month."

Johnson, who was the Event 1 ($450) Deep Stack winner ($64,734), didn't decide to enter the Championship Event until Sunday when his wife gave him a Father's Day gift of "permission to win $70,000." He also took a month off from work to pursue the Summer Poker Open Leaderboard Contest, where the winner earns a $3,500 entry into the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship in September.*

"I was first in points and figured I might as well try and run it out," said Johnson.

Day 3, the final day, began with all 36 players returning in the money including Borgata regular Mike Dentale (Brooklyn, NY) who made the final table before being eliminated in 10th place/$10,183. He was joined by Nick Frangos (Mays Landing, NJ), who has nearly $900,000 in career earnings, and finished 6th/$38,380.

The biggest surprise of the final 10 was Anthony Sivolella (Florham Park, NJ) who returned as the short stack with 25k (4 BB). After a series of double-ups he rode the short stack to 8th place/$23,107.

Rounding out the top 10 were, Paul Freedman (Seabrook, NH) 9th/$15,666, Salah Siraj (New York, NY) 7th/$30,939, Brian Altman (Longmeadow, MA) 5th/$45,430, and Andrew Klein (Ocean, NJ) 4th/$58,746.

The tournament began with 323 players putting up $807,500 and after 4 long days, including two starting days, Low is the champion. The title, money and trophy are extra special for Low after he made a run in last year's Summer Poker Open Championship with a 19th place finish ($3,736).

"I didn't think I could get this far," the soft spoken winner said after the 2010 disappointment of missing the final table despite beginning the final day with the chip lead. "I didn't think my luck was that good."

But Low has the right amount of luck and skill to take this year's title.

*Leaderboard Contest final results will be finalized after the completion of Friday's Event 52

Borgata Summer Poker Open - Event 19 Recap

$400 + $50 Six-Max NLH

The best hand in poker is the winning hand for Jose Montes (Bronx, NY) at the Borgata Summer Poker Open, but it’s the second worst hand that helped him most in winning the six-max title.

Montes open shoved 7 3 off suit with < 10 BB and was on the ropes for his tournament life when he turned a full house against Jim Burnett's A 3 to stay alive in four-handed play. That double-up led to a heads-up showdown between the two, and when Montes tabled A♠ A♥ on the final hand, it completed the comeback.

“I’m happy, excited and blessed to win,” says Montes who won $14,201, “this is great.”

Burnett (Pasadena, MD), who began heads up play even in chips, was decimated by a 400k chip pot when Montes hit two pairs on the river and never recovered.

“He ran like God at the end,” said Burnett, who earned $8,757 as runner-up. “He had a lot of pocket pairs and was getting hit with the deck, so that’s tough to beat. But he played well, it was a good game.”

Burnett ran pretty well himself throughout the day as he needed the same pocket aces before dinner break to stay alive. He proceeded to eliminate Arihan "Nipi" Rizaj (Brooklyn, NY) in 4th place/$4,825 with a full house, then hit an open ended straight draw on the river to bust Sahu Habibi (New York, NY) in 3rd/$6,509 to set the heads up stage.

The field had several familiar faces including Championship Event 10th place finisher Mike Dentale ($10,183), who grabbed the chip lead early, but was eliminated in 18th place, 5 spots off the money. The field also featured Borgata regulars Sheree Bykofsky, Matt “Muffins” Mazzeo and Abe Korotki.

The total buy-in was $48,800 as the field of 122 players fought for the 12 paid places.

Dan Rusignuolo (Nutley, NJ) was one of the first players to crack the 100k chip mark and rode the momentum to a 6th place/$2,603 finish. The final table of seven also featured Shaun Beymolla (North Babylon, NY) 5th/$3,669 and Michael Santora (Staten Island, NY) 7th/$2,012.

The six-max was the third short-handed game of the series and continues to grow in popularity. “For me it helps aggressive players and suits my game,” said Montes, who had a strong rooting section.

Montes was quick to add that the only other event he played during the Summer Open, was when he just missed the money in Event 1. He was anxious to get back to Borgata and called out of work just to play in the penultimate tournament of the series.