Greg Himmelbrand Bags Big Stack in Final Flight of 2019 Borgata Poker Open Kick Off Event
The 2019 Borgata Poker Open wrapped up its final two starting flights in Event #1: $600 Deepstack Kick Off on Thursday. Through the first four flights, the field stood at 932 runners, but with Day 1e’s 793 entrants and 1f’s 778, that total cruised past the $1 million guarantee and settled on 2,503 entries.
The 1e flight ended with 98 players bagging chips with poker pro David Jackson and his stack of 734,000 leading the pack, while two-time MSPT champ Greg Himmelbrand led the approximately 110 surviving players from the 1f flight.
They add their name to the list of starting flight chip leaders that include Yong “YK” Kwon (Day 1c - 606,000), Matt Stout (1d - 391,000), Kenny Han (1a - 593,000) and Sridhar Sangannagari (1b - 810,000).
Others to bag decent stacks between the last two flights were Dan Wach (540,000), Shankar Pillai (482,000), Spencer Champlin (423,000), Michael Wang (161,000), Ronit Chamani (145,000), Will "The Thrill" Failla (135,000), and Blake Whittington (96,000).
Of course, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to try and fall were Mike Dentale, Victor Ramdin, Moe Farah, Ruth Ruffman, Joe Palma and Carlos Alvarado.
On Friday, 318 players will return for Day 2 in the Event Center. Prize pool and payout information will be released at the start of play.
Top 10 Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sridhar Sangannagari | 810,000 |
| 2 | David Jackson | 734,000 |
| 3 | Greg Himmelbrand | 626,000 |
| 4 | Yongkeun Kwon | 606,000 |
| 5 | Kenny Han | 593,000 |
| 6 | Shawn Stroke | 589,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Wach | 540,000 |
| 8 | Shankar Pillai | 482,000 |
| 9 | Christopher Fuller | 480,000 |
| 10 | Anthony Elmo | 472,000 |
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