Nieman Leads the Final 18 Players
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After two long days of poker in the 2014 Borgata Spring Poker Open $1 Million Guarantee, only 18 players remain. Leading the two tables is Philip Neiman, who bagged 6.815 million chips, and two other players bagged over six million; Adam Pace (6.385 million), and John Yanni (6.1 million).
Neiman won a massive, five million-chip race against Zbigniew Fido during the penultimate level of play on Friday, and won another race on the final hand of the evening, eliminating Hieu Tran. A Flushing, New York native, Neiman can more than double his career live tournament earnings if he remains in pole position and wins the event.
Two women, Stephanie Hubbard and Kim Noun are among the final 18 players, as is Kenny Nguyen. Nguyen is very familiar with deep runs at Borgata – he finished sixth in the 2009 WPT Borgata Poker Open for $156212, and third in the 2013 Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship for $108,682.
Day 2 started with over 500 players spread apart in both the Signature Room and the Poker Room. The field size cut in half en route to the money bubble, and among the players to exit empty-handed were Luke Edwards, Anna Khait, and James Woods. Khait ran 
into an opponent’s 
, and was unable to survive the cooler.
After much confusion, the bubble burst in Level 21. Dan Dizenzo, who won a side event during the 2011 Borgata Poker Open, three-bet all in with 
, and Adam Foster, the original raiser, called with 
. The wired pair held up, and Dizenzo was the last player to hit the rail without earning a single dollar.
Unsurprisingly there was a flurry of eliminations after that point, and among the min-cashers were Joseph Mckeehen, Chris Tryba, “Mad Dog” Mike Shasho, and Maggie Morris. Shasho attempted to isolate a short-stacked shove with 
only to be called by Fido’s 
. Fido improved to a pair of aces, and Shasho was sent packing.
As the day raged on, more and more players fell to the wayside, including Ibraim Ibraimovic. Ibraimovic, who claims to be related to the all-world striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, won some big races at the start of the day, but was unable to complete a big draw against Mitchell Mantin. He moved all in with a pair and an ace-high flush draw against Mantin’s 
, and the pocket queens held up.
Eight more players fell after Ibraimovic, including Sean Wallace, Demetrious Georgous, and Tim Mullen.
Play will resume on Saturday at 1 p.m. EST in the Borgata Poker Room, and the event will run until a champion is crowned. Be sure to return to the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog for exclusive live updates straight from the tournament floor.