The player in the big blind had checked and Maurice Hawkins bet 5,300 from the cutoff. His opponent took some time and then made the call.
The river completed the board with the , the big blind checked for the last time and now Hawkins announced a bet of 17,000 before putting in a 25,000-value chip. His opponent quickly took his chip off his hole cards and flicked the cards into the muck for the fold.
There’s a new poker tour in town as a trio of MGM properties – MGM National Harbor, MGM Springfield, and Borgata – have joined forces to establish the MGM East Coast Poker Tour (ECPT).
The tour will consist of the following stops:
Potomac Winter Poker Open at MGM National Harbor February 5-17
Borgata Spring Poker Open April 7-24
Borgata Summer Poker Open July 7-24
Potomac Summer Poker Open at MGM National Harbor July 22-August 3
The Armory Classic at MGM Springfield August 12-24
“MGM Resorts offers players the best poker product on the East Coast,” said Jorge Perez, Portfolio President. “Our East Coast Poker Tour is a great way for us to showcase three of our industry-leading properties while creating an exciting tournament series for our guests and poker enthusiasts.”
The Points Leaderboard
Linking the five events will be a leaderboard where players can earn points by participating in any qualifying events.
Leaderboard prizes consist of the following: the top 90 finishers on the leaderboard will earn entry into Borgata Fall Poker Open/MGM Resorts East Coast Poker Tour $2,000,000 Guaranteed Championship on November 15-20, 2020 ($3,500 value) including complimentary overnight stays. Others can win $250 room credits, Cartier watch ($2,500 value) and $500 MGM Resorts promotional gift cards.
Players can earn points in a variety of ways including “Participation Points” for buying into tournaments, “Entry Points” based on field sizes, and “Placement Points” for making the final table. Click here for more details on the point system.
The leaderboard will be posted to MGMECPT.com and updated daily when qualifying events are occurring. Points for the leaderboard will be finalized on August 25, 2020.
Previewing the Potomac Winter Poker Open
The upcoming Potomac Winter Poker Open at MGM National Harbor, which runs from February 5-17, 2020, will offer over $1,000,000 in guarantees over 14 events. It marks the first time a winter edition of the PPO has been held to complement its annual late-summer series.
Highlights on the schedule include the $400 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed Opener and the $3,000 buy-in, $500,000 guarantee Main Event. What’s more, PokerNews is slated to be on-site to offer live updates from both of those events as well as the $400 Large Stack BB Ante from February 12-13.
PokerNews has activated the My Stack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.
With more than 180 entries showing on the tournament clock, the players have been welcomed to the tables. The dealers have just been instructed to shuffle up and deal.
At 11 a.m. local time, Day 1a of Event #13: Almighty Stack will occupy the tables in the Event Center at the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa as that is the first of four starting flights of one of the most anticipated events of the 2020 Borgata Winter Poker Open. The tournament features a heavenly guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 which will attract players from all over the place as they have a shot at grabbing their share for a $400 buy-in.
In 2019 this event featured a slightly bigger buy-in of $450 with the same guarantee. The $1,000,000 guarantee was crushed as the 3,508 entries created a total prize pool of $1,403,200. It would be Rajesh Desai who could claim the most money as he walked away with $175,429 after agreeing to a three-way deal with Thomas Larson and Chris Tryba.
But who will walk away with the BWPO trophy and the lion-share of the money this year? It remains to be seen as many hopefuls will be traveling to Atlantic City to make their mark. Today there will be two starting flights with Day 1b starting at 5 p.m. local time. On Thursday, January 23, Day 1c will start at 10 a.m. while the final starting flight will take place at 5 p.m. again.
Players get a whopping 100,000 in chips in their starting stack and can register late until the start of Level 13. If players fail to keep hold of their chips, they can reenter an unlimited amount of times during the late registration period or in the other starting days. This tournament also features the “best stack forward” options which means that players can opt to enter multiple flights, even if they have already bagged on a Day 1. All Day 1s feature 30-minute levels and have seventeen levels scheduled with a 15-minute break planned after Level 4, 8, and 12.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the first shuffle up and deal until the final bag has been sealed, so stay tuned.