Borgata

Let me just say that there are plenty of women who oppose separate events of any kind when physical strength or the length of your beard are not important criteria for winning. I personally have mixed feelings about "Ladies" events in poker. That being said:

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has expanded its tour offerings with the launch of an official WPT ladies league and No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament circuit—WPT Ladies (WPTL).

The first season of the WPTL tour kicks off January 20 at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City , New Jersey; and will feature additional tournaments at Foxwoods Resort, Commerce Casino, and Bay 101. The tour will conclude with a $1,500 Championship tournament at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The WPTL Championship final table will be filmed on the WPT set for television broadcast on the Game Show Network in 2008.

Complete Schedule:

January 20 Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa Atlantic City, NJ. $300

February 2-3 Commerce Casino Los Angeles, CA. $970

March 16 Bay 101 San Jose, CA. $300

March 29 Foxwoods Resort & Casino, Mashantucket, CT. $530

April 13-14 WPT Ladies’ Championship Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV $1,500 April 25: Final Table

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This is the first installment of 'Poker Room Rumble' (that is a working title.. I just made up now) where Matt Waldron will place various poker rooms head to head, giving reviews of each and then calling a winner.

Matt is very well traveled and has played in poker rooms all over the world. I think you all will enjoy his adventures.

Click the image above to read; The Trump Taj Mahal versus The Borgata - East Coast Poker meets West Coast RuntCake.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ---So not a long night afterall. Mark Newhouse went all in on the button. Chris McCormack calls. Newhouse shows queens and McCormack turns over A-J. The board 5d-10s-4s-10c-Qs and Mark Newhouse wins the Borgata Open Championship earning him $1,519,020 and a seat at the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in April.

McCormack goes home a runner-up with $802,985 and Gonz has headed back to get a little shut-eye before heading off to Philly for his crack of dawn flight.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--David Sklansky has left the building. Beginning the tournament with a little over 600,000 chips, Sklansky worked his way back to 3.2 million. He pushed it all in with fives against Chris McCormack who called with 10s. The board came 8-10-8-4-K giving McCormack a full house and an opportunity to face Mark Newhouse heads up at the Borgata Final Table. Sklansky leaves with third place and $419,040.

Chris McCormack (bottom right) has 9,715,000 chips and Mark Newhouse (bottom left) has 4,350,000.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—While Gonz and Spaceman are arguing about who is going to get the “Out in a Blaise of Glory” headline, until Blaise Ingoglia busted out to Mark Newhouse, things have been pretty….well, just plain stale! Everyone at the final table has moved all in at least twice but the victor was always the low-stacked underdog. Media is packed on a couple of platforms behind the crowds making it difficult to see or hear anything….well except for, and God love her…Linda Johnson’s bad jokes.

Ingoglia is our first move to the end of this final table. I have a feeling it could be a long night…and for Gonz who flies out of Philly at 6 a.m. tomorrow…a long day ahead.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--- So as Gonz has the over on the "David Sklansky Never Smiles" prop bet, I think I just saw at least evidence of a smirk when Sklansky went all in with 6-6. Blaise Ingoglia called with A-10. The turn showed a six giving Sklansky a set. Low stacked and doubling up through Ingoglia, surely that's worth more than a little smirk?

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--Behind Anthony Argila's 1,350,000 chips are photos of his three-year-old son Antony George. Before the final table was underway, Linda Johnson asked him if he was looking for sympathy. Argila laughed a little and said, "Yes, take it easy on me."

Update: Apparently little Antony is guarding Daddy's chips well. Argila just doubled up through David Sklansky.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--Louis Russo (right) just busted. Mark Newhouse raised 125K and Russo went all in for 5K more. Chris Bell and Newhouse called. The flop came A-J-J. Newhouse and Bell checked to the river which showed K-7. Newhouse announced he had ten high. Bell showed K-10 for high pair. Russo held nines. He is out 7th for $209,521.

The following players will be on the televised final table which will begin tomorrow at 5 p.m. EST:

Anthony Argila
Chris Bell
Blaise Ingoglia
Chris McComack
Mark Newhouse
David Sklansky

ATLANTIC CITY--Chris Bell(right) bet 110K pre-flop, Mark Newhouse called and Shawn Chaconas went all in with 770K. Newhouse folded. Bell called. Bell had kings which beat Chaconas' queens. The two were heads up earlier with the same hand, but Chaconas had folded that hand when Bell raised. Chanconas goes home with 9th place and $157,141

Anthony Argila just double up against Athanasios Diakos when he moved all pre-flop in with A-6. Diakos immediately called with K-J. An ace came on the river.

Players are now on dinner break.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--The aces that Mark Newhouse busted were in Brock Parker's hands. Parker lost when Newhouse's nines gave him a flush on the river. Parker leaves with 10th place and $68,094.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—From Tahoe to Reno to LA to Atlanta to Cinicinnati… I finally arrived in AC after an 18-hour journey. Gonz and I got some dinner with Gavin Smith, Spaceman and some other media types last night…a nice little break from my journey, but my task master has ordered me back to work. So here's what's happening now.

The Borgata is a different scene from Harveys in Tahoe. The tournament has been moved to the poker room where they are down to two tables and 18 players. We play down to six today. There's more media here and a bit of a crowd watching.

Media is crowded around a few empty poker tables, but all is well as Lindsay, the WPT PR girl, brought a bunch of us some Starbucks…double shot latte and I’m good to go no matter how much I drank last night. Gonz and others are playing poker on PartyPoker and Gavin has just stopped over to say hello. Gavin and Peter Frank, one of the guys working on a poker documentary, reminded me that there is footage of me and Gavin singing "The Gambler" and something about professing our love to each other last night...oops sorry Dan.

So here's some poker news...Barry Greenstein busted out and Jennifer Tilly is still very much alive with lots of chips.

As originally reported by Dan Michalski, Vanessa Rousso bested a table full of name pros at the Borgata Poker Open's $5K NLHE event Thursday night, adding another $285,000 to her rapidly growing bankroll. That buys approximately 917 pairs of Dior sunglasses, 553 pairs of Manolo Blahnik pumps, or 237 Louis Vuitton purses.

The final table Rousso faced was a veritable Murderer's Row of poker professionals, including Hasan Habib, Paul McCaffrey, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, and everyone's favorite diaper-wearing bear Joe Sebok. In a scene reminiscent of their clash at the WPT Legends of Poker only a few weeks ago, Rousso ended up on the good end of a coinflip for Sebok's entire stack.

Sebok was none too happy about his fifth place finish, and had this to say on his blog:

"It seems that Vanessa has my number right now, after I also spurned her on to cashing in the Legends event a few weeks back. I single-handedly am bulding this girl's career...maybe I should be taking a cut..."

Rawr!

(Vanessa Rousso photo by Amy Calistri)

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—We’re done for the day here at the WPT Borgata Poker Open. The tournament wound down to 27 players (the predetermined finishing point for Day 3) when Chris Bell eliminated Russell Rossenblum.

Notables who remain: Barry Greenstein (19th chip position), John Phan (17th), David Tran (15th), David Sklansky (11th) and Jennifer Tilly (4th).

Speaking of poker, I’ll be playing in the $500 NL event tomorrow (and, naturally, blogging about it). Anyone who wants a piece of my action should send word immediately.

See you tomorrow.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--The WPT recently released the payouts for the Borgata Poker Open:

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--Hello friends. I'm the new guy, and I suppose, because of that, there are initiation rites. But I didn’t expect the hazing to come so quickly. After all, I’m from Philly. I’ve spent a lot of time in Atlantic City. And, besides that, I flew in from Boston--just a short, easy flight. As I said to Dan when he asked me about my travel plans: “Don’t bother me about this, I’ve got the East Coast on lock.”

Yeah, not so much.