Shiraz Hasan Leads the 389 Survivors on Day 1B of WPT Borgata Poker Open

By Tim Duckworth

Season XVIII continued on the World Poker Tour with the WPT Borgata Poker Open taking center stage at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Since the second season of the World Poker Tour, the WPT Borgata Poker Open has held a position in the September schedule and has seen a plethora of WPT Legends etch their name on the WPT Champions Cup in The Garden State. Since Noli Francisco hoisted the first WPT title at Borgata when he defeated the field of 235 players, the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Al Ardebili, Mark Newhouse, Roy Winston, Vivek Rajkumar, Olivier Busquet, Dwyte Pilgrim, Bobby Oboodi, Ben Hamnett, Anthony Zinno, Darren Elias, David Paredes, Jesse Sylvia, Guo Liang Chen, and Erukt Yilmaz have all called themselves WPT Borgata Poker Open Champions.

The 17th installment of the WPT Borgata Poker Open would see two starting flights and a whopping $3 million guaranteed prize pool, and on Day 1B here on Monday, a total of 707 entrants would take a seat throughout the day to form a total field of 978 entrants – already surpassing the $3 million guarantee. And with the registration and re-entry period open through two more levels of play on Day 2, the final number will definitely enter the four-figure range to continue the streak that has been in place since the buy-in was lowered to $3,500.

After eight levels of play, a total of 389 players survived into Day 2 with Shiraz Hasan (pictured above) claiming the chip lead with 227,500 to just eclipse Henry Tran with 223,500 and Marcos Exterkotter who finished with 222,200. Hasan sits with just over $30,000 in lifetime earnings all coming from the upper East Coast of the country dating back to 2010.

Sitting behind Hasan, Tran, and Exterkotter include WPT Champions Club members Brian Altman (187,500), Daniel Weinman (186,700), and Ryan Van Sanford (178,000), along with Peter Campo (184,700), Tyler Phillips (183,600), Kevin Garosshen (176,700), and Ami Alibay (175,000).

Also surviving into Day 2 include WPT Champions Club members Darren Elias (115,000), Dylan Wilkerson (101,900), Ravi Raghavan (101,400), Keven Stammen (83,500), James Mackey (65,500), Jonathan Jaffe (60,600), Simon Lam (58,800), Will Failla (53,500), Mike Linster (51,400), Matthew Wantman (50,700), Jared Jaffee (50,200), Andy Frankenberger (44,900), Aaron Van Blarcum (44,500), Mike Del Vecchio (41,500), and Bobby Oboodi (29,600). Also surviving are WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja, WPT500 Champion Jon Borenstein, WPTDeepStacks Champions Jeff Trudeau, Maria Ho, and Jeff Fielder, and BorgataPoker.com Pro Daniel Buzgon.

For the 389 survivors from Day 1B, they will join the 129 Day 1A survivors returning for Day 2 on Tuesday, September 17, where play will begin at 12 p.m. (ET) where 518 players of the 978-entrant field will return. Registration will be open for a further two levels, and once it is closed, levels will be extended to 75-minutes in duration for the remainder of the day.

Stay tuned to WPT.com for continued coverage of the WPT Borgata Poker Open to see who becomes the second WPT Champion of Season XVIII, and the 17th player to collect the WPT Borgata Poker Open title.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive

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