BORGATA SPRING: LIU WINS AS STARS FIZZLE EARLY AT BORGATA CHAMPIONSHIP

PICTURE: BORGATA

Jia Liu lost his big chip on a few different occasions but managed to pick himself up, dust himself off ... and was crowned Champion of the Borgata Spring Open, defeating a solid final table.

It looked as if Liu had played his way out of the tournament a few times on Thursday, but he survived and ultimately picked up the 312K paycheque.

It was a disappointing day for those wishing that well-known pros Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy or Chad Batista would take the title down ... unfortunately, both JohnnyBax and Batista were eliminated fairly early during final table play ... bowing out in 7th and 6th place respectfully.

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FT PAYOUTS (USD) 1st Jia Liu $312,483 2nd Larry Abrams $175,700 3rd Russ Dykshteyn $112,950 4th Robert Pardo $89,733 5th Cameron Cornell $70,280 6th Chad Batista $57,730 7th Cliff Josephy $45,808 8th Matt Woodward $35,768 9th Michael Borovetz $25,100 10th Mike Meskin $16,315

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT Borgata Spring Open NLH Championship April 15-19, 2012 Borgata Hotel Casino | Atlantic City Buy-in: $2,700 | Prizepool: $1,300,000 Entries: 520 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION JIA LIU 105 LARRY ABRAMS 65 RUSS DYKSTEYN 40 ROBERT PARDO 30 CAMERON CORNELL 23 CHAD BATISTA 15 CLIFF JOSEPHY 13 MATT WOODWARD 10 MICHAEL BOROVETZ 10

BORGATA SPRING: BATISTA, JOHNNYBAX IN CONTENTION AT BORGATA CHAMPIONSHIP

We are set for what should be an exciting final table at the Borgata Spring Open Championship in Atlantic City!

Will someone be able to follow in the footsteps of Andrew Badecker? Badecker won the Borgata Fall Open Championship in November and has been red-hot on the poker circuit ever since, picking up cashes from around the world.

One person certainly looking to grab that type of momentum is Florida's Chad Batista. Batista enters final table play third in chips, and Batista has been playing some good poker for the past few days.

A man that is no stranger to these situations, especially in the Northeastern US, is Cliff Josephy. Josephy would be the pick of many people at any final table, but, the fact that his chip stack is a 4:1 underdog to chip leader's Jia Liu means that things won't come easy for the man they call JohnnyBax.

Matt Woodward, who entered Wednesday play as the chip leader, is still alive and kicking; Woodward's stack sits just below the average chip stack line.

FINAL TABLE CHIP COUNTS
Jia Liu 4,219,000
Russ Dykshteyn 2,400,000
Chad Batista 1,600,000
Larry Abrams 1,543,000
Matt Woodward 1,420,000
Mike Borovetz 1,261,000
Cliff Josephy 1,033,000
Robert Pardo 770,400
Mike Meskin 429,000

The players will return to The Signature Room at Noon ET today.

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FT PAYOUTS (USD) 1st $312,483 2nd $175,700 3rd $112,950 4th $89,733 5th $70,280 6th $57,730 7th $45,808 8th $35,768 9th $25,100 10th $16,315 EVENT COVERAGE BORGATA SPRING OPEN

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT Borgata Spring Open NLH Championship April 15-19, 2012 Borgata Hotel Casino | Atlantic City Buy-in: $2,700 | Prizepool: $1,300,000 Entries: 520 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st Place 105 2nd Place 65 3rd Place 40 4th Place 30 5th Place 23 6th Place 15 7th Place 13 8th Place 10 9th Place 10

BORGATA SPRING: FINAL 54 BACK AT BORGATA ON WEDNESDAY

The Borgata Spring Open has reached it's Final 54 and the money bubble is well behind us - let's play some poker in AC!

Over 1M dollars on the line in this event with 312K USD going to the winner, a very impressive prizepool given these economic times.

Matt Woodward holds the overnight chip lead. Woodward has over 840K in chips, that's over 100K more than the man in second place, Larry Abrams. Woodward will be looking to increase his chip lead and solidify his place at the final table.

Chad Batista is in great position to make a move on Wednesday, Batista will start the day fourth in chips while Cliff Josephy and Vinny Pahuja are in contention again at a poker event in the US Northeast.

DAY 3 NOTABLE CHIP COUNTS
Matt Woodward 841,400 (Day 2 Chip Leader)
Larry Abrams 738,000
Chad Batista 680,600
Eric Ladny 420,600
David Stefanski 322,000
Cliff Josephy 309,100
Vinny Pahuja 285,600
Ali Tabatabai 263,800
Paul Darden 140,600
Ronnie Bardah 123,400

The players will return to The Signature Room at Noon ET today with final day play set for Thursday at The Borgata.

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EVENT PAYOUTS (USD) 1st $312,483 2nd $175,700 3rd $112,950 4th $89,733 5th $70,280 6th $57,730 7th $45,808 8th $35,768 9th $25,100 10-12 $16,315 13-15 $12,550 16-18 $9,413 19-27 $6,903 28-36 $6,275 37-45 $5,648 46-54 $5,020

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT Borgata Spring Open NLH Championship April 15-19, 2012 Borgata Hotel Casino | Atlantic City Buy-in: $2,700 | Prizepool: $1,300,000 Entries: 520 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st Place 105 2nd Place 65 3rd Place 40 4th Place 30 5th Place 23 6th Place 15 7th Place 13 8th Place 10 9th Place 10

BORGATA SPRING: CRANE WINS THE BORGATA SPRING OPEN

PHOTO/SOURCE: BORGATASPRINGPOKER2011 . blogspot . com

Russell Crane has won the Borgata Spring Open. He defeated Adam Cook heads up. Poker pro Alex Bolotin finished third in the event while former WPT winner Matt Matros was 9th.


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Borgata Spring Poker Open
NLH Championship
April 24-29, 2011

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Buy-in: $2,700
Prizepool: $1,117,500
Entries: 447

FINAL RESULTS
RUSSELL CRANE 104
ADAM COOK 64
ALEX BOLOTIN 39
DAVID STEFANSKI 29
JASON DEUTSCH 22
ADAM LEVITAN 14
BART DOWLING 12
SALAH SIRAJ 9
MATT MATROS 9

PTS AT STAKE: ERIC "SHEETS" HABER CONTENDING AT BORGATA

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: BORGATA SPRING POKER 2011.blogspot.com

The Borgata Spring Open is well underway as Day 1A and Day 1B participants meet up for Day 2 this morning in Atlantic City.

We started with 447 participants (creating a third worldwide million dollar prizepool in the past 5 days) but we're already down to 160.

Online guru Eric "Sheets" Haber is contending, second in chips heading into Day 2 play. Haber's last live championship was also in Atlantic City - the WSOPC 5k Circuit event - cashing over 400k with the victory.

NAPT Mohegan Sun final table participant Aaron Overton and live pro Matthew Glantz are also in the Top 15 in chips.

45 players will be paid, here are the payouts (in USD):
1 $276,949
2 $159,886
3 $97,558
4 $78,588
5 $61,787
6 $51,489
7 $41,191
8 $31,435
9 $21,680
10-12 $14,092
13-15 $10,840
16-18 $8,563
19-27 $6,721
28-36 $5,962
37-45 $5,420


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Borgata Spring Poker Open
NLH Championship
April 24-29, 2011

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Buy-in: $2,700
Prizepool: $1,117,500
Entries: 447

POINTS AT STAKE
1st position 104
2nd position 64
3rd position 39
4th position 29
5th position 22
6th position 14
7th position 12
8th position 9
9th position 9