Atlantic City Weekly

The Borgata Summer Open is underway and as we’ve mentioned before the casino doesn’t look at the tournament as one of its truly big events.

And we’ve been through the reasons. The event coincides with the World Series of Poker underway in Las Vegas, so there simply aren’t many big-name pros in town right now.

Plus, it doesn’t carry the pedigree of a World Poker Tour stop that the Borgata Open carries in September.

And yet, you have to admit it’s filling the Borgata’s poker room with a lot of excitement. For a “small” event, it brings out some pretty decent fields.

The first event of the open, a $350 buy-in Deepstack event, drew 829 players. Not a record, but that’s actually on par with some WSOP fields (though in fairness, the WSOP has had higher buy-ins for their early tournaments).

Still, there are a lot of poker players who don’t make it out to Vegas and it’s a brilliant stroke for the casino to cater to its regular players and a regional audience.

What’s really amazing is the stunning loyalty of the Borgata’s players. Study the results of any of the casino’s four seasonal opens and you’ll see a lot of the same names — all hardcore Borgata players.

The difference at the Summer Open is those names finish higher than usual on the leader boards as the WSOP sucks up so many top players.

But even with this loyalty, the casino keeps mixing things up. For example, for the Summer Open, the casino instituted a “bounty” game that’s truly unique.

Each player in the tournament makes a third buy-in after the main buy-in and tournament fee. In the first tournament it was a $25 buy-in, represented by a live casino chip (as opposed to a tournament chip).

Each player put the chip in front of their stacks (though in truth, many players seemed to resist this, using the chips as cardholders and what not). If a player is knocked out, the chip goes to the player with the winning hand.

In the first bounty tournament, held June 9, a $200 + $30 + $25 event, 432 players turned out.

The winner was Mike Stein of Valley Stream, N.Y., who wins $21,412, and who outlasted a field that played until 4:30am. He also picked up $450 in green chips, meaning he knocked out 18 guys.

Of course a secondary tournament, event 29, that had a $20 bounty drew only 73 players. But it was held 4pm on Sunday, so it’s all in the timing.

In some other results, the opening event was won by Austen Johnson of Woodsboro, Md., who takes home $64,374.

Event 5, a $500 + $60 tournament, drew 272 entries and gave Robert Wallace, of Mohapic, N.Y., a $36,939 win.

And while a few local big names, such as Gordon Eng and Sheree Bykofsky have been seen at the open, it’s likely you’ve never heard of these winners.

Unless, of course, you’re a Borgata regular. Because these are their tournaments.

In some other news, The New York Post dug up some interesting info on an amazing run by high roller Don Johnson of Bensalem, Pa., who took three Atlantic City casinos for about $15 million since December. That included a $5.8 million win at the Tropicana’s blackjack tables (plus big hits at the Borgata and Caesars).