Bluff has announced the final six players who will be moving on to the televised World Poker Tour final table tomorrow at the Borgata Winter Poker Open. Players and their chip counts are as follows:

Joe Simmons 5,500,000
John Gale 4,830,000
John Hennigan 3,255,000
Chuck Kelley 1,610,000
Michael Sukonik 1,305,000
John James 535,000

The four players who rounded off the top ten but didn't make the final table were:

7. Joseph Cappello $221,548
8. John Racener $166,161
9. David Redlin $110,774
10. Davidson Matthew $72,003

For a detailed recap of today's play, as well as a look at the final six players, check out Bluff Magazine's coverage.

Just in case there currently aren't enough live tournaments for you to keep track of, I'll toss one more in your direction. The 2007 Winter Poker Open begins today, January 17th, at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. There are 13 events total, with a $10,000 buy-in Championship Event that will be broadcast by the World Poker Tour.

If you recall, last year the Main Event at this tournament was won by none other than Michael Mizrachi, with John D'Agostino placing second and Erick Lindgren finishing in third. This was just one short week after Mizrachi placed second at the 2006 Gold Strike World Poker Open, losing out to Scotty Nguyen. That was one helluva week in poker.

Full event schedule for the 2007 Winter Poker Open is as follows:

January 17 - $500 NLHE
January 18 - $750 NLHE
January 19 - $1000 NLHE
January 20 - $1500 NLHE
January 21 - $260 Ladies NLHE
January 21 - $500 Limit Hold'em
January 22 - $2500 NLHE
January 23 - $500 NLHE
January 24 - $5000 NLHE
January 26 through 30 - $10,000 WPT NLHE Championship Event
January 27 - $1000 NLHE
January 28 - $750 NLHE
January 29 - $500 NLHE

Finally, I am getting the same reports of chip counts from the various different sites that are covering the US Poker Championship at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, so it is with great confidence that I present to you the final twenty-seven players in this Main Event. It is also with great sadness that I have to admit that Joe Sebok got knocked out of the tournament yesterday. Don't mock me (you know who you are) you are allowed to have your favorite players too. He just happens to be one of mine.

Anyways, thanks to the good people at CardPlayer and Pokerwire, here are the final three tables of players going into today's action:

1. Jordan Morgan 567,000
2. Alex Jacob 547,500
3. Michael DeMichelle 445,000
4. Devon Miller 398,500
5. Michael Santoro 390,000
6. Shane Schleger 232,500
7. Mark Ader 228,500
8. Akio Ishige 220,500
9. Stephen Feraca 202,500
10. Jeff King 189,000
11. Shawn Chaconas 187,000
12. Augustin Mendez 170,500
13. Syracuse Chris Tsiprailidis 164,000
14. Dylan Membrino 152,500
15. Brandon Adams 150,000
16. Eric Cajelais 143,500
17. Dale Pinchot 123,500
18. Eric Bankoff 109,000
19. Scott Fischman 103,000
20. Chris Reslock 83,000
21. Joseph Brooks 81,500
22. Herbie Montalbano 76,500
23. Tony Cousineau 70,000
24. Dan Shak 69,000
25. Vincent DeVita 55,500
26. Harry White 47,000
27. Bernard Lee 40,000

Well once again there seems to be a discrepancy between online reports as to the official chip counts at the US Poker Championship running at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, so rather than give you the leaderboard I will just tell you who is still among the running.

My pick Joe Sebok remains in the top ten - in 2nd place according to CardPlayer and 6th according to Pokerwire. In this case, I actually hope CardPlayer is right. Devon Miller, who placed 6th in the 2006 Party Poker Millions is also in the top ten. Familiar names Chris Reslock, Chris Tsiprailidis, Joanne 'JJ' Liu, Scott Fischman, David Daneshgar, Sean McCabe, and Paul Wasicka are all apparently still in the running.

Pokerwire and Cardplayer do both have results displayed, so if you would like to see who they have listed on their leaderboards, please follow the respective links.

Well I was happy to log in this morning and see that my choice for poker's next breakout star, Joe Sebok, has been doing well at the U.S. Poker Championship Main Event at the Taj Mahal. He currently sits in 6th place (pending discrepancy, see below) among a high number of well known pros still remaining in the tournament. With just under 200 players left, day two of the Championship Event begins today.

Final table money for this tournament is as follows:

1. $878,500
2. $405,072
3. $215,902
4. $151,926
5. $113,926
6. $88,610
7. $63,293
8. $50,634
9. $40,508

EDIT: There seems to be a big discrepancy between various sites online as to what the final Day One chip counts were, so I am going to simply link up both CardPlayer and PokerWire (who I believe to be more accurate in this case). Either way, we will take a look later today to see who is going to the final table.

Following in the wake of the Borgata Open, the 2006 US Poker Championship began on Monday at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. This tournament is pretty interesting because the buy-ins for the events are considerably lower than for other larger-scale tournaments, and their Main Event is not No Limit Texas Hold'em, it is a $5000 Seven Card Stud Championship. We'll keep you posted with updates as they come trickling in.

Schedule of Events:
Mon, Sep. 18 - $300 NLHE
Tue, Sep. 19 - $300 NLHE
Wed, Sep. 20 - $300 Seven-Card Stud
Thu, Sep. 21- $300 NLHE
Fri, Sep. 22 - $500 Seven-Card Stud
Sat, Sep. 23 - $500 NLHE
Sun, Sep. 24 - $500 Omaha Hi-Lo (O8)
Mon, Sep. 25 - $300 NLHE
Tue, Sep. 26 - $500 NLHE
Wed, Sep. 27 - $300 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo
Thu, Sep. 28 - $500 NLHE
Fri, Sep. 29 - $1000 NLHE
Sat, Sep. 30 - Sun, Oct. 01- $5,000 Seven Card Stud Championship
Sun, Oct. 01- $300 NLHE
Wed, Oct. 04 - $300 Seven-Card Stud
Thu, Oct. 05 - $300 NLHE
Fri, Oct. 06 - $500 NLHE
Sat, Oct. 07 - $1000 NLHE

The final six players have now been named in the Main Event of the World Poker Tour's Borgata Open. Though I really hoped Jen Tilly would make it, she busted out in 15th place. The top six are:

1. Mark Newhouse T7,025,000
2. Chris McCormack T3,000,000
3. Chris Bell T1,200,000
4. Blaise Ingoglia T840,000
5. Anthony Argila T700,000
6. David Sklansky T665,000

And in case you were wondering, the remaining 21 players finished as follows:

7. Louis Russo $209,521
8. Athanasio Diakos $157,141
9. Shawn Chaconas $104,761
10. John Parker $68,094
11. Avdo Djokovic $68,094
12. William Blanda $68,094
13. Steve Levinson $52,380
14. Lee Markholt $52,380
15. Jennifer Tilly $52,380
16. William Failla $33,000
17. Bruce Yamron $33,000
18. Shane Smith $33,000
19. Ronnie Ebanks $26,190
20. David Tran $26,190
21. Craig Stein $26,190
22. Mark Zulkiewicz $26,190
23. Barry Greenstein $26,190
24. Robert Wisiak $26,190
25. Chad Moore $26,190
26. John Phan $26,190
27. Bette Carswell $26,190

The $5000 NLHE event wrapped yesterday at the Borgata Poker Open, and the newest member of Team PokerStars, Vanessa Rousso, claimed first place and $285,450. Also, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you'll know that I am a big fan of Joe Sebok, so I was thrilled to see him finish in 5th place in this tournament. Final table finishers and their prize money were:

1 Vanessa Rousso $285,450
2 Doron Malinasky $151,375
3 Cliff Josephy $86,500
4 Hasan Habib $64,875
5 Joe Sebok $47,575
6 William Blanda $38,925
7 Jamie Ligator $30,275
8 Michael Appel $25,950
9 Paul McCaffrey $17,300

Speaking of Mr. Sebok, he is still alive and well in the World Poker Tour Championship Event which began today. For a full list of players still in the main event, as well as their chip counts, check out PokerWire.com.

(source & image: TheBorgata.com)

The Borgata Open has been running since September 5th at the Borgata Hotel, Casino, and Spa in Altantic City, NJ. Currently Event #9, a $5000 No-Limit Hold'Em tournament, is running, and they are preparing for the World Poker Tour $10,000 Championship Event which begins tomorrow, Friday, September 15th.

Final table finishers and their prize money in the events this past week were:

$1,000 NLHE
1 Emmanuel Syragakis $167,040
2 Jason Comis $883,008
3 Marcel Bedard $46,080
4 Robert Saltiel $40,320
5 Michael Shklover $34,560
6 Robert Perry $28,800
7 Eric Siegel $23,040
8 Matthew Glantz $17,280
9 Andreas Walnum $11,520

$1,500 NLHE
1 Jeremy Shor $187,616
2 James English $98,812
3 Shannon Shorr $51,000
4 Alex Cameron $44,625
5 Stephen Feraca $38,250
6 Jared Lissauer $31,875
7 Marc Geissel $25,500
8 Kirk Acevedo $19,125
9 Mazin Radwan $12,750

$300 LADIES NLHE
1 Jesica Desantis $27,200
2 Amy Atkins $14,982
3 Janet Burak $7,268
4 Nicole Martin $6,243
5 Mona Montal $5,351
6 Judith Urban $4,459
7 Cristie Marion $3,567
8 Mirta Estrada $2,675
9 Veronique Gourdon $1,784

$500 SEVEN-CARD STUD
1 Soo Sin $26,690
2 Yuebin Guo $14,130
3 Charles Balistreri $7,850
4 Avinash Kataria $5,495
5 Robert Eng $4,710
6 Shawn Ryan $3,925
7 Mike Salem $3,140
8 Jerry Drazek $2,355
9 Allen Kessler $1,806

$2,500 NLHE
1 Joseph Brooks $241,713
2 Lars Bonding $133,140
3 Michael Gracz $64,589
4 Padraig Parkinson $55,475
5 Matt Dean $47,550
6 John Connolly $39,625
7 Bob Poolos $31,700
8 Eric Froehlich $23,775
9 Matthew Cherackal $15,850

(source: TheBorgata.com)

The 2006 Borgata Open, held at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, began on Tuesday, September 5th and will run through the 19th, culminating with a $10,000 World Poker Tour Championship Event which begins this Friday. In last year's main event, Al Ardebili took down first place and $1,498,650 for his efforts. The entire final table was littered with big names:

(2005 results:)
1 Al Ardebili $1,498,650
2 Ricardo Festejo $799,280
3 Kathy Liebert $427,115
4 John D'Agostino $349,685
5 Robert Hwang $299,730
6 David Singer $249,775
7 J.C. Tran $199,820
8 Gregory Fondacaro $149,865
9 Sid Miller $99,110

Schedule of events for this year's tournament is as follows:

Sept. 5 $500 + $60 NLHE
Sept. 6 $750 + $60 NLHE
Sept. 7 $500 + $60 Limit Hold'em
Sept. 8 $1,000 + $80 NLHE
Sept. 9 $1,500 + $100 NLHE
Sept. 10 $260 + $40 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em
Sept. 11 $500 + $60 Seven Card Stud
Sept. 12 $2,500 + $150 NLHE
Sept. 13 $5,000 + $200 NLHE
Sept. 15 - Sept. 19: $9,700 + $300 WPT Championship Event
Sept. 16 $1,000 + $80 NLHE
Sept. 17 $750 + $60 NLHE
Sept. 18 $500 + $60 NLHE

Between March 21-31, Caesars Atlantic City hosted the 9th World Series of Poker circuit event of the 2005-2006 season. Winner Jeffrey King received $345,708, a circuit ring (as pictured, below) and an entry into the 2006 Tournament of Champions.

Final table standings and prize money awarded at Caesars AC:

   1. Jeffrey King $345,708
   2. Ralph E Porter $192,060
   3. Jamie Ligator $105,633
   4. Ben Bianco $76,824
   5. Eric Panayiotou $67,221
   6. Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson $57,618
   7. Herbert Cheng $48,015
   8. Mickey Appleman $38,412
   9. Lou Esposito $28,809

There are still three regular circuit events scheduled which count towards this year's Tournament of Champions:

Caesars Palace Las Vegas – April 28-May 11
Harrah's New Orleans – May 18-28
Harrah's Lake Tahoe – June 6-16

Mike Matusow won the TOC (and one million dollars) last year, but my money is on Chris Ferguson to take down the event in 2006.

(image: WorldSeriesOfPoker.com)