As some people were shaking off their New Year’s hangovers or heading to the gym to start their 2025 fitness journeys, hundreds upon hundreds of poker players were headed to Atlantic City in New Jersey for the first day of the Borgata Winter Poker Open (BWPO) on January 2. The large crowd kicked off this massive BetMGM Poker-powered Poker Open series that takes place a few times per year.
Happy New Year, indeed!
Starting off the new year right, Poker.Org is in the house, having arrived well before the winter storm. The team is providing live updates and reporting from Borgata throughout the series via a special PokerOrg Borgata Poker Open link and on all social media platforms.
Borgata Winter Poker Open Kick Off Crushes Guarantee
The first event of the 2025 Borgata Winter Poker Open, aptly named the Kick Off, offered five starting flights from January 2 – 4. When all was said and done, the thousands of entries left the original $1M guarantee in the dust.
- Event 1: Kick Off Deep Stack
- Buy-in: $600
- Total entries: 4,245
- Total prize pool: $2,186,175
- Players to be paid: 533
Of those 533 payouts, the minimum amount was $1,467. Day 2 of the tournament saw long payout lines, as more than 200 players busted in the money before the first break. Only 70 players remained by that evening’s dinner break, but play slowed on the way to the final table. Late into the night, Kutay Kakson exited in ninth place, and the final eight players bagged their chips. Srikanth Gundela held a substantial chip lead, followed in the distance by Thomas Laviano and Cristian Gutierrez.
Final Table Livestream
Courtesy of the BetMGM Poker YouTube channel, the final table of Event 1 was livestreamed as it played out on January 6.
Gutierrez started strong by eliminating Joseph Muldoon, while Laviano took care of John Merriam. Rishi Mehta doubled through Gundela at the beginning of Day 3, but the latter doubled back, leaving Mehta out a few hands later in sixth place. After Daniel Pop eliminated Mehta, he took on Gutierrez and sent him home as well. Gundela busted in fourth, and Pop followed in third.
Laviano took the lead into heads-up play against Thomas Holowchuk. The battle of the Thomases didn’t take long before Holowchuck risked it all with 6-5 on a T-2-5 flop, but the two clubs on the board matched well with the K-7 of clubs held by Laviano. But instead of a flush, Laviano made a straight with a 9 turn and 8 river.
With his sons in attendance (who also play poker), Laviano claimed the Borgata and BetMGM trophies to go with his $271,699 payday.
Mirror Mystery Bounty Update
The winter storm that hit the Midwest United States over the weekend came barreling toward the East Coast this weekend and began dumping inches upon inches of snow on Atlantic City. That prompted Borgata to make a significant change to Event 8, the Mirror Mystery Bounty tournament.
The first two starting flights happened as planned on Sunday, January 5, but the January 6 flights were postponed to Tuesday, January 7. The times – 11:15 a.m. for Day 1C and 6:15 p.m. for Day 1D – remain the same, just pushed one day out. Day 2 will then move from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Vaughan Machado took down Event 4 of the Borgata Winter Poker Open. He hailed the availability of a $380 buy-in for a Heads-Up Championship event on the schedule, and his win garnered a trophy and a little more than $8,000 in cash.
Poker Content Creators Converge
The holidays inspired some of legal poker’s best content creators to put their ideas on video, and the Borgata Winter Poker Open seemed like the ideal place to do it. Funnies from the felt abound this week:
Borgata Winter Poker Open Livestreams Every Day
The livestream schedule kicked off with a $2/$5 No Limit Hold’em cash game on January 5. And speaking of content creators, Brantzen Poker was one of the commentators for the game, which featured Abby Poker. (This stream had everything – puppets and props, fishing rods and unorthodox plays, Oreos as a nod to Teddy KGB, and much more – all courtesy of Stu Ivey Brunson.)
The aforementioned Kick Off Deep Stack tournament followed on January 6, and the lineup going forward includes everything from a PLO cash game to the Ladies Pink Chip game, a BetMGM Hybrid Online Championship and, of course, the Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship featured and final tables.
Watch and Try Your Hand at Legal Online Poker
For those watching the streams from home, possibly snowed in and enjoying a snow day or two, there’s no better way to complement Borgata Winter Poker Updates than by playing poker yourself. Play online at BetMGM Poker for real-money cash games and tournaments. Use the new player poker welcome bonus when you sign up.
