I get to Borgata at around 10:30am, buy-in for the Main Event ($3,500) and have breakfast with tysonduke23. I get to my seat in the very corner of the room and we are four-handed to begin play. We play about 5-6 hands before we are told that the table will be broken because they didn't fill enough tables. Considering we are all seated in the first four seats of the table I am very happy about this change, as I am out of position almost every hand because I am seated in seat 2 and we are playing 9-handed. Basically if I was in seat four I would have been in heaven, but this was an awful seat. I am +600 from the starting stack of 30,000 when we are told that we'll be moving.

I go to grab my chips and the floor tells me that the chips are void because this wasn't an official table. I cause a big stink and am a huge d**k (probably because I was hanging with Tyson earlier in the day) because we are about ten minutes into the tournament at this point and six hundred chips is six hundred chips. I didn't show up on time to come to a new starting stack that had been blinded away... but alas, I give up on the argument instead of wasting more time. Starting stack at the new table: 29,925. I was told by one of the floors to take the play at the original table as "practice." Yes, I play $3,500 buyins for practice...Ugh!

I move to a new table with a Las Vegas pro whose name I can't remember and seven Borgata regulars. CAKE WALK. I take the eight seat and in the 2nd level I get into a big pot. The random Vegas pro makes it 300 at 50/100. An old man in seat 3, who had already shown down a set of eights and aces, makes it 800 UTG+1. It folds to me on the button and I have two black kings. I decide to make it 2,300 because I believe this guy's range to be JJ+ or AK to be re-raising the UTG raiser at this level. If this was someone else I wouldn't put this guy on a range so tight, but there is literally no way this guy has anything less. He is wearing a Doyle-type hat, a black necklace that looks like a token from The Showboat Casino, and a Hawaiin shirt.

He instantly calls my re-raise. I figure that there would be some thought process with how to play aces in this situation, so I'm just hoping for a dry flop because I assume he has to have AK, QQ or JJ at this point. The flop is 9-3-2 rainbow. Old man checks and I bet 3,500. Old man check-raises me to 10k. I think for about half a minute and figure he has to have JJ or QQ and I am unsure at this point that he can fold an overpair. I decide to jam which may be a mistake, but he takes very little time and folds QQ face-up. If i had just flat called I probably would have gotten all his chips, but I was fairly confident he was not folding an overpair. I am wrong, but I have about 45k entering the first break.

At some point during level 2, a man from Haiti who tells me that his name is "Malcolm B" sits down next to me in seat 7. It becomes fairly obvious that this man has never played a hand of live tournament poker in his life. He asks every hand what the blinds are, and at one point he makes it 150 at 50/100 and when he is told it is an insufficient raise, he bumps it up to 175. He also took twenty seconds for every decision and made hands extremely long and brutal. He later confirms that he has only played stud and has no idea how to play hold'em. God I love Borgata Poker.

In level 5, I run into some bad luck. I raise UTG with 5s to 575 at 100/200 with a quarter ante and get two callers. The flop is 5-4-2 two clubs and I decide to check. The old man that I spoke about earlier makes it 2k with about 3k behind and Malcolm B. flat calls. I decide to put in a hefty raise and make it 7,200. The old man folds (lol) and Malcolm flats. The turn is the K and he goes all-in for about 12k. There's over 20k in the pot and I feel resigned and call, assuming he has a flush but figuring his range includes much worse. He flips over A K (WTF?) and proceeds to hit a club on the river. FML... back to below a starting stack, where I sit until we get back from dinner.

We return to level 7, and at some point in the last few levels an Italian man with a pony tail gets moved to our table. He is seated where the Old Man had busted and is quite the character. He has around 150k and is the chipleader of the tournament at the time. He is singing Italian songs that I don't understand, raising every hand that gets bet into him, and begs people to call or fold based on how he sees fit.

This leads to an interesting table dynamic as Malcom B is literally playing 95% of hands. Q3 UTG? No problem for Malcolm. The two of them are involved in every pot, with the Haitian guy winning every pot. At one point Malcolm B has 250k in chips at 150/300. The Italian guy is constantly calling the guy an idiot and other obscenities during this time. At one point, he checks Kings full on a TTxxK board all the way through with another player because he simply wants to bust Malcolm B. He outwardly says "I'm not after you!" da_professional and acumen53 Lee Childs (pictured) are both at my table at this point, and the looks on their faces are priceless.

Malcolm is now playing 100% of hands, and he must have talked to someone on break because he is now re-raising a ton of hands. At 200/400/50 Lee Childs raised UTG with QQ to 1000, gets flatted in one spot and Malcolm B in the sb makes it 5k. Lee Childs thinks for a bit and then shoves about 30k with his queens and gets called by the A9 of Malcolm within a minute. Childs flops a queen and doubles up, but it becomes increasingly obvious that Malcolm is never folding anything... ever. At one point he got in a 100k pot with J8 on a T-8-6 flop when it was limped pre-flop at 150/300. He is insane, not that experienced, and on my right. I better double up through him.

I get my chance about 20 minutes later with jacks. I raise UTG with JJ to 1,025 and get flatted before it comes to Malcolm in the BB who makes it 4300. After seeing the Childs hand I am pretty sure that this guy does not like to fold and decide to shove all-in for 42k. He counts out 42k and calls within ten seconds. I am pretty sure I am screwed at this point, that even donkeys have aces, and that I am going to have to take the walk of shame. He then flips over A6o (mind you this is over a 200bb pot), i flop a jack and now have about 85k. Thanks Malcolm!

I set mine/see flops with suited connectors that don't work out when the last interesting hand of the night takes place. Malcolm raises to 1,700 at 250/500 and I flat with 6 6x. The flop is K J 4 and he continuation bets for 2k. I decide to flat because we are both deep at this point and the turn is the Q. He bets 1,500. I am somewhat confident that my flush is good but for pot control reasons and having like the 8th nuts here, I decide to call again and probably just call a bet on the river. The river is a red Ten. He bets out 1,500 and for some odd reason I get a feeling that he will call any bet on the river with an Ace or nine. I decide to make it 10k and he snap calls with a set of jacks. I show my flush, he has a disgusted look on his face, and I cruise to the end of the day. I have 93,225 going into day two.

This is Part 1 of 2 of my 2009 Borgota Poker Open trip report. - Wein

PocketFives Scouting Report for Wein

A veteran member of the PocketFives community, Jonathan Wein had a huge day in January '08 when he won the Ultimatebet $200k Guaranteed and placed 3rd in the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl for a total of over $77,000. In March '08 he had another breakout evening; winning the Stars Nightly Hundred Grand as well as placing 2nd in the Full Tilt $100 Cubed (1r+1a) for over $31k. His largest online tournament cash to date came in May '09 when he placed 3rd in the FTOPS XII NLHE 6-max Event #1 for $81,200. In September '09, he won the PokerStars $100 nightly rebuy for $23,600.

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